Most savvy Word users already know how to use Word’s Find And Replace dialog box to locate instances of specific text or formatting. But you may not know that there’s something you can do to speed up your Find or Replace command before you even access this dialog box.

To accelerate your Find:

1. Select the word you wish to find.
2. Select Edit | Find from the menu bar, or press [Ctrl]F to open the Find tab of the Find And Replace dialog box.

Notice that the word you selected in step one appears in the Find What text box automatically. This process works the same for the Replace command, except, of course, you’ll select Edit | Replace or press [Ctrl]H in step 2.

Exceptions to the rule
This trick doesn’t work in certain situations. Here are tips for using it:

• Select only one word. If you select more than one word, Word won’t pull any of them into the Find What text box.
• Don’t select attached punctuation. You may select a comma alone, but you can’t select a comma or hyphen along with the word you select.
• Don’t select a space. Even if you select only a space, it will not display in the Find What text box.

Adapt for Word 2007
You can access the Find and Replace functions on the Home tab in Word 2007. Just look in the Editing group.

Filed under: Microsoft Office Tutor