Word application replace text

I use this function to find and replace. you can specify any of the options.

private void FindAndReplace(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application doc, object findText, object replaceWithText)
{
    //options
    object matchCase = false;
    object matchWholeWord = true;
    object matchWildCards = false;
    object matchSoundsLike = false;
    object matchAllWordForms = false;
    object forward = true;
    object format = false;
    object matchKashida = false;
    object matchDiacritics = false;
    object matchAlefHamza = false;
    object matchControl = false;
    object read_only = false;
    object visible = true;
    object replace = 2;
    object wrap = 1;
    //execute find and replace
    doc.Selection.Find.Execute(ref findText, ref matchCase, ref matchWholeWord,
        ref matchWildCards, ref matchSoundsLike, ref matchAllWordForms, ref forward, ref wrap, ref format, ref replaceWithText, ref replace,
        ref matchKashida ,ref matchDiacritics, ref matchAlefHamza, ref matchControl);                
}

And usage would be :

object fileName = Path.Combine(System.Windows.Forms.Application.StartupPath, "document.docx");
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application wordApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application { Visible = true };
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document aDoc = wordApp.Documents.Open(fileName, ReadOnly: false, Visible: true);
aDoc.Activate();
FindAndReplace(wordApp, "{id}", "12345");

And you can use the FindAndReplace function over and over….
Hope this helps.

MS-Word is a powerful word processing application, used to create documents, articles, assignments, etc. with the help of features and tools provided by it. It is used to perform many operations and creating or editing files and documents. MS Word is popular in the market because of its wide variety of features like Adding Visual Effects to your text, Turning your text data into graphs, Adding visual impact to your document. 

Find and Replace

Sometimes it is difficult to look for a certain item from a list of different items from a document. It might be time taking to look for that word within each line of the document. To make this process easier, Microsoft provides its users with a tool called ‘Find’ to search for a specific word. 

Example:

Teacher Mrs. Desai got a Word document from her school to verify and update her information in the document, which has enormous tabular data of more than 300 teachers. She found it very challenging to see her name. But then she remembered that it can be quickly done by using the “Find” function in Microsoft Word.  Find function helped her find her information which was at row number 233.

She checked the data and found that everywhere her middle name was misspelled, the changes required at 7 places. She applied the “Replace” function from Microsoft Word. She quickly replaced the incorrect middle name with the correct one in a fraction of seconds. Great!!! Let us learn how did she do that?

Following are the steps to find and replace the word in Microsoft Word 2010:

Step 1: Go to the Home tab.

Step 2: Select the Replace option from the Editing category.

Step 3: After clicking on Replace following window will appear

Step 4: Click on the Find Tab 

And enter the word or phrase to be searched and click on Find Next. Select Find Next until you come to the word you want to update.

Step 5: Select Replace. To find and replace the text. To update all instances at once, choose Replace All.

Step 6: To Exit from Find and Replace, click on the Cancel button or the close button available in the upper right corner. 

Example:

Let us consider, there’s a need to search the word “Roy” in the Word document.

Step 1: Type the word “Roy” and click on Find Next. It will highlight all the occurrences of “Roy”. Click on Replace and enter the text with which the “Roy” is to be replaced. I want to replace it with “Rane” click on Replace All.

Step 2: After clicking on Replace All you will find the following message informing you about the replacements done.

And you can observe in the above image that the word Roy been replaced by Rane.

More Features:

There are some additional features provided to make our search more specific. You can select the options like Find all word forms, Match case, ignore punctuation characters, etc. which will help us to make our search more sophisticated. 

You’ve just finished typing a presentation that’s due in about 15 minutes. But before you can celebrate your moment of victory, you realize that you’ve spelled your client‘s name wrong and have missed the double Rs in their company name multiple times throughout your document.

Cue: An aggravated scream.

The good news is that changing these small errors is an easy fix on Office 365. You can replace as many words as you want within seconds on Microsoft Word using its super helpful Find and Replace functionality.

This article will guide you through the necessary steps to help you find and replace text in MS Word.

Ready? Let’s begin.

How to Use Microsoft Word’s Find and Replace Feature

Microsoft is one of the leading companies in the world. It’s because it prioritizes its customers and comes up with innovations that can make their lives easier and more convenient.

The Find and Replace feature on MS Word is a shining example of this effort.

You can use this feature to find specific words in your file and then replace them in case there are some last-minute changes. This can even be useful when you make mistakes in the doc while typing or want to accommodate those last-minute client changes.

We’ll show you how to replace text in Microsoft Word, depending on the computer device you use.

How to Change and Replace Text in MS Word on Windows

It’s no wonder that all Windows devices have built-in Microsoft programs considering it’s a product developed by the Microsoft company themselves. If you find yourself using the word processor often for making notes or presentations, you’ll be especially thankful for the Find and Replace functionality.

Here’s a short step-by-step guide to using the feature in MS Word on Windows devices:

Step #1 Open Microsoft Word on your Windows device.

Step #2 Click on the Home tab on your top menu bar. A secondary menu will appear on your screen.

Step #3 Select the Replace option located on the top-right-hand side of your screen. Alternatively, you can also press Ctrl + H. The Find and Replace pop-up box will appear immediately.

Step #4 Type in the phrase or word you want to locate in your Word doc in the Find what field under the Find tab.

Step #5 Click on the Replace tab on the top menu bar. Type in the word you want to update in the Replace with field.

On clicking on the Replace button, the changes you want will be made one by one in the Word doc. However, if you want to update all fitting instances at once, you can click on Replace All instead.

Microsoft Word will give you a confirmation of the replacements made in your Word doc. It’ll look something like this:

How to Change and Replace Text in MS Word on Mac

Now that we’ve covered Windows, let’s see how you can use the Find and Replace feature on a MacBook. Here’s how to proceed in MS Word when you’re using an iOS device:

Step #1 Open the Microsoft Word document on your Mac.

Step #2 Take your cursor towards the top of your screen until you see your Mac’s top toolbar. Click on the Edit tab. A dropdown menu will appear.

Step #3 Click on Find from the displayed menu options. You’ll typically see a Replace… option on your screen.

But if you don’t, simply press Shift + Command + H on your keyboard. A side navigation bar will appear on the left-hand side of your computer screen.

Step #4 Enter the word or phrase you want to replace in the doc in the Search for… field.

Once you’ve finished typing the incorrect word or phrase, type in the right word or phrase that you want to replace the incorrect one with in the Replace with… field.

Step #5 Click on the Find tab to locate the matches. Once you’re sure the match is right and highlighting the words you want to change, select Replace. This will replace every individual match one by one.

Again, if you click on the Replace All button, all the matching words and phrases will be changed at once.

After the changes are made, you’ll see an “All Done” message just below the Replace and Replace All buttons that indicate the replacement of the intended word or phrase.

Advanced Find and Replace Features: Everything You Need to Know

You can take this whole shebang of replacing words and phrases to the next level thanks to Microsoft Word’s Advanced Find and Replace option. In other words, you can use the Advanced settings to simplify the process further and make the results even more accurate.

Follow the previously stated steps to open the Find and Replace pop-up box. On it appears on your screen, click on More.

You’ll immediately see a slew of additional options like Match case, Use wildcards, Match prefix, Match suffix, and so on. Here’s how the Advanced Find and Replace settings look like:

Each one of these has its own unique functions. Let’s discuss them in more detail below:

Find whole words only

If you check on the Find whole words only box, MS Word will treat your search term as an entire word and won’t look for your search term within other words.

Example: If you’re searching for the word “stand,“ the search feature won’t show you the word “standard.”

Use wildcards

Use wildcards is one of the more advanced search options that allows you to use question marks, brackets, asterisks, and other similar symbols to modify your search.

You see, a wildcat is a short string of characters – or a character – that represents multiple characters in a search.

Example: <(int)*(net)>

Sounds like (English)

As the name suggests, the Sounds like option finds similar-sounding words to your search term. This is best for finding homonyms and words that have varying spellings.

Example: This is common for words that have both UK and US variants. For instance, you can have both “colours” and “colors” on a document.

Find all word forms (English)

This option allows you to look for the word you searched for, along with other instances that are either plural or in a different tense.

Example: If you search for the word “be” after enabling the Find all word forms option, you’ll also find the words “are“ and “is“ highlighted as they are the different tense forms of “be.”

Match prefix and Match suffix

Checking off the Match prefix or Match suffix fields will limit your search to words that have the same beginning or the same ending, respectively.

Example: Suppose you enable Match prefix. When you search for the word “love,” Microsoft Word will find the words “love“ and “lovely.“ However, you won’t find the word “beloved“ highlighted in the search results as it’s a suffix of love.

Ignore punctuation characters and Ignore white-space characters

Again, this search option is self-explanatory. It tells Microsoft Word not to take up spaces, periods, hyphens, and similar attitudes into consideration.

Example: After clicking on the search options, when you type in “color block”, you’ll also see “color-block.”

When to Use the Find and Replace Feature of Microsoft Word

The whole point of the Find and Replace function in Microsoft Word is to allow MS Word users to search for target text – whether it’s a specific word, a type of formatting, or a string of wildcard characters – and replace them with whatever you want.

Typically, here’s why you should use this feature:

• When you want to maintain absolute consistency in your document
• When you want to speed up typing and formatting tasks
• When you realize last-minute mistakes and want to find and then replace your errors
• When you’re writing a document that includes words with varying spellings. For instance, if you typically follow US English, and are typing a doc according to the rules of UK English, the Find and Replace feature would be super helpful to identify and change spelling errors.
• Adding special characters to words
• editing partial words and phrases
• Correcting words that you may have misspelled in a hurry. For instance, if you type “h?t” instead of “hat” and enable Use wildcards, you’ll find it highlighted in your search.
• Eliminating extra spaces
• Changing the separator character in numerals
• Reversing currency symbols

Concluding Thoughts

As you may have realized, the Find and Replace feature of Microsoft is a lifesaver, to say the least.

It can help you save tons of time, which would otherwise have been wasted in looking for errors and then replacing them. Whether you are a student, an intern, or the CEO of a company, this is a functionality that we all can be very thankful for.

Finding and replacing text in a Word document is an operation that saves a lot of manual work in modifying a document. In this article, we are going to learn how to find and replace text in Word documents programmatically in C# using Syncfusion’s .NET Word Library (Essential DocIO). This does not require Microsoft Word or Office interop dependencies.

Syncfusion’s Word Library provides comprehensive APIs to find and replace text in a Word document with any desired text, image, hyperlink, paragraph, table, part of a document, or entire document. It provides options to find text by matching case and whole words. You can find each occurrence one by one or all the occurrences of a text at once in a document.

This feature saves you effort and time by helping you automatically find and replace a pattern of text in a Word document using Regex.

You can save the resultant document as a Word document (DOCX, WordML, DOC), PDF, image, HTML, RTF, and more.

The seven ways to find and replace text in a Word document using C# are:

• Find and replace text with other text.
• Find and replace text with an image.
• Find and replace a pattern of text with a merge field.
• Find and replace text with a table.
• Find and replace text with another document.
• Find and replace text extending to several paragraphs.
• Find text in a document and highlight it.

Find and replace text in a Word document with other text using C#

You can find text in a Word document and replace it with other text programmatically in C# using the Syncfusion Word Library. Unlike the Find method, the Replace method replaces all occurrences of the text. You can customize it to replace only the first occurrence of a text by setting the ReplaceFirst property of the WordDocument class to true.

The following code example illustrates how to replace all occurrences of a misspelled word with the correctly spelled word.

//Creates new Word document instance for word processing.
using (WordDocument document = new WordDocument())
{
    //Opens the input Word document.
    Stream docStream = File.OpenRead(Path.GetFullPath(@"../../../Template.docx"));
    document.Open(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
    docStream.Dispose();
    //Finds all occurrences of a misspelled word and replaces with properly spelled word.
    document.Replace("Cyles", "Cycles", true, true);
    //Saves the resultant file in the given path.
    docStream = File.Create(Path.GetFullPath(@"Result.docx"));
    document.Save(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
    docStream.Dispose();
}

The complete working example can be downloaded from this GitHub location.

Find and replace text in Word document with an image using C#

You can find placeholder text in a Word document and replace it with any desired image programmatically in C# using the Syncfusion Word Library.

The following code example illustrates how to do this.

//Creates new Word document instance for word processing.
using (WordDocument document = new WordDocument())
{
    //Opens the input Word document.
    Stream docStream = File.OpenRead(Path.GetFullPath(@"../../../Template.docx"));
    document.Open(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
    docStream.Dispose();
    //Finds all the image placeholder text in the Word document.
    TextSelection[] textSelections = document.FindAll(new Regex("^//(.*)"));
    for (int i = 0; i < textSelections.Length; i++)
    {
        //Replaces the image placeholder text with desired image.
        Stream imageStream = File.OpenRead(Path.GetFullPath(@"../../../" + textSelections[i].SelectedText + ".png"));
        WParagraph paragraph = new WParagraph(document);
        WPicture picture = paragraph.AppendPicture(imageStream) as WPicture;
        imageStream.Dispose();
        TextSelection newSelection = new TextSelection(paragraph, 0, 1);
        TextBodyPart bodyPart = new TextBodyPart(document);
        bodyPart.BodyItems.Add(paragraph);
        document.Replace(textSelections[i].SelectedText, bodyPart, true, true);
    }
    //Saves the resultant file in the given path.
    docStream = File.Create(Path.GetFullPath(@"Result.docx"));
    document.Save(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
    docStream.Dispose();
}

The complete working example can be downloaded from this GitHub location.

Find and replace a pattern of text with a merge field using C#

Syncfusion’s Word Library allows you to find and replace a pattern of text in a Word document with merge fields programmatically in C# using Regex.

The following code example illustrates how to create a mail merge template by replacing a pattern of text (enclosed within ‘«’ and ‘»’) in a Word document with the desired merge fields.

//Creates new Word document instance for word processing.
using (WordDocument document = new WordDocument())
{
    //Opens the input Word document.
    Stream docStream = File.OpenRead(Path.GetFullPath(@"../../../Template.docx"));
    document.Open(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
    docStream.Dispose();
    //Finds all the placeholder text enclosed within '«' and '»' in the Word document.
    TextSelection[] textSelections = document.FindAll(new Regex("«([(?i)image(?-i)]*:*[a-zA-Z0-9 ]*:*[a-zA-Z0-9 ]+)»"));
    string[] searchedPlaceholders = new string[textSelections.Length];
    for (int i = 0; i < textSelections.Length; i++)
    {
        searchedPlaceholders[i] = textSelections[i].SelectedText;
    }
    for (int i = 0; i < searchedPlaceholders.Length; i++)
    {
        //Replaces the placeholder text enclosed within '«' and '»' with desired merge field.
        WParagraph paragraph = new WParagraph(document);
        paragraph.AppendField(searchedPlaceholders[i].TrimStart('«').TrimEnd('»'), FieldType.FieldMergeField);
        TextSelection newSelection = new TextSelection(paragraph, 0, paragraph.Items.Count);
        TextBodyPart bodyPart = new TextBodyPart(document);
        bodyPart.BodyItems.Add(paragraph);
        document.Replace(searchedPlaceholders[i], bodyPart, true, true, true);
    }
    //Saves the resultant file in the given path.
    docStream = File.Create(Path.GetFullPath(@"Result.docx"));
    document.Save(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
    docStream.Dispose();
}

The complete working example can be downloaded from this GitHub location.

Find and replace text in a Word document with a table using C#

You can find placeholder text in a Word document and replace it with a table programmatically in C# using the Syncfusion Word Library.

The following code example illustrates how to do this.

//Creates new Word document instance for word processing.
using (WordDocument document = new WordDocument())
{
    //Opens the input Word document.
    Stream docStream = File.OpenRead(Path.GetFullPath(@"../../../Template.docx"));
    document.Open(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
    docStream.Dispose();
    //Creates a new table.
    WTable table = new WTable(document);
    table.ResetCells(1, 6);
    table[0, 0].Width = 52f;
    table[0, 0].AddParagraph().AppendText("Supplier ID");
    table[0, 1].Width = 128f;
    table[0, 1].AddParagraph().AppendText("Company Name");
    table[0, 2].Width = 70f;
    table[0, 2].AddParagraph().AppendText("Contact Name");
    table[0, 3].Width = 92f;
    table[0, 3].AddParagraph().AppendText("Address");
    table[0, 4].Width = 66.5f;
    table[0, 4].AddParagraph().AppendText("City");
    table[0, 5].Width = 56f;
    table[0, 5].AddParagraph().AppendText("Country");
    //Imports data to the table.
    ImportDataToTable(table);
    //Applies the built-in table style (Medium Shading 1 Accent 1) to the table.
    table.ApplyStyle(BuiltinTableStyle.MediumShading1Accent1);
    //Replaces the table placeholder text with a new table
    TextBodyPart bodyPart = new TextBodyPart(document);
    bodyPart.BodyItems.Add(table);
    document.Replace("[Suppliers table]", bodyPart, true, true, true);
    //Saves the resultant file in the given path.
    docStream = File.Create(Path.GetFullPath(@"Result.docx"));
    document.Save(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
    docStream.Dispose();
}

The complete working example can be downloaded from this GitHub location.

Find and replace text in Word document with another document using C#

The Syncfusion Word Library lets you find and replace text with another Word document programmatically in C#.

The following code example illustrates how to merge or combine Word documents by replacing text with another document (the content of a subheading).

//Creates new Word document instance for word processing.
using (WordDocument document = new WordDocument())
{
    //Opens the input Word document.
    Stream docStream = File.OpenRead(Path.GetFullPath(@"../../../Template.docx"));
    document.Open(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
    docStream.Dispose();
    //Finds all the content placeholder text in the Word document.
    TextSelection[] textSelections = document.FindAll(new Regex(@"[(.*)]"));
    for (int i = 0; i < textSelections.Length; i++)
    {
        //Replaces the content placeholder text with desired Word document.
        docStream = File.OpenRead(Path.GetFullPath(@"../../../" + textSelections[i].SelectedText.TrimStart('[').TrimEnd(']') + ".docx"));
        WordDocument subDocument = new WordDocument(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
        docStream.Dispose();
        document.Replace(textSelections[i].SelectedText, subDocument, true, true);
        subDocument.Dispose();
    }
    //Saves the resultant file in the given path.
    docStream = File.Create(Path.GetFullPath(@"Result.docx"));
    document.Save(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
    docStream.Dispose();
}

The complete working example can be downloaded from this GitHub location.

Find and replace text extending to several paragraphs in C#

Apart from finding text in a paragraph, you can also find and replace text that extends to several paragraphs in a Word document. You can find the first occurrence of the text that extends to several paragraphs by using the FindSingleLine method. Find the next occurrences of the text by using the FindNextSingleLine method. Similarly, you can replace text that extends to several paragraphs by using ReplaceSingleLine method.

The following code example illustrates how to replace text that extends to several paragraphs.

//Creates new Word document instance for word processing.
using (WordDocument document = new WordDocument())
{
    //Opens the input Word document.
    Stream docStream = File.OpenRead(Path.GetFullPath(@"../../../Template.docx"));
    document.Open(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
    docStream.Dispose();
    docStream = File.OpenRead(Path.GetFullPath(@"../../../Source.docx"));
    WordDocument subDocument = new WordDocument(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
    docStream.Dispose();
    //Gets the content from another Word document to replace with.
    TextBodyPart replacePart = new TextBodyPart(subDocument);
    foreach (TextBodyItem bodyItem in subDocument.LastSection.Body.ChildEntities)
    {
        replacePart.BodyItems.Add(bodyItem.Clone());
    }
    string placeholderText = "Suppliers/Vendors of Northwind" + "Customers of Northwind"
        + "Employee details of Northwind traders" + "The product information"
        + "The inventory details" + "The shippers" + "Purchase Order transactions"
        + "Sales Order transaction" + "Inventory transactions" + "Invoices" + "[end replace]";
    //Finds the text that extends to several paragraphs and replaces it with desired content.
    document.ReplaceSingleLine(placeholderText, replacePart, false, false);
    subDocument.Dispose();
    //Saves the resultant file in the given path.
    docStream = File.Create(Path.GetFullPath(@"Result.docx"));
    document.Save(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
    docStream.Dispose();
}

The complete working example can be downloaded from this GitHub location.

Find text in a Word document and format it using C#

Using the Syncfusion Word Library, you can find text in a Word document and format or highlight it programmatically in C#. You can find the first occurrence of text using the Find method. Find the next occurrences of the text using the FindNext method.

The following code example illustrates how to find all occurrences of a length of text and highlight it.

//Creates new Word document instance for word processing.
using (WordDocument document = new WordDocument())
{
    //Opens the input Word document.
    Stream docStream = File.OpenRead(Path.GetFullPath(@"../../../Template.docx"));
    document.Open(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
    docStream.Dispose();
    //Finds all occurrence of the text in the Word document.
    TextSelection[] textSelections = document.FindAll("Adventure", true, true);
    for (int i = 0; i < textSelections.Length; i++)
    {
        //Sets the highlight color for the searched text as Yellow.
        textSelections[i].GetAsOneRange().CharacterFormat.HighlightColor = Color.Yellow;
    }
    //Saves the resultant file in the given path.
    docStream = File.Create(Path.GetFullPath(@"Result.docx"));
    document.Save(docStream, FormatType.Docx);
    docStream.Dispose();
}

Similarly, you can automate the process of highlighting or underlining any misspelled words in a Word document without using Microsoft Word.

The complete working example can be downloaded from this GitHub location.

Summary

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I hope it may have clarified finding and replacing text in Word documents using the Syncfusion Word Library. Take a moment to peruse the documentation, where you’ll find other options and features, all with accompanying code examples. Using the Library, you can create, edit, and merge Word documents, as well as convert them to PDF, image, HTML, RTF, and other formats.

If you are new to our Word Library (Essential DocIO), it is highly recommended that you follow our Getting Started guide.

Are you already a Syncfusion user? You can download the product setup here. If you’re not yet a Syncfusion user, you can download a free, 30-day trial here.

If you have any questions about these features, please let us know in the comments below. You can also contact us through our support forum, Direct-Trac, or feedback portal. We are happy to assist you!

Have you ever finishing typing a letter, report or presentation only to discover that you misspelled a person’s name or had the wrong company listed multiple times throughout your document? No worries—it’s an easy fix. Using Word’s Find and Replace feature, you can quickly locate and replace text. Let’s see how it works.

Switch over to the “Home” tab on Word’s Ribbon and then click the “Replace” button.

This opens Word’s Find and Replace window. In the “Find What” box, type the word or phrase you want to locate. If you only want to find text in your document, you can go ahead and click the “Find Next” button to have Word jump to the next occurrence of that word. Keep clicking it to browse through all the results.

If you want to replace the text you find with something else, type the replacement text into the “Replace With” box. You can enter up to 255 characters in the both the “Find What” and “Replace With” boxes, by the way.

In this example, let’s say we want to replace the name “Williams” with the name “Billingsly”, so we’ve typed that text into the respective boxes. Next, we’d click the “Find Next” button to have Word locate the first instance of the text in the “Find What” box.

Word jumps the document to that point and highlights the result in gray, still keeping the Find and Replace window on top for you. Click the “Replace” button to replace the currently selected result with whatever text is in the “Replace With” box.

To replace all instances at once without stopping and reviewing each one, you can click the “Replace All” button.

Be careful when using “Replace All” because it will automatically replace all instances, including those you might not want to replace. In the example below, there are three more instances of “Williams,” but we only want to replace the next two. In this case, we would only click “Replace” for the second and third instance.

If there is a particular instance where you don’t want to replace the text, click “Find Next” as many times as needed until you come to an example where you need to replace text.

To exit from Find and Replace, click the “Cancel” button.

Of course, since it is Word we’re talking about here, there are also lots of other things you can do to make your searches more sophisticated:

• Use wildcards in your searches to narrow them down to more specific results.
• Search directly within Word’s Navigation pane to have Word show you which headings have your search terms included under them.
• Replace double spaces between sentences with single spaces.
• Search for specific formatting or special characters.

The basic of searching and replacing text in Word are pretty straightforward, but there’s a lot you can do with it once you start digging.

READ NEXT

• › How to Replace Any Character with Newlines in Notepad++
• › How to Search in Google Docs
• › How to Use Find and Replace in Google Docs
• › What Your Function Keys Do in Microsoft Word
• › How to Search for Text in Word
• › How to Find and Replace Formatting in Microsoft Word
• › How to Delete a Page in Microsoft Word
• › Spotify Is Shutting Down Its Free Online Game

Exchange one text string for another in any version of Word

Updated on October 29, 2021

What to Know

• Open the Find and Replace tool in Word with the keyboard shortcut CTRL+H.
• Find and Replace doesn’t take capitalization into account unless you specifically tell it to.
• To replace capitalization, select More in the Find and Replace box, then Match Case > Replace or Replace All > OK.

All editions of Microsoft Word offer a feature called Find and Replace. Use this tool to search for a specific word, number, or phrase in a document and replace it with something else. You can also make several replacements at once—like changing a name or fixing something you’ve consistently misspelled. Use it, also, to replace numbers or punctuation and cap or uncap words.

If you turn on Track Changes before you begin, you can reject the replacement or deletion of any unintended word. 

Find and Replace a Word

The Microsoft Word Find and Replace dialog box, in its simplest form, prompts you to type the word you’re looking for and the word you want to replace it with. Then, click Replace, and either allow Word to change every entry for you or, go through them one at a time.

To open the tool, press Ctrl+H (Cmd+H on Mac).

Change Capitalization in Microsoft Word

The Find and Replace feature doesn’t take into account anything about capitalization unless you specifically tell it to. To get to that option you’ll need to click the More option in the Find and Replace dialog box:

1. Open the Find and Replace dialog box using your favorite method. We prefer Ctrl+H.
2. Click More.
3. Type the appropriate entry in the Find What and Replace With lines.
4. Click Match Case.
5. Click Replace and Replace again, or, click Replace All.
6. Click OK.

Advanced Options

When you select the More expander in the Search and Replace dialog box, you’ll encounter several customizations. The list of items varies according to which version of Word you’re running.

Search Options

Select the check boxes to include or exclude things like punctuation, white-space characters, or substrings. Plus, apply tools like word-form matching (i.e., walked also matches walking) and Soundex matching (Karin matches Karen).

Replace Options

Word supports more advanced substitutions, too. Use special characters to substitute text markup with symbols. For example, replace a character code like &amp; with an ampersand. This approach is useful for de-cluttering pasted HTML text that uses HTML codes to render certain symbols.

Thanks for letting us know!

Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day

Subscribe