Find tool in word

• When you learn how to search for a word in Microsoft Word, you will be learning how to use the Find tool. However, there is also an Advanced Find feature that lets you customize your search further, and there is a Find and Replace tool that lets you replace instances of words and phrases.
• Aside from the method below that we use to search for a word in a Word document, you can also use a keyboard shortcut to launch the Find tool. Simply press Ctrl + F on your keyboard to launch it.
• The Find tool lets you search for whole words, phrases, or even letters. You can use it to find what you are looking for in your document, regardless of how much or how little of the information you enter into the search field.

Microsoft Word’s search tools come in a couple of different varieties. The basic search lets you locate specific words or phrases in your document, while the Advanced Find tool lets you do things like match case, use wildcards, and generally find text in most of the ways that you might consider.

You can search for certain words in Microsoft Word by clicking the Home tab, selecting the Find button, then typing your search term into the “Search” field.

This will then highlight each instance of the word that appears in the document, and you can click each of the search results in the Navigation column to jump to the occurrence of that word in your document.

But if you are trying to figure out how to search for a word in Microsoft Word, then you might be struggling to locate the correct tool. Our guide below will show you how to use the search tool in your Word file.

How to Search a Word Document

1. Open the Word document.
2. Select the Home tab at the top of the window.
3. Click the Find button in the Editing group of the ribbon.
4. Enter your search term into the search box, then click a result to go to that point in the document.

Our guide continues below with additional information on how to find a word in a document, including pictures of these steps.

How to Search for a Word in a Microsoft Word Document (Guide with Pictures)

The steps in this article were performed in Microsoft Word for Office 365, but will also work in other versions of Word, such as Word 2016 or Word 2019.

As mentioned earlier, you can also open the search tool by pressing Ctrl+F on your keyboard.

Step 1: Open your document in Microsoft Word.

Step 2: Click the Home tab above the ribbon at the top of the window.

Step 3: Click the Find button in the Editing section of the ribbon.

Note that there are down arrows to the right of the Find button and the Select button in that section that you can use for other options. For example, there’s an Advanced Find option on the Find drop down menu that you can use for additional search options to locate a particular word or words in the document.

Step 4: Type your search term into the search box in the Navigation pane on the left side of the window.

Results containing your search term will appear in the column. You can then click a search result to be taken to its location in the document.

The up and down arrows under the search field will allow you to quickly move between the different results.

Additional Information on How to Search for a Word in a Microsoft Word Document

• Other applications, including Microsoft Excel, can also take advantage of the Ctrl + F keyboard shortcut for finding information.
• If you have used older versions of Microsoft Word, then you might be used to the dialog box that previously appeared when you tried to search for a word. The Navigation pane has replaced the basic search tool, but that dialog box will still appear if you select the Advanced Find option from the dropdown menu.

• The search function in MS Word also displays a magnifying glass at the right end of the search box. If you click that magnifying glass you will see a menu with additional ways to search for words or other items in the document.
• The Find and Replace dialog box also has a “Replace” tab at the top of the window. If you select that tab you will be able to enter the existing word that you want to replace, then enter the word that you want to use to replace it.
• Once the Find and Replace dialog box appears and you start using that to search through Word documents, it’s possible that you will find that to be a better way to search through an entire document and customize what Word replaces. Fortunately this is a similar search function that exists in other Microsoft office applications so you will be able to use it and its advanced options for searching while you look through spreadsheets and slideshows.

Find out how to remove page numbers in Microsoft Word if you have a document that contains page numbers that you either don’t want or don’t need.

Additional Sources

When working on a large document, you may need to quickly find certain words and phrases. Good news, then! Microsoft Word’s search functions are a great tool to use while editing. But how do they work exactly? Let us walk you through the Find and Replace tools in Microsoft Word.

Searching a Document

How to access the search options in Microsoft Word depends on the version you are using:

• In Word for Windows, go to Home > Editing on the ribbon and click Find for the basic search or Replace to open the Find and Replace window
• The basic search box is displayed as a default in Word for Mac, but you can also click the magnifying glass and select Replace… to open the advanced Replace With… search window

These options can also be accessed via the shortcuts Ctrl + F (basic search) or Ctrl + H (find and replace).

The Navigation Pane

The navigation pane is a panel on the left of the screen in Microsoft Word to help you navigate your document. It can be opened by accessing the basic search options (see above) or by going to View > Show on the main ribbon and checking the box that says Navigation Pane.

Once you have opened it, you will have three options available:

• Headings – A list of text formatted with a Heading style in the document
• Pages – A thumbnail preview of each page in the document
• Results – A list of text that matches the term(s) used in a search

It is this last tab that interests us most here. This is where you’ll see the full list of results when you search for a term or phrase in Microsoft Word, making it easy to find issues quickly.

Using Find and Replace Effectively

The Replace function in Microsoft Word lets you search for terms and replace them with other text. This can be especially useful if you decide to change a specific word throughout a long document. To use this tool, first open the Find and Replace window (see above). Next, you need to:

• Enter the term you want to search for in the Find what field
• Enter the new term you want to replace it with in the Replace with field
• Click Find Next to search for the term and Replace to replace it

You can also click Replace All to replace all instances of a term at once. However, this can introduce errors if you are not careful, so it is usually better to take each replacement one at a time.

One great use of the Find and Replace tool is to remove double spaces from a document. All this requires is searching for a double space and using a single space in the Replace with field.

Advanced Searches

Feeling confident now? Well, you might be ready for Microsoft Word’s advanced search options. These can be accessed by clicking the More > > button in the Find and Replace window.

Here, you will find options to search for specific capitalization of terms, formatting, and even special characters. You may not need to use these options often, but they can be very useful for making sure that formatting and capitalization are consistent throughout a document.

Find and replace

To help you in finding some text in the document, Word offers two different options:

   1.   Using the Navigation pane:

Like in the most popular applications, to find a text in the document, you can use the Ctrl+F shortcut. That combination opens the Navigation pane in Microsoft Word:

If you have any text in the Clipboard or selected text in the document, it will automatically be shown in the search text box. You can type or insert any text you want to find and click Enter to show the results.

To see the next result, click Shift+F4, or use the Navigation pane and Next and Previous buttons for easy navigating between the next or previous results.

For example:

   2.   Using the Find and Replace dialog box:

To open the Find and Replace dialog box, do one of the following:

• On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click the Find list and then choose Advanced Find…:

  

• Click Ctrl+H,
• On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click the Replace button:

  

For example:

Word will show the next found result.

Advanced find and replace

To show the advanced find and replace options, do the following:

• On the Navigation pane, click the arrow down on the right side of the search text box and choose Options… in the list:

  

  Word opens the Find Options dialog box:

  

• In the Find and Replace dialog box, click the More >> button (it doesn’t matter, which tab do you open: Find or Replace):

  

  Word added several options that you can use to refine the search criteria:

  

The advanced find and replace options:

• Match case — Find and replace words that only match specific capitalization. For example, you can find one «Wolf» and 11 words «wolf» in the document.
• Find Whole words only — Avoid partial matches. For example, if you want to find «puff», Word doesn’t show the words «puffed».
• Use wildcards — Get partial matches. See Using wildcards for more details.
• Sounds like (English) — Find and replace words that sound like others. For example, «there», «their», and «three».
• Find all word forms (English) — Find and replace all verb tenses. For example, type «find», and Word will return «finds», «finding», and «found».
• Match prefix — Works with other settings to find and replace words with common prefixes or beginnings. For example, «be» returns «best» and «because».
• Match suffix — Works with other settings to find and replace words with common suffixes or endings. For example, «id» returns «said» and «did».
• Ignore punctuation characters — Ignore differences in hyphenation.
• Ignore white-space characters — Ignore spacing between characters.

The Format button — Find and replace page formatting options like Font types or colors, Paragraph formatting (left, right, center), or highlighted words.

The Special button — Find and replace page and character elements such as Em dashes, tabs, or Section Breaks. See Replacing special characters for more details.

The No Formatting button — Turn off formatting selections.

Highlight search results

On the Navigation pane, enter what you want to find in the search box to highlight all occurrences of the searching in the document and display them on the Results page of the Navigation pane:

If you use the Find and Replace dialog box, Word highlights only the next found result. To highlight all results, click the Reading Highlight button and choose Highlight All:

For example: