In the 80′s, search and replace (as it was known then) seemed the second coolest thing about word processing. The first, of course, was never having to re-type a document. These days, with the use of templates, styles, and Word’s New From Existing Document, it seems less necessary.

However, for cleaning up documents and combining files with inconsistent formatting, nothing beats Find and Replace. Except, perhaps, for Find and Replace in Word coupled with some of Excel’s features.

First off, you can easily Find and Replace formatting:

1. Select Find or Replace from the Edit menu (or CTRL+h).
2. Click the More button to display your options.
3. In the Find field, type any text you want to search for. Leave it blank if you just want to search for formatting.
   Make sure your cursor is still in the Find field and click the Format button. Select the formatting from this menu as you would any formatting from the Format menu. You can search for fonts, attributes, font size, indentation, styles, and more.
4. Click into the Replace field. If you have text in the Find field, make sure to add it to the Replace field or Word will delete all occurrences of the text.
5. Select the new formatting from the menu on the Format button.

It is a good idea to use Find Next and Replace for the first couple of changes to make sure it is behaving properly.

TIPS:

• Remove formatting by clicking into the Find or Replace field, then clicking No Formatting. You’ll have to do this separately for Find and Replace. If you forget, Word will combine your next search for text with the formatting you have selected.
• You may have to make several passes. If so, be strategic and leave formatting you can find for the second go-round. If you want to go from Bold and Underlined to Italic, make sure to Find both Bold and Underlined and replace it with Italic and No Underline. This will replace your Bold and Underlined text with Italic and Bold. Then search for Bold and replace it with Not Bold. Tricky. The problem is you can’t search for Bold and Italic at the same time.
• If your Search and Replace becomes Search and Destroy, an immediate Undo (CTRL-Z or Edit | Undo) will undo your last replacement. You did save your document before your Find and Replace, didn’t you?
• If the Find fails, make sure that you don’t have formatting you don’t want included in the Find. Also, check the Direction of the Find. If it is Down or Up, Word will start at the insertion point. Change it to All to guarantee you’ll find every instance.