The Edit menu’s Find command lets you search through either an entire document file or the selected portion of the document file. (If you don't select some portion of the document file before choosing the command, the Office program assumes you want to search the entire Word document, active Excel worksheet, active PowerPoint slide, or active Access database object. To use the command, simply choose Edit | Find. When the Office program displays the Find or Find and Replace dialog box, follow these steps to describe what you're looking for and how you want the Office program to perform its search:
1. Use the Find What box to enter the word or phrase you're looking for or to activate the drop-down list to select a word or phrase from a previous search. In Figure 3-11, you can see how I have entered the word "Thorgmorton."
2. Use the Search drop-down list box to indicate whether you want to search the entire document, from the insertion point forward, or from the insertion point backward.
3. Check the Match Case box if case matters in your search. If you enter "Revenues" but don't want to find "revenues," for example, case matters, and you should mark the check box.
4. Check the Find Whole Words Only box if, in order to be considered a match, what you enter in the Find What text box can't be a fragment of a larger word.
5. Check the Use Wildcards box if you want to use wildcard symbols in your search: an asterisk to represent any set of characters or a question mark to represent any single character. Note that if you don't check the Use Wildcards box but you do use the asterisk or the question mark, Word assumes that these are actual characters you're looking for—not wildcard characters representing other characters or character strings.
The “Less” button shown in figure 11 is a toggle switch. When you first display the Find dialog box, it’s labeled “more,” and you click it to display the complete set of Find options. Then Word renames the button “Less,” and you click it to display only an abbreviated set of Find options.
TIP: If you want to look for special characters, such as those that don't actually appear on your keyboard, check the Use Wildcards box, click the Special button, and then choose the special character you want to find from the list that Word displays.
6. Check the Sounds Like box if you want to find words that are pronounced the same as what you enter in the Find What text box but that are spelled differently: there and their, to and too, and so forth.
7. Check the Find All Word Forms box if you want to find words that use the same root but may be formed differently. For example, if you're looking for the word "want," it may also make sense for you to find "wants" and "wanted."
8. If you want to find words or phrases that are formatted a certain way, click the Format button, choose one of the formatting categories from the menu that Word displays, and then use the dialog box that Word displays to describe the formatting you're looking for.
NOTE: If you later decide that you don't want to search for words or phrases that use formatting you've described in step 8, click the No Formatting button.
After you describe the search you want to make, click the Find Next button. The Office program selects the first occurrence it can find that matches the search string you've entered into the Find What text box, and then selects the word or phrase. To continue searching, click the Find Next button again. (The Office program leaves the Find dialog box open so you can do this.) If the Office program can't find a word or phrase like the one you're looking for, it displays a message box that alerts you to this fact.
The Replace command does everything that the Find command does—and goes one step further. It lets you replace the occurrences you find of a particular word or phrase with some new word or phrase. To use the Edit menu’s Replace command, first open the document you want to search and, if necessary, select the portion of the document file that you want to search so as to limit your find-and-replace operation. Then, choose Edit | Replace so that Word displays the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box, as shown in Figure 3-12. Follow these steps to describe what you're looking for and want to replace:
1. Use the Find What text box to specify the word or phrase you're looking for, the so-called search string.
2. Use the Replace With text box to specify the word or phrase you want to substitute for occurrences of the search string.
3. After you describe the substitution you want to make, click the Find Next button. The Office program selects the next occurrence of the word or phrase that matches your search instructions. If you want to replace that occurrence, click Replace. Otherwise, you can click Find Next again to identify the next occurrence of the search string. To continue the substitutions, click the Replace button again. (The Office program leaves the Replace dialog box open so you can do this.) To make all the substitutions at once, click the Replace All button. When Word is finished replacing all the words matching your search string, it reports how many substitutions were made. If Word can't find a word or phrase like the one you're looking for, it displays a message box that alerts you to this fact.