Find and replace

Find and replace enables you to replace all occurrences of a word in a document with a different word.

To replace a word:

  1. Choose Find from the Edit menu, or press function key F4.
  2. The Find and replace dialogue box is displayed.
  3. Type the word you want to find into the top box. If you have a selection less than a paragraph it will appear in the box automatically.
  4. Choose the options you want in the dialogue box, if you want to alter the default settings, e.g. to search for parts of words.
  5. Click on the Replace button, if you want to replace the word you are looking for. Type the word you want to replace it with into the bottom box. Select the Copy capitals option if you want to replace like with like, so that occurrences of the word at the start of sentences will keep their initial capitalisation.
  6. Click the From top or From caret button. The next occurrence of the word will be found after the chosen point and, if you selected the Replace with option, a further dialogue box will appear.
  7. Choose one of the options to continue.

If you are simply finding a word, rather than replacing it, you will see the word highlighted in the text when it is found. To continue looking for further occurrences of the word, press function key F4.

To hunt for several occurrences of a word even if you don't actually want to replace it, select the Replace with option. This will display the Found dialogue box whenever the word is found, enabling you to hunt for the next occurrence. Remember to press Next rather than Replace, unless you type the word in as the word to replace as well as the word to find.

Finding special characters

There are some special characters which you can search for with Find and Replace.

^T will find any tabs in a document.

^R will find any internal returns (line breaks) within paragraphs.

^^ will find the ^ character.

You can use these character combinations in both the Find and Replace fields of the dialogue box.