Word replace all numbers

MS Word is a powerful word processing tool from Microsoft. At times we find ourselves in a situation wherein we need to find and replace numbers in a Word document. It is quite easy to accomplish this using Find and Replace facility given in MS-Word. Here is how we can do this.

Open the document where replacement is to be done.

Press CTRL + H keys to bring Find and Replace box up.

Now, in Find what box type ([0-9])

Click on More >> button to reveal more options for Find and Replace.

In the extended box, select Use wildcards

Now press Find button and MS Word will find you the first number (i.e. any digit from 0 to 9) in the document. Please note that it will find each digit individually, that is to say that if 2012 is written in the document –this search will find four digits and not 2012 as a whole number.

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It is very important that you select Use wildcards because this will enable MS Word to understand your search demand.

If you want to delete all the numbers from your document, just keep the “Replace with” box empty and click “Replace all”… this action will effectively replace every numerical digit with nothing.

SEE ALSO: How to Replace Images in MS Word

If you want to replace only certain digits, you can alter the search query. For example, if you want to find only 4, 7 and 9 you should write the following in “Find what” box:

([4,7,9])

If you want to look only for digits from 1 to 4, you can use either of the following expression:

([1,2,3,4])

Or

([1-4])

In the “Replace with” box, you can write whatever you want to replace the found text with. Easy!

So, this was the solution. I hope it was useful! You can see a lot of other MS Word Tips on TechWelkin.

Please feel free to post your questions, if case you have any, in the comments on this article. Thank you for using TechWelkin.

In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to remove all numbers in a Word document, including those appearing as subscripts or superscripts, decimals and those inside characters such as brackets.

This is especially useful if you’re working with research papers and other documents that typically include numbered references at the end of sentences. At the end of this tutorial, I’ve also included a video tutorial that you can skip to or refer to.

The instructions below should work on all versions of Word that have the Find and Replace feature, but has only been tested on Word 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019. Let’s get started.

Option 1: Remove all Whole Numbers

To remove all numbers (including subscripts or superscripts) that are not decimals or those appearing inside or after special characters, do the following:

1. Open the Find and Replace window by pressing CTRL+H
2. In the Find what box type ^#
3. Leave the Replace with box empty and click the Replace All button. All numbers should be removed.

Option 2: Remove Numbers with a Trailing Character

To only remove numbers that have a trailing character after them similar to how numbered lists look, such as 1. 1, 1) 1] do the following:

1. Open the Find and Replace window
2. In the Find what box type ^# for each digit followed by the trailing character. So for example:
   • to match 1. you’ll enter ^#.
   • to match 12, you’ll enter ^#^#,
   • to match 123) you’ll enter ^#^#^#)
   • to match 1234] you’ll enter ^#^#^#^#]
3. Leave the Replace with box empty and click the Replace All button.

NOTE: This will not work for numbered lists created by Word. To remove these, just highlight the list and click the numbered list icon to remove the formatting.

Option 3: Remove Numbers Enclosed in Characters

To only remove numbers (including subscripts or superscripts) that are enclosed in characters such as the various types of brackets: parentheses (1), curly {01}, square [1] or angled <1>, you can use one of two methods:

A. Remove the numbers and enclosing characters together

1. Open the Find and Replace window.
2. In the Find what box type the opening enclosing character (e.g () followed by ^# for each digit then close with the trailing enclosing character. So for example:
   • to match (1) you’ll enter (^#)
   • to match [12] you’ll enter [#^#]
   • to match {123} you’ll enter {^#^#^#}
   • to match <1234> you’ll enter <^#^#^#^#>
3. Leave the Replace with box empty and click the Replace All button.

A. Remove the numbers first, then remove the empty characters

1. Open the Find and Replace window.
2. Start by removing only the digits first by replacing ^# as explained in the first section.
3. Next, remove the now empty enclosing characters () {} [] <> by entering them in the Find what box and leaving the Replace with box empty.

Option 4: Remove All Decimals Numbers

1. Open the Find and Replace window
2. For numbers with a single decimal place such as 0.1 1.2 2.3 enter ^#.^# in the Find what box and replace with nothing.
3. For numbers with more than one single decimal place such as, 0.01 1.23 1.234 you have two options:
   • you can either replace the whole decimal at once by representing every digit after the decimal place with a ^# e.g ^#.^#^# for 0.01 and ^#.^#^#^# for 1.234, or;
   • you can start by removing the first number and the decimal point by replacing ^#. then replace the remaining whole numbers using ^#.

Video Tutorial

Find and Replace Text and Numbers in Word

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated March 7, 2022

Applies to: Microsoft^® Word^® 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021 or 365 (Windows)

You can find and replace in Word using the Find and Replace dialog box as well as the Navigation Pane. If you use the dialog box, you can find and replace text and numbers and use wildcards for more advanced find and replace tasks. Wildcards are useful when you are not able to find an exact match. You can display the Find and Replace dialog box using a keyboard shortcut or the Home tab in the Ribbon.

Recommended article: How to Quickly Remove Hard Returns in Word Documents

Do you want to learn more about Microsoft Word? Check out our virtual classroom or in-person Word courses >

Note: Screenshots in this article are from Word 365 but are similar in previous versions of Word.

The Replace command appears on the Home tab in the Ribbon in the Editing group:

Using the Find and Replace dialog box to replace words or characters (and match case)

You can perform simple find and replace tasks using the Replace dialog box in its collapsed state. To access more advanced options, you will need to click More in the Replace dialog box to expand it.

To use the Find and Replace dialog box to find and replace text in Word (words or characters) and match case if needed:

1. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon.
2. In the Editing group, click Replace to display the Replace dialog box. Alternatively, press Ctrl + H if you prefer to use a keyboard shortcut to open the Replace dialog box.
3. Enter the text you want to find in the Find What box. You can specify whether Word should locate only matches with the exact capitalization by clicking More and then selecting or checking Match case.
4. Enter the text you want to replace in the Replace box.
5. Click Find Next and then click Replace for each occurrence or click Replace All.
6. Click Close.

In the following example, the Replace dialog box has been expanded to display other options including Match case:

Finding and replacing using wildcards

To use wildcards, you will need to use the Find and Replace dialog box and expand it to display more options. You can then select the option to Use wildcards. A wildcard can replace one or more characters in a string of text or numbers. The most common wildcard is the asterisk (*).

It’s important to note that wildcard searches are case sensitive. Also, Word uses «lazy» pattern matching so it will stop matching as soon as possible. This means that you could enter part of a word and find that part without using wildcards.

To find and replace text using wildcards in Word:

1. Position the cursor at the location in the document where you want to start finding and replacing. If you want to start at the beginning of the document, you can press Ctrl + Home.
2. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon.
3. In the Editing group, click Replace. Alternatively, press Ctrl + H. A dialog box appears.
4. Select More to expand the dialog box.
5. Click in the Find What box.
6. Select or check the Use wildcards checkbox.
7. Enter the text and wildcard(s) you want to use. For example, enter s*l to find any text starting with s and ending with l.
8. Click in the Replace with box.
9. Enter the text you want to use to replace the text in the Find what box.
10. Click Find Next to find the first instance of the characters you want to find.
11. Click Replace or Replace All. If you click Replace, Word will select the next matching characters in the Find what box. If you click Replace All, Word will display a dialog box with the number of replacements. In this case, click OK.
12. If necessary, click Replace again. Repeat for each instance.
13. Click Close to close the dialog box.

In the following example, b*s has been entered in the Find what box to find any word starting with starting with b and ending with s:

If you want to undo a Replace or Replace All action, close the dialog box and press Ctrl + Z.

Using common wildcards

The most common wildcards you can use in the Find and Replace dialog box are the asterisk (*) to find multiple characters and the question mark (?) to find a single character.

For example:

b*l will find ball and barrel (a character followed any characters and ending with a specific character)

h?ll will find hill and hall (a character followed by any single character and then followed by 2 characters)

Using wildcards to find one or more instances of the same character

You can also use @ as a wildcard to find one or more instances of the same character.

For example:

catchal@ will find catchal or catchall

Using wildcards for alternate characters and ranges

You can also use wildcards to find alternate characters or ranges of characters. These are entered in square brackets [ ] and may be combined with other wildcards.

[ ] can be used to find each of a set of characters

[ – ] can be used to find each of a set of characters in a range

You can use any character or series of characters in a range within the square brackets (including the space character). Characters are processed in alphanumeric order from lowest to highest.

For example:

[abc] will find any of the letters a, b, or c

[G] will find the upper case letter G

[A-Z] will find any upper case letter

[0-9] will find any single number

[13579] will find any odd number

[0-9A-z] will find any number or letter

f[ai]n will find each of the characters in square brackets such as fan or fin

[b-f]at will find each of a range of characters such as bat, cat, and fat

Using wildcards to omit characters

If you want to omit specific characters, you can use an exclamation mark (!) combined with square brackets.

For example:

[!f]ast will find last and past but not fast

Using wildcards to find the beginning or end of a word

You can use the less than symbol (<) to find the beginning of a word and the greater than symbol (>) to find the end of a word. These wildcards are combined with characters in round brackets or parentheses.

For example,

<(watch) will find watching or watchman

(all)> will find wall or stall

These wildcards can be problematic if you are using a wildcard and you want to find > or < as characters in the document. If this is the case, enter a backslash () in front of the character so that it is not treated as a wildcard.

For example,

<*> will find <h1> or <h2>

Using wildcards to find instances of a character

You can use curly brackets { } to specify the number of instances of a character. These brackets can be combined with a comma to specify the number of instances. Counting can be used with individual characters or with sets of characters.

{n} is used to find the number of instances of a character

{n,} is used to find at least n instances of a character

{n,m} is used to find between n and m instances of a character

For example:

^p{2} will find two consecutive paragraph marks or hard returns (^p is a special character for a paragraph mark in Word)

{3} will find three spaces (there is a space entered before the first curly bracket)

30{2,} will find at least 2 instances of the preceding character such as 3000 or 30000

30{3,4} will find between 3 and 4 instances of the preceding character such as 30000 or 300000 not 300

These last wildcards are particularly useful if you are finding and replacing numbers in Word.

The Find and Replace dialog box offers more functionality as well. For example, you can also Find and Replace Formatting in Word.

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