How to Find and Replace in Word (Plus Hidden Power Tricks)
Spelt a name wrong 40 times? Need to change "Ltd" to "Limited" throughout a contract? Find and Replace does it in seconds — and it can do a lot more than swap words.
Quick reference
| What you want | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Find | Ctrl + F |
| Replace | Ctrl + H |
| Find next match | Enter in the search box |
1. Find a word
Press Ctrl + F. The Navigation pane opens on the left. Type your word and Word highlights every match in yellow and lists them in the pane. Click any result to jump to it.
2. Replace a word
1. Press Ctrl + H.
2. In Find what, type the word to change.
3. In Replace with, type the new word.
4. Click Replace to change one at a time, or Replace All to change every one.
2. In Find what, type the word to change.
3. In Replace with, type the new word.
4. Click Replace to change one at a time, or Replace All to change every one.
Word tells you how many replacements it made.
3. Be precise with "More >>"
Click More >> in the Replace box for extra options:
• Match case — only finds "Word", not "word".
• Find whole words only — replacing "cat" won't touch "category".
• Use wildcards — advanced pattern matching.
• Format — find or replace bold, a font, a colour or a style.
• Find whole words only — replacing "cat" won't touch "category".
• Use wildcards — advanced pattern matching.
• Format — find or replace bold, a font, a colour or a style.
4. Replace special characters
Click Special to insert codes, or type them yourself:
• ^p — paragraph mark (Enter)
• ^t — tab
• ^l — manual line break (Shift + Enter)
• ^m — manual page break
• ^t — tab
• ^l — manual line break (Shift + Enter)
• ^m — manual page break
Example: text pasted from an email with a line break after every line? Find ^l and replace with a space.
5. Remove double spaces
Type two spaces in Find what and one space in Replace with. Click Replace All a few times until Word reports 0 replacements.
6. Replace formatting
Want every bold word to become red instead? Put the cursor in Find what, click Format → Font → Bold. Put the cursor in Replace with, click Format → Font and choose red. Leave both text boxes empty and click Replace All.
Troubleshooting
Replace All changed things it shouldn't. Press Ctrl + Z once to undo every replacement, then try again with Find whole words only.
It says 0 matches but I can see the word. Check that Match case or a Format setting isn't still switched on from last time. Click No Formatting to clear it.
Wrapping up
Ctrl + H, tick Find whole words only, and Replace All. Learn ^p and ^t and you can tidy up almost any messy document.
