Microsoft Word’s Find and Replace function isn’t simply for changing text. You can likewise use Find and Replace to locate particular types of format throughout your document and even change that formatting with something else.

When Is Finding and Replacing Formatting Useful?

There are numerous methods to use Find and Replace for formatting, but when should you think about using Find and Replace rather of applying manual formatting modifications or using other alternatives like the Format Painter?

Often, it makes sense to apply format changes manually. If you require to alter the color of all text or eliminate all circumstances of strong text in your file, you can do this by picking all (Ctrl+A) and then using the change you desire. If you require to control what gets altered and what does not more exactly, you may be much better off going through your file and making those modifications by hand.

There are times when Find and Replace can assist you save time by applying formatting changes quicker and much easier than manual format. You can use Find and Replace to look for and change both character and paragraph formatting.

Here are a couple of examples when it might be helpful:

Now yes, with some foresight, you could have established character and paragraph designs and then rigorously use them throughout your document. That would make altering some of these things more workable. However when foresight relies on hindsight, Find and Replace can assist you do the job.

All set to see it in action?

Using Find and Replace to Change Character Formatting

When it comes to finding and replacing formatting, you can produce a search for just specific types of formatting, or you can do that in mix with searching for text (you can even get expensive and combine it with wildcards to more fine-tune your searches).

If you wish to look for formatting without accompanying text, it’s easy. Let’s take the example from earlier where we’ve chosen we wish to eliminate occurrences of italic text. Fire up the Find and Replace dialog box by heading to Home > > Replace or pressing Ctrl+H.

On the Replace tab, click to position your insertion point in the “Find What” box. Next, click the “Format” drop-down menu and select the “Font” alternative.

In the Find Font window, click the “Italic” choice (or whatever formatting you wish to search for) and after that click “OK.”

Back in the Find and Replace window, you can see that the formatting choice is now noted under the “Find What” box to assist you keep an eye on what you’re searching.

Now place your insertion point in the “Replace With” box, head back Format > > Font, and this time select the “Regular” choice. When you’re done, you’ll see that formatting appear under the “Replace With” box.

Notice how that states “Not Bold” and “Not Italic.” You can’t utilize this technique to alter from one type of formatting to another– just to add or eliminate formatting.

At any rate, now you’re all set to search. Strike the “Find Next” button to have Word locate and highlight the next occurrence of whatever you’re searching for. Here, it’s discovered our next italicised word. Click the “Replace” button to make the change. Hit “Find Next” to find the next incident and repeat. If you’re feeling fortunate, you can also hit the “Replace All” button to have Word go on and change everything it discovers without you needing to examine each one, however we suggest saving or making a copy of your file before doing this.

Easy enough, however what if you want to work with both formatting and text at the exact same time? Let’s take a larger example.

Say you just ended up typing and formatting a report, and for the company name, “Lorem Incorporated,” you used vibrant, italics and blue typeface color for focus. Your document looks something like this:

Your supervisor reviews your report and asks you to get rid of the blue color, strong, and italics. You require to change “Lorem Incorporated” to “Lorem Inc.” You require to make the modifications rapidly, and then email the modified report to your supervisor as soon as possible. You can do all this easily by means of Find and Replace.

Fire up the Find and Replace dialog box by heading to Home > > Replace or pushing Ctrl+H.

Type “Lorem Incorporated” into the “Find What” box. Click the “More” button to broaden the Find and Replace options if they aren’t already shown.

Next, click the “Format” button on the bottom left, and then click the “Font” alternative.

In the Find Font window, click the “Bold Italic” font style. On the “Font Color” drop-down menu, choose the blue color (which is currently used to the text). Click “OKAY” when you’re done.

Notification that the format choices you simply made appear under the “Find What” box.

Next type “Lorem Inc.” into the “Replace With” box. Click the “Format” button again and then click “Font.”

Choose the “Regular” font design and on the “Font Color” drop-down menu, select “Automatic” (which defaults to black). Click “OK” when you’re done.

Now, you can utilize the “Find Next” and “Replace” buttons, in turn, to step through each event in your file or you can click the “Replace All” button to alter all events at once. If you utilize “Replace All” we recommend conserving or developing a copy of your document first.

Using Find and Replace to Change Paragraph Formatting

You can also use Find and Replace to work with paragraph-level formatting, and it works practically the same way as working with character-level formatting. You can even utilize it to discover and change character and paragraph formatting at the same time if you want.

Let’s take a more simple example to see how it works. Let’s state that we’ve copied and pasted some paragraphs from another Word file to use in our document. In our document, we’re using basic line spacing where there is no extra area prior to paragraphs and 8pt spacing after paragraphs.

For some factor, the file we’re pulling paragraphs from is established to use 18pt spacing both prior to and after paragraphs. We’re pasting the text with format because we want to keep the character-level formatting like bold text.

The results do not look excellent due to the fact that the paragraph we copied and pasted has a lot more space prior to and after it than our other paragraphs do.

Now, one way to fix this would be to hit Ctrl+A to select the whole file and then set line spacing for all the paragraphs in the file to their default values. What if we did have some paragraphs where we had changed line spacing and wanted to keep that?

You thought it– Find and Replace to the rescue. Fire it up again from Home > > Replace or by striking Ctrl+H.

Place your insertion point in the “Find What” box, open the “Format” drop-down menu, and pick the “Paragraph” alternative.

In the Find Paragraph window, choose the format for which you want to search. In our case, we’re looking for paragraphs where the in the past and after spacing is 18pt. When you’re set up, click “OK.”

You’ll now see that formatting listed under the “Find What” box.

Now place your insertion point in the “Replace With” box, open the “Format” drop-down menu again, and click “Paragraph.”

This time, set up the formatting you wish to utilize as a replacement. We’re opting for Word’s default of no spacing before and 8pt after– the like in the rest of our document. Click “OK” when you’ve got it set up.

Now you’re prepared to search. Strike the “Find Next” button to have Word find and highlight the next event of whatever you’re looking for. Here, it’s discovered our weirdly-spaced paragraph. Click the “Replace” button to make the change. Struck “Find Next” to discover the next incident and repeat. You can also hit the “Replace All” button to have Word go on and change everything it finds without you having to inspect each one, however we suggest conserving or making a copy of your file prior to doing this.

And after performing our replacement, we’ve now got a paragraph spaced similar to our others.

You can get a lot more sophisticated with your searches than the simple examples we’ve provided here. You can combine several various kinds of character and paragraph formatting into a single search. You can even use wildcards and other unique characters to get more imaginative with the specific text you find. That must be enough to get you started!

Microsoft Word’s Find and Replace feature isn’t just for replacing text. There are times when Find and Replace can assist you save time by applying format changes quicker and simpler than manual format. Now, you can use the “Find Next” and “Replace” buttons, in turn, to step through each incident in your document or you can click the “Replace All” button to alter all incidents at as soon as. You can also utilize Find and Replace to work with paragraph-level format, and it works pretty much the exact same way as working with character-level format. You thought it– Find and Replace to the rescue.