Open the Find and Replace dialog

The fastest way to search and replace in Word is to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+H (Windows) or Command+H (Mac). This opens the Find and Replace dialog box directly. You can also reach it through the menu: click the Home tab, then select Find & Replace in the Editing group on the right side of the ribbon.

The dialog box has two main text fields: one labeled Find and one labeled Replace. Everything you do starts here. If you only need to find text without replacing it, use Ctrl+F instead, which opens a simpler Find toolbar.

Key Takeaways

  • Press Ctrl+H to open Find and Replace, type the text you want to find in the first field, and the replacement text in the second field.
  • Click Replace All to change every instance at once, or Replace to change one at a time and review each match first.
  • Use Match Case if you need to distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters, or Whole Words Only to avoid replacing partial matches inside longer words.
  • The More Options button reveals advanced settings like searching for formatting, special characters, or wildcards for pattern matching.
  • Always review at least a few replacements before using Replace All, especially when searching for common words that might appear in unexpected places.

Type what you want to find and what to replace it with

In the Find field, type the exact text you want to locate. In the Replace field below it, type what you want it to become. For example, if you want to change "colour" to "color" throughout your document, type "colour" in Find and "color" in Replace.

Word is case-sensitive by default, meaning it treats "Color" and "color" as different. If you want to find "colour" but also match "Colour" or "COLOUR", leave the Match Case option unchecked. You can toggle this option by clicking the checkbox next to "Match Case" in the dialog.

Replace one instance or all at once

Once you have entered your search and replacement text, you have two main choices. Click Replace to change just the first match Word finds. The dialog stays open, and you can review the change before deciding whether to replace the next match. Click Replace All to change every instance in the document at once without stopping to confirm each one.

Most people use Replace All when they are confident the replacement is correct everywhere—for instance, changing a misspelled name or a product name throughout a long document. Use the single Replace button when you are less certain, such as replacing a common word that might appear in different contexts where you only want to change it in some places.

Use Match Case and Whole Words Only for precision

The Match Case checkbox makes Word distinguish between uppercase and lowercase. If you check this box and search for "Word," it will find "Word" but not "word" or "WORD." This is useful when you need to preserve capitalization rules—for example, replacing "iPhone" without accidentally matching "iphone" in a list of product codes.

The Whole Words Only checkbox prevents Word from matching your search text if it appears as part of a longer word. For instance, if you search for "read" without this option checked, Word will also match "reading," "reader," and "thread." With Whole Words Only enabled, it matches only the standalone word "read." This prevents accidental replacements in compound words or words that contain your search term as a substring.

Search for formatting and special characters

Click More Options at the bottom of the Find and Replace dialog to reveal additional settings. You can search for text that has specific formatting—bold, italic, underline, a particular font, or a certain font size. To do this, type your search text, then click Format and choose the formatting you want to match.

You can also search for special characters like paragraph marks, tabs, or line breaks. Click Special to see a menu of options. For example, searching for "^p" (or selecting "Paragraph Mark" from the Special menu) finds every paragraph break. This is helpful when you need to remove extra line breaks or restructure how your document is divided into paragraphs.

Use wildcards to search for patterns

If you need to find text that follows a pattern rather than exact text, enable Use Wildcards in the More Options section. Wildcards are symbols that represent unknown characters or groups of characters. For example, the wildcard .* matches any sequence of characters, and . matches any single character.

A practical example: if you want to find any three-digit number, you would search for [0-9]{3}. If you want to find words that start with "un" and end with "ed," you would search for un.*ed. When you use wildcards, the Replace field can reference what was found using ^1, ^2, and so on, allowing you to rearrange or reformat matched text. Wildcards are powerful but take practice—start with straightforward patterns and test on a copy of your document first.

Review your changes and undo if needed

After you click Replace All, Word shows a message telling you how many replacements were made. Take a moment to scroll through your document and spot-check a few changes to make sure they look correct. If something went wrong, press Ctrl+Z when ready to undo all the replacements at once.

If you used the single Replace button and changed text one instance at a time, you can still undo individual replacements by pressing Ctrl+Z, though you will undo them in reverse order (the last replacement first). For this reason, many writers prefer to use Replace All on a copy of the document when they are learning, so mistakes do not affect the original.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I search and replace across multiple documents at once?

Word's Find and Replace dialog works on one document at a time. To replace text in multiple documents, open each one and run Find and Replace separately, or use a macro if you are comfortable with Word's macro feature. Some users copy all their documents into a single file temporarily, perform the replacement, then split them back apart.

What does the "Find All" button do?

Clicking Find All highlights every instance of your search text in the document at once, without replacing anything. This is useful when you want to see how many times a word appears or visually inspect all matches before deciding whether to replace them. The status bar at the bottom tells you how many matches were found.

How do I search for a line break or paragraph mark?

Click More Options, then Special, and select Paragraph Mark. In the Find field, this appears as ^p. You can replace paragraph marks with other text or with a different number of paragraph marks to reformat spacing throughout your document.

Why did Replace All change text I did not expect?

This usually happens when your search term appears inside other words. For example, searching for "read" without Whole Words Only checked will match "thread," "already," and "bread." Always enable Whole Words Only when searching for common short words, or use Replace instead of Replace All to review each match first.

Can I replace text with nothing to delete it?

Yes. Leave the Replace field empty and click Replace All. This removes every instance of the search text from your document. This is a fast way to strip out unwanted characters, extra spaces, or repeated words throughout a long document.