Microsoft Word is the most used word processor designed by Microsoft. Among the variety of features offered by MS Word, Find and Replace is a prominent feature where users can Find and Replace font formatting in Microsoft Word. It can be done by searching for specific formatting, such as bold/ italic/ underline; you can even change it to other formats. You can search and change character and paragraph formatting with Find and Replace. Word lets you find the next instance of text formatted in bold, etc. Read the article below to know how to do these easily when you have a lot of word pages to change the formatting.
How to Find the Next Instance of Text Formatted in Bold
MS Word’s Bold feature lets you bold the text to highlight it and make it stand out as important in the text written. Sometimes while reviewing text files, you want to go through all the headings or text put in bold to get the idea of what is written. You might think you would have to scroll down to the word document, but you could find the next instance of text formatted in bold by following the steps given below:
1. Select the Home Tab in the Ribbon.
2. Navigate to Editing section. Click on the drop-down arrow on editing to open further options.
3. Click on the drop-down arrow beside Find.
4. Click on Advanced Find.
5. Find and Replace window pops up. Click on More.
6. In the Find section, select the Format button, then Choose Font.
7. In the Font style section, select Bold and click OK.
8. Select the Find Next button to search the document for bold text.
The bold text will be highlighted in the document. Hence, this is how you can find the next instance of text formatted in bold.
Now you can easily navigate throught a long Word file and find all the things in Bold for easy access. If you want to search and replace instance of bold on the word document, select the Replace tab.
Also Read: How to Write Roman Letters in Word?
How to Search for Italics in Word
While reading through a long Word document, all you might need is a word or phrase. Most of the phrases are put in Italics to make them catchy and attractive for the reader to specifically focus on it. With the steps given below you will able to search for italics in Word:
1. Open the Word document that has the italicized words you want to find
2. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon
3. Navigate to Editing section.Click on the drop-down arrow on editing to open further options.
4. Click on the drop-down arrow beside Find.
5. Click on Advanced Find.
6. Find and Replace window pops up. Click on More
7. Click on the Format drop-down arrow and choose Font.
8. In the Font style section, select Italics and click OK.
9. Select the Find Next button to begin searching the document for Italicized text.
The Italicized text will be highlighted in the document
Also Read: How to Set Up 1 Inch Margin in MS Word?
What is Character Formatting?
Character formatting is basically how text is written it includes letters, numbers, punctuation, and symbols, it appears on the screen and in print. Character formatting lets you choose:
- Fonts
- Font sizes
- Outline
- Underlined
- Bold
- Italic
How to Find and Replace Character Formatting
If you want to search for a specific formatting and change it to another, for example you want to change all your Bold text to Italics. Follow the steps given below to find and replace character formatting:
1. Press Ctrl + H keys together to display the Find and Replace dialog box.
2. Click on More.
3. Click on the Format drop-down arrow.
4. Select a Font.
5. Select the Font style you want to find.
6. Next, click on OK
7. Click on Replace with box.
8. Click on Format and then select Font
9. Select the Font that will be used for replacement
10. Then, click on OK.
11. Click on Find Next and then click Replace for each occurrence. You can also select Click Replace All.
Note: If you are trying to replace bold with italics, this would add italics to the bold text.
12. If you now want to remove bold, ensure bold appears below Find What.
13. Click on the Replace with box
14. Click drop-down arrow beside Format and then select Font.
15. In the Font Style area, click No Bold.
16. Then, click on OK.
17. Click on Find Next and then click Replace All.
18. Click on Close.
How to Remove Character Formatting in Word
To remove character formatting in Word follow the steps mentioned below:
1. Press Ctrl + H keys simultaneously to open the Find and Replace dialog box.
2. Click on More.
3. Click on Format for the drop-down menu.
4. Select a Font.
5. Select the Font style you want to find, and Click OK.
6. Click on the Replace with box.
7. Click Format and select Font.
8. Select Regular in the Font Style area
9. Turn off any other formatting.
10. Click OK.
11. Click Find Next and then click Replace for each word/ phrase or click Replace All.
Also Read: How to Delete a Page in Word 2010
How to Clear Find and Replace Formatting from Past Searches
Even if you have wrongly formatted something, you can follow the steps below to clear Find and Replace formatting from previous searches:
1. Press Ctrl + H to display the Replace dialog box.
2. Click More
3. Click No Formatting at the bottom of the dialog box.
4. Click on the Replace With box.
5. Click No Formatting at the bottom of the dialog box.
How to Apply Find and Replace Formatting in Paragraph and Text?
Word allows use of Find and Replace to change paragraph formatting. For example, you may want to find every instance of a paragraph with a space before of 10 pt and a space after of 8 pt and change it to a space before of 9 pt and a space after of 7 pt. This type of formatting can be included in styles.
1. Press Ctrl + H keys simultaneously to display the Find and Replace dialog box.
2. Click on More.
3. Click on Format for the drop-down menu
4. Select the Paragraph.
5. Select the format you want to find.
Note: You can also enter specific amounts in this dialog box. Paragraph formatting includes alignment, indents, line spacing and space before and after.
6. Click OK.
7. Click on the Replace with box.
8. Click Format and then select Paragraph.
9. Select the Format you want to use as replacements. You can also enter specific amounts in this dialog box
10. Click OK.
11. Click Find Next and then click Replace for each occurrence or click Replace All.
12. Finally, click on Close.
For text formatting, the user can enter text in the Find what and Replace with boxes for finding text with specific formatting and replacing it.
Also Read: How to Insert Square Root Symbol in Word?
Scenarios to Use Find & Replace
There are many ways to use Find and Replace Font formatting in Microsoft Word, but knowing in what scenarios these formattings work the best is also important. It might make sense to apply formatting changes manually. For example, if you just need to change the color of the text, you can simply do this by selecting all (Ctrl + A keys) and then doing the necessary changes you want. Let us look at some scenarios where you can use find formatting in Word:
- To remove character formatting throughout the document such as every instance of bold.
Note: Character formatting includes any formatting in the Font group on the Home tab in the Ribbon or in the Font dialog box.
- To change every instance of one Font and change it to some other font.
- To find every instance of one color and change it to another color.
- To format specific text with consistent formatting. For example, formatting every instance of your name in bold and blue.
- To find and change paragraph formatting. For example, for every paragraph that is aligned to the left with single line spacing, you’d like to align to the right and change the line spacing to 1.15.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1. How do I find the instance of a word document?
Ans. Press Ctrl + F keys simultaneously on your keyboard. Click on the Search document box in the Navigation pane. Type the text you want to find. The search runs automatically and the results are highlighted in the document. The Navigation pane lists all instances of the Word.
Q2. How do I select all bold text in Word?
Ans. Press Ctrl + B keys together to bold the text. Click the Find In option and choose the Document. Word selects and highlights all the bold words and phrases in the document.
Q3. What is bold in MS Word ?
Ans. Bold/ bold face/ bold font is the darker text with thicker strokes to the letters. Bold text in a body paragraph helps emphasize a remark or comment. It makes the word/ phrase stand out in document. For example, bold text is written here.
Q4. How do you select multiple instances of the same Word?
Ans. To select items that are not next to each other, you need to select the first item that you want, then hold CTRL key and select the next item that you want.
Note: Be sure to press and hold CTRL key while you select the next item that you want to include in the selection.
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We hope that this article gives you a clear idea of how to change formatting in MS Word using the Find and Replace option. We have also detailed on how to find the next instance of text formatted in bold and search for italics in word document.
