How to Find and Replace Formatting in Microsoft Word

By looking for certain formatting, such as bold or italics, then converting it to another style, you may locate and change formatting in Word. You may alter the text and the formatting or even search for content with certain formatting. You may look for specific words and modify the layout of both characters and paragraphs with Find and Replace.

Find and Replace for specific characters

In the following situations, Find and Replace could be useful:

1. Remove all character formatting from your work, including all instances of bold. Any formatting in the Font group on the Home tab of the Ribbon or in the Font dialogue box is considered character formatting.
2. You wish to replace every occurrence of one typeface with a different one.
3. You wish to turn all occurrences of blue to green.
4. You wish to format a certain text consistently. For instance, you may style your business name in bold and blue anywhere it appears.
5. You wish to locate and modify the formatting of a paragraph. For each paragraph that is now oriented to the right and has single line spacing, for instance, you would want to modify the alignment to the left and the line spacing.

The Replace command may be found in the Editing group of the Ribbon's Home tab.

The extended Find and Replace dialogue box must be shown in order to carry out complex Find and Replace actions. To do this, click More.

If you're not happy with the outcomes of a Find and Replace job after closing the dialogue box, hit Ctrl + Z to undo and attempt the action again.

Find and Replace to search specifically for character formatting

You may need to repeat the search and replace method if you want to locate and replace a particular character formatting (such as changing italic to bold).

When editing character formatting in a Word document, you should:

1. Set the document's starting point for the cursor.
2. On the Ribbon, choose the Home tab.
3. Click Replace in the Editing group to bring up the Replace dialogue box. You may also use Ctrl + H to bring up the Replace dialogue box.
4. If more space is needed, click More to see the enlarged Find and Replace choices.
5. In the Find What box, click.
6. At the bottom of the dialogue box, click Format. There is a drop-down menu.
7. Choose a font. A dialogue box is shown.
8. Choose the format(s) you wish to search for (such as Italic in the Font Style area).
9. Select OK.
10. In the Replace with box, click.
11. Select Font after clicking Format.
12. Choose the replacement format you wish to use (such as Bold in the Font Style area).
13. Select OK.
14. After selecting Replace for each instance or Replace All, choose Find Next. This would add bold and preserve the italic if you were attempting to replace it with bold.
15. To remove the italics, make sure Italic is listed after Find What.
16. In the Replace with box, click.
17. Font may be chosen by selecting the arrow next to Format.
18. Select No Italic under Font Style.
19. Select OK.
20. After selecting Replace for each instance or Replace All, choose Find Next.
21. To close, click.

There should only be one search and replace task necessary if you wish to locate and change a font. You can locate a font colour (like blue) and swap it out for Automatic if you wish to find and delete a font colour.

Using Find and Replace, unformat characters in a Word document as follows:

Set the document's starting point for the cursor.

1. On the Ribbon, choose the Home tab.
2. Click Replace in the Editing group to bring up the Replace dialogue box. You may also use Ctrl + H to bring up the Replace dialogue box.
3. If more space is needed, click More to see the enlarged Find and Replace choices.
4. In the Find What box, click.
5. At the bottom of the dialogue box, click Format. There is a drop-down menu.
6. Choose a font. A dialogue box is shown.
7. Decide the format(s) you wish to look for.
8. Select OK.
9. In the Replace with box, click.
10. Select Font by clicking Format.
11. Disable any further formatting and choose Regular in the Font Style section.
12. Select OK.
13. After selecting Replace for each instance or Replace All, choose Find Next.
14. To close, click.

Not Bold, Not Italic, and Regular are among the formatting-removal choices available in the Replace Font dialogue box (the filled-in check boxes that appear are left alone):

Find and Replace previous searches' formatting

If you've already used find and replace with formatting, you should take those settings out if you wish to use them again.

The Find and Replace dialogue box's previous formatting may be deleted as follows:

1. On the Ribbon, choose the Home tab.
2. Click Replace in the Editing group to bring up the Replace dialogue box. You may also use Ctrl + H to bring up the Replace dialogue box.
3. If more space is needed, click More to see the enlarged Find and Replace choices.
4. In the Find What box, click.
5. Select No Formatting from the dialogue box's bottom.
6. In the Replace With box, click.
7. Select No Formatting from the dialogue box's bottom.
8. Move on to the subsequent Find and Replace job.