Using Find and Replace: A Quick MS Word Tip
Let's say a writing tutor reviewed your work. One of the tips she mentioned was to italicize the titles of books within your paper. You--the ever-diligent student--want to make sure you catch every instance of those book titles and change them from regular type to italics. Here are the steps to use the Find and Replace function in MS Word.
1. Press
Control H. The Find and Replace dialog box will appear with the Replace tab
overlined in red.
2. In
the Find What box, insert the word or phrase you want to italicize.
3. Leave
the Replace With box blank, but be sure the cursor is blinking inside it.
4. Click
on Format at the bottom of the dialog box and select Font.
5. Among
the three tabs, Font should be overlined in red and there should be a blinking
cursor in the Font box.
6. Click
on Tab to move from the Font column to the next column, Font Style. Select
Italic. At the bottom right of the box, click OK.
7. Now
make sure that the Replace With box is still blank, but that below the box,
the phrase “Font: Italic” appears.
8. Click
on Find Next. When the next instance of the word or phrase appears, it will be
highlighted. If it is an instance you want to change, click the Replace button.
If you want to skip over it, click on Find Next.
9. Once
you’ve changed all the instances you want, close the dialog box at the X in the
upper right corner.
Note:
To change a word or phrase from italics to plain type, in Step 6, select Regular instead of italics.
Rather than click on Replace or Replace All right off the
bat, it’s much safer to click on Find. That way, you can make sure that what
the software finds is what you wanted found. (For some funny and disastrous results of Find and Replace gone astray, see this article.) Try a couple of instances first. If
it’s working right, then go back to the start of your paper and select Find What
again. The text you want to change should be highlighted. If so, click on
Replace. The command will first change the type style of your selected text and
then advance to the next instance, awaiting your command: Replace or Find Next.
Of course, this same great tool can work for other error corrections as well. Do you sometimes use three spaces between sentences? Use Find and Replace to make that just two spaces.
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