Troubleshoot finding and replacing text or other items

Use the following tips to make sure you've correctly specified the search text or formatting. On the Edit menu, click Find or Replace, click More, and then specify the text or formatting in the Find what box.

• Type the search text correctly. Make sure you didn't mistype the text or add extra spaces before or after it.

• Specify the formatting correctly. If you want to remove the search formatting, click No Formatting.

• Don't select text before starting the search. Otherwise, Microsoft Word searches through only the selected text.

• Select All in the Search box. If you select Up or Down, Word searches through only the main document (not headers, footnotes, comments, and so on).

• Clear the Match case check box. If this check box is selected, Word finds only text with the specified capitalization (for example, if you search for "Most", Word won't find "most" or "MOST").

• Clear the Find whole words only check box. If this check box is selected, Word finds only complete words (for example, if you search for "enter", Word won't find "entertain").

• Clear the Use wildcards check box. If this check box is selected, Word interprets some characters (for example, "?") as wildcard characters.

Microsoft Word can't find or replace floating objects, WordArt text effects, watermarks, and drawing objects. However, if you change a floating object to an inline object, you can find and replace it.

To use wildcard characters, click Find or Replace on the Edit menu, click More, and then select the Use wildcards check box. If Microsoft Word doesn't find certain text, try the following solution:

• Specify the exact capitalization. When you use wildcards, the search text is case sensitive. For example, a search for s*t will find "sat" but not "Sat" or "SAT". If you want to search for any combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, use the square brackets wildcard. For example, type [Ss]*[Tt] to find "sat", "Sat", or "SAT".

When the Use wildcards check box is selected, Microsoft Word doesn't recognize the codes you enter in the Find what box for the following items: endnote and footnote marks, fields, paragraph marks, section breaks, or white space. To search for these items, you can type the following substitute codes in the Find what box. (Note that no substitute code is available for fields.)

To find a footnote mark or end note mark

Type ^2

Note that Word can't distinguish between footnote and endnote marks.

To find a paragraph mark

Type ^13

To find a section break

Type ^12

Word will search for manual page breaks as well as section breaks.

To find white space

Type space {1,}