Use Find and Replace to swap one word for another

The fastest way to replace a word throughout your document is to open the Find and Replace dialog. Press Ctrl+H on Windows or Cmd+H on Mac. Type the word you want to find in the "Find what" field and the replacement word in the "Replace with" field, then click "Replace All" to change every instance at once.

This method works whether you need to change a single occurrence or hundreds. You can also replace part of a word—for example, typing "color" in the Find field and "colour" in the Replace field will change "color" to "colour" and "colorful" to "colourful" in one action.

Key Takeaways

  • Press Ctrl+H (Windows) or Cmd+H (Mac) to open Find and Replace, the quickest way to swap words throughout your document.
  • Type the word to find and the replacement word, then click "Replace All" to change every instance at once, or "Replace" to change one at a time.
  • Use "Match case" if you need to preserve capitalization, such as replacing "John" but not "john".
  • Click "More options" to access advanced settings like "Whole words only," which prevents replacing "cat" inside "catalog".
  • You can undo any replacement by pressing Ctrl+Z when ready after, even if you replaced all instances at once.

Step-by-step: Replace all instances of a word

Open your document and press Ctrl+H (Windows) or Cmd+H (Mac). The Find and Replace dialog will appear as a panel on the right side of your screen (Windows) or as a floating window (Mac).

Click in the "Find what" field and type the word you want to replace. For example, if you wrote "dog" throughout your document but want to change it to "puppy," type "dog" here. Then click in the "Replace with" field and type "puppy." Click the "Replace All" button. Word will replace every instance and show you how many replacements it made.

If you want to review each replacement before it happens, click "Replace" instead of "Replace All." Word will highlight the first match, and you can click "Replace" to change that one, "Replace All" to change the rest, or "Find Next" to skip it and move to the next match.

Avoid replacing the wrong words with "Whole words only"

By default, Find and Replace will replace your search word even if it appears inside another word. If you search for "cat" and click Replace All, it will change "cat" to your replacement word, but it will also change "cat" inside "catalog," "category," and "concatenate."

To prevent this, click "More options" (Windows) or the arrow icon (Mac) to expand the dialog. Check the box next to "Whole words only." Now the search will only match "cat" when it stands alone, surrounded by spaces or punctuation. This is the safest choice when you want to replace a specific word and nothing else.

Preserve capitalization with "Match case"

By default, Find and Replace ignores capitalization. If you search for "john" and replace it with "Jonathan," Word will change "john," "John," and "JOHN" all to "Jonathan"—losing the original capitalization.

To keep capitalization as it was, click "More options" to expand the dialog and check "Match case." Now the search will only find "john" in lowercase and leave "John" and "JOHN" untouched. If you want to replace both "John" and "john" with different versions, you will need to run Find and Replace twice—once for each case.

Replace part of a word or phrase

Find and Replace works on any text, not just whole words. You can replace part of a word, a phrase, or even punctuation. For example, you could replace all hyphens with em dashes, change "e-mail" to "email," or swap "Mr." for "Mister."

Type exactly what you want to find and what you want it to become. If you are replacing a phrase like "New York" with "NYC," type the full phrase in both fields. The same rules explore: use "Whole words only" if you want to avoid partial matches, and use "Match case" if capitalization matters.

Undo a replacement if you change your mind

If you click "Replace All" and when ready realize you made a mistake, press Ctrl+Z (Windows) or Cmd+Z (Mac) to undo the entire replacement. This works even if you replaced hundreds of instances. Word will restore your document to the state it was in before you opened Find and Replace.

If you wait and do other work before noticing the error, you can still undo, but you may undo other changes too. For this reason, it is a good habit to save your document before running "Replace All" on a large number of words, so you have a backup if something goes wrong.

Find and Replace with special characters or formatting

You can search for and replace special characters like paragraph marks, tabs, or line breaks. In the Find and Replace dialog, click "More options" and then "Special" (Windows) or look for the caret symbol (Mac). A menu will show codes for paragraph marks (^p), tabs (^t), and other invisible characters. Type the code in the Find field to search for that character.

You can also replace text and change its formatting at the same time. For example, you could find all instances of "Important" and replace them with "Important" in bold and red. Click "More options," then "Format" (Windows) or the formatting button (Mac), and choose the formatting you want the replacement text to have. This is useful when you want to standardize how certain words appear throughout your document.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I replace a word in only part of my document?

Yes. Select the text you want to search in before opening Find and Replace. Word will only search within your selection. If you do not select anything, it searches the entire document.

What does "Replace All" show me when it is done?

Word displays a message telling you how many replacements it made, such as "Search key replaced 12 times." If it says "Search key not found," the word you typed does not appear in your document or selection.

Can I search for a word and replace it with nothing?

Yes. Leave the "Replace with" field empty and click "Replace All." This will delete every instance of the word you searched for. Be careful with this—it is straightforward to delete something you meant to keep.

Does Find and Replace work in headers, footers, and text boxes?

Yes. Find and Replace searches the entire document, including headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes, and text boxes. If you want to search only the main body text, you will need to select just that area before opening Find and Replace.

What if I want to replace a word only the first time it appears?

Use "Replace" instead of "Replace All." Click "Replace" once to change the first instance, then close the dialog. If you want to replace only the second or third instance, click "Find Next" to skip ahead, then click "Replace."