- Highlighting Text
- Search Options
- Special Characters
- Finding/Replacing Formatting
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Finding/Replacing Formatting
The last find and replace tool is the ability to work with formatting. You can find and replace text based on its formatting as well as its content. You can also find and replace formatting alone, such as changing all instances of Times New Roman, 14 point, bold to Arial, 12 point, italic. Yes, ideally you would use styles for all formatting, and to change a format globally you would just change the style definition. The fact is that many Word users still apply formatting on an ad hoc basis, and the Find and Replace formatting tool can be a real lifesaver. A few things you might use this tool for are these:
- Change all indented paragraphs to nonindented.
- Change all bold italic text to red.
- Change all tab stops with the "....." leader to no leader.
To work with formatting, click the Format button in the Find and Replace dialog box (if you do not see this button, click the More button). You'll see a list with the following choices on it:
- Font. Displays the Find Font dialog box, in which you can specify the font characteristics you want to find. You can specify any and all aspects of fonts, including typeface name, size, bold, italics, underlining, character spacing, and text effects.
- Paragraph. Displays the Find Paragraph dialog box, in which you specify paragraph formatting, such as alignment, indentation, and spacing.
- Tabs. Lets you specify the tab settings to find.
- Frame. Used to find frames with specified characteristics.
- Style. Lets you locate specific styles.
- Highlight. Searches for highlighted text.
If you specify formatting for the Find What box, the selected formats are listed under the box. The same is true for the Replace With box. If you want to find and/or replace formatting without regard to the text content, leave the Find What and, if replacing, Replace With boxes blank and use the Format button to select the formatting for each. To remove all formatting specifications, click the No Formatting button.
Word's advanced find and replace tools let you quickly and easily perform many tasks that would otherwise require a lot of painstaking manual work. It's good to know about these tools because some day they may really save your bacon.