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Search and Replace

The search and replace functions allow you to either search for information in a document or replace the information you want with another piece of information. On this page you can practice how to do this. First watch the help video in the “Get to know the topic” section below and read the written instructions. Then use what you have learned in the exercise document you created at the beginning of the chapter Word 1, according to the tasks given.

Video

The Objective

In the document, all occurrences of the word “font” have been replaced by the word “typeface”, except that the words “font size” not replaced. At the end of the page, the document may look like this:

Mac: Search

The search functionality works a little differently on the Mac version, so we'll go through that separately here.

Search

On a Mac, the search functionality is accessed by clicking on the magnifying glass in the top right corner of the Word window.

Clicking on the magnifying glass will replace it with a text box where you can enter the text you are looking for. Word highlights the search results in yellow in the document.

Browsing search results

You can browse the search results using the arrow buttons to the right of the search box.

Closing the search results

You can close the search results by ticking the box next to the browse buttons.

The magnifying glass to the left of the search field opens a menu with the option List Matches in Sidebar.

Replace

There is also a **Replace** field in the sidebar. By typing in a replacement word, you can replace the search results.

You can either replace word by word with the Replace button or replace all results at once with the Replace All button.

### Search only whole words

You also have advanced search options at you use. For example, you can search only for whole words.

Open the tool menu below the search field in the sidebar (cogwheel icon) and select **Whole Word Only**.

Now search results where the word "font" is part of a word, such as "font size", will disappear from the search results.

Task: Search the document for the word “font”

Search the document for the word “font”. It should be found in five places.

Info: Limit your search to whole words

You can also make more specific searches, for example, limit the search to whole words.

Nice

### Advanced search settings

In the **Navigation** box, click on the small triangle next to the search field.

In the menu that appears, click Options….

In the window that opens, mark the selection Find whole words only and click OK.

Now only whole words are shown in the search results.

Task: Replace search result

Replace the two words "font" with "typeface", skipping the parts where the word is part of the term "font size".

The Find and Replace function is a great help, especially for long documents and neat appearance. For example, the Word documents used in the preparation of this course have been harmonised in terms of terminology precisely through the use of the Find and Replace function. This has saved a huge amount of time, as all terms can be checked and corrected at once, rather than one by one in the text.

When you're ready, go on to find out how to add images to your Word documents.

Are you ready?

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