This tutorial shows how to find and replace font formatting in Microsoft Word.
Hello, my name is Erin.
Today we are going to look at how to find and replace font formatting in Microsoft Word.
Font formatting includes style, color, size, and underlining.
First, we will look at how to find and replace font formatting in the whole document.
Then, we will look at find and replace font formatting applied to specific text.
We will close with two important tips to consider as you find and replace your font formatting.
I will be using Word for Microsoft 365.
These steps also apply to the one-time-purchase versions of the software back to Word 2016.
We will cover this topic in Word for Mac in a separate tutorial.
For this example, I will be finding and replacing all bold text with regular text.
Please modify these steps according to your own needs.
To begin, select the Home tab in the ribbon.
Then, select Replace in the Editing group.
When the Find and Replace dialog box appears, insert your cursor into the Find What text box, but don’t type anything.
And then select the More button.
And from there, select All in the Search menu.
Followed by the Format button.
And Font from the drop-down menu.
When the Find Font dialog box appears, select Bold or another option from the Font Style menu.
Now, select the OK button.
The words Font: Bold should appear under the Find What text box.
Next, insert your cursor into the Replace With text box.
Reselect the Format button.
And Font from the drop-down menu.
When the Replace Font dialog box appears, select Regular or another option from the Font Style menu.
And once again select the OK button.
The words Font: Not Bold, Not Italic should appear under the Replace With text box.
Select the Replace All button to make all the replacements at once.
Or, select the Find Next and Replace buttons to make one replacement at a time.
If you selected Replace All as I have, select OK in the dialog box telling you how many replacements were made.
Finally, select the Close button.
For this example, we will find specific text formatted in red and replace that same text with green formatting.
Please modify these steps according to your own needs.
To begin, select the Home tab in the ribbon.
Followed by Replace in the Editing group.
When the Find and Replace dialog box appears,
type the text that you want to find into the Find What text box.
And then select the More button.
Followed by Format.
And Font.
Select red from the Font color menu in the Find Font box.
And then the OK button.
Next, type the same text, or different text if desired, into the Replace With text box.
And then reselect Format
And Font.
And this time select green from the Font color menu.
And then select the OK button.
Once again select the Replace All button to make all the replacements at once.
Or, use the Find Next and Replace buttons to make one replacement at a time.
If you selected Replace All,
select OK in the dialog box telling you how many replacements were made.
Finally, select the Close button to close the Find and Replace dialog box.
Finding and replacing font formatting can be messy.
Here are two tips to consider before your next formatting session.
When you add formatting to the Find and Replace dialog box,
Word will normally keep that selection in the dialog box until you close the software.
If you want to clear previously selected formatting from the Find and Replace dialog box before closing the software,
place your cursor in the affected text box
and then select the No Formatting button.
Occasionally, the formatting options entered into the Replace With text box
don’t replace the options in the Find What text box
Instead, they are added to the options in the Find What text box.
When this occurs, experiment with multiple replacement sequences to reach the formatting you need.
For example, if you put the bold format into the Find What text box
and put the italic format into the Replace With text box,
Word won’t replace the bold text with italics as you might expect.
Instead, it will add italics to the bold words.
But you can still remove the bold format if you do a second replacement sequence,
this time replacing the bold format with the Not Bold format option.
For more Microsoft Word tutorials, please see my playlist “How to Use Microsoft Word”
where you will find many related videos such as “How to Change the Font Style for Citations in Microsoft Word”
And, “How to Create a Custom Heading Style in Microsoft Word.”
All the resources mentioned today are linked in the description box below along with my website erinwrightwriting.com,
which shows all the steps we just performed with images.
Feel free to leave me a comment if there’s a specific topic that you would like me to talk about in the future.
And please subscribe to my channel so you don’t miss upcoming tutorials.
And give this video a thumbs-up if you found it helpful.
Thank you so much for watching!
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