10 Minute Guide to Word for Windows 95

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Searching for and Replacing Text

In this lesson, you'll learn how to search for specific text in your document, and how to automatically replace each occurrence of it with new text.

Searching for Text

You can have Word for Windows search through your document to find occurrences of specific text. For example, you are writing a 40 page report and want to edit the section on the New York Sales Office. You'll quickly find it by searching for "New York." Word's default is to search the entire document. If there is text selected, the search will be limited to the selection. To search for text, follow these steps:

1. Select Edit Find. The Find dialog box will display, as shown in Figure 15.1.

2. In the Find What text box, enter the text to find. This is the search template.


Plain English: Search Template The search template is a model for the text you want to find.
3. (Optional) Select Find Whole Words Only to match whole words only. With this option off, a search template of light would match light, lightning, lighter, and so on. With this option on, it would match only light.

Figure 15.1
The Find dialog box.

4. (Optional) Select Match Case to require an exact match for upper- and lowercase letters. If this option is not selected, Word will find matching text of either case.

5. In the Search box, select All to have Word search the entire document. You can also select Down to have Word for Windows search from the insertion point to the end of the document, or from the beginning of the selected text to the end. Select Up to search in the opposite direction.

6. Select Find Next. Word for Windows looks through the document for text that matches the search template. If it finds matching text, it highlights it in the document and stops, with the Find dialog box still displayed.

Now, you can do one of two things:

If, after searching only part of the document, Word for Windows reaches the start of the document (for an upward search) or the end of the document (for a downward search), you are given the option of continuing the search from the other end of the document. Once the entire document has been searched, a message to that effect is displayed.

Finding and Replacing Text

Use the Replace command to search for instances of text, and to replace them with new text. Imagine that you're almost finished with your 400-page novel, and decide to change the main character's name from Brad to Lance. This command will save you a lot of work! The Replace dialog box is shown in Fig- ure 15.2.

Figure 15.2
The Replace dialog box.
Make entries in this dialog box as follows:

1. In the Find What text box, enter the target text that is to be replaced.

2. In the Replace With text box, enter the replacement text.

3. If desired, select the Match Case, Find Whole Words Only, and Search options, as explained earlier in this lesson.

4. Select Replace All to have Word for Windows go through the entire document, replacing all instances of the target text with the replacement text. You can also select Find Next to highlight the first instance of the target text.


Timesaver Tip: Deleting Text To delete the target text, leave the Replace With box blank.

If you select Find Next, Word will highlight the first occurrence of the template in the document. You now have three options:


Timesaver Tip: Saving Time To save typing, use abbreviations for long words and phrases. Later, use Replace to change them to final form.


Panic Button: Recovery! If you make a mistake replacing text, you can recover with the Edit Undo Replace command.

In this lesson, you learned how to search for and optionally replace text. In the next lesson, you'll learn how to use Word for Windows templates.


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