- The Word Interface
- Entering Text
- Editing: Beyond the Basics
- Proofing Your Work
- Tracking Changes
- Printing Word Documents
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Editing: Beyond the Basics
Some basic editing techniques were discussed in Chapter 2. In this section, you’ll learn to search for and replace text, use Office’s AutoText feature to automatically enter text for you, and use smart buttons to speed common editing and formatting tasks.
Selecting Partial Words
If you find that you’re automatically selecting entire words when trying to select partial ones, the reason is that a Word Preferences setting is getting in the way.
You can change this setting by following these steps:
- Choose Word > Preferences.
- In the Word Preferences dialog box, click the Author and Proofing Tools : Edit icon.
- Remove the check mark from When selecting, automatically select entire word, and click OK.
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Finding and replacing text
You can instruct Word to search for and optionally replace words or phrases. For example, if you can’t remember the page on which you referred to Apple’s annual report, you could perform a find on the phrase annual report. Or suppose your company recently changed its name from Johnson Plumbing Supplies to Widgets Inc. Using the Replace command, you can replace every instance of the old name with the new one.
There are three ways to conduct a search in Word 2011: using the search box at the top of the document window, performing an Advanced Find and Replace in a dialog box, or performing a find or find/replace in the Search Pane of the Sidebar. See Table 4.3 for a list of special Find/Replace options.
Table 4.3 Special Find/Replace Options
|
Option |
Description |
|
Match case |
Finds words that contain the same combination of upper- and lowercase characters |
|
Find whole words only |
Finds only complete words (for example, “art” finds only “art,” not “artist”) |
|
Use wildcards |
Allows you to enter a code to specify a special character combination in search strings (for example, ? will match any single character) |
|
Sounds like |
Finds text that sounds like the search string |
|
Find all word forms |
Finds all variations of the chosen word (for example, “apple” and “apples”) |
To find text using the search box:
- Click in the search box, choose Edit > Find > Find, or press Command-F.
The cursor is positioned in the search box.
- Type a search string
.
As you type, Word highlights all matching instances in the document.
- Scroll through the document to find the match for which you’re searching or click the arrow icons to move from one match to the next.
- To end the search, click the Clear icon.
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To transition to a Search Pane find or a replace, choose a command from the search box’s drop-down menu 
.
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To find text using Advanced Find and Replace:
- Choose Edit > Find > Advanced Find and Replace.
The Find and Replace dialog box appears.
- Type a search string in the Find what box
.
- Do either of the following:
To find the next instance of the search string, click the Find Next button.
Word searches for the string, starting from the current text insertion mark.
- To find and highlight all matches
, click the Highlight all items found in check box, choose an option from its drop-down menu (such as Main Document), and click Find All.
- To search for the next occurrence of the text (when searching for individual instances), click Find Next. Repeat as necessary to find other matches.
- When you’re done searching, click the Cancel or Close button.
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To replace text using Advanced Find and Replace:
- Choose Edit > Find > Advanced Find and Replace.
The Find and Replace dialog box appears
.
- Click the Replace tab, and type a search string in the Find what box and a replacement string in the Replace with box
.
- Click the Find Next button.
Word searches for the text. If a match is found, it’s highlighted in the document.
- Do one of the following:
- Click Replace to replace the text and search for the next instance, if any.
- Click Find Next to ignore this instance and search for the next occurrence.
- Click Replace All to simultaneously replace all matches.
- Repeat step 4 until you’re done or until Word has finished searching.
- Click Cancel or Close to dismiss the dialog box.
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When performing a find or find/replace, you can repeat a recent search by clicking the arrow to the right of the Find what text box 
. Search terms you’ve previously used appear in a drop-down list. The arrow to the right of Replace with provides a list of the recently used replacement text strings.
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Click the triangle in the bottom-left corner of the Find and Replace dialog box to display additional search options 
. For instance, finds are normally case-insensitive. To find terms that match a specific capitalization, click the Match case
check box. To hide the extra search options, click the triangle again.
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To specify a search direction (down, up, or all) or to search all open documents rather than just the active one, choose an
option from the drop-down menu at the top of the expanded search options 
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You can also base a search on a font, effect, or style by choosing options from the Format drop-down menu 
. For example, you could replace all instances of Helvetica text with Arial by specifying the fonts and leaving the Find what
and Replace with boxes empty. To later clear formatting from the find or replace criteria, click the No Formatting button.
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To include a special character (such as a tab or paragraph mark) in a search string, choose a character from the Special menu 
. The symbol for the character is automatically added to the search string, such as ^t for a tab.
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To find text using the Search Pane:
- Open the Search Pane by doing one of the following:
- Choose View > Sidebar > Search Pane.
- Choose Search Pane from the Sidebar icon on the Standard toolbar.
- If the Sidebar is already open, click the Find and Replace tab above it.
- Expand the search area by clicking the triangle beside Find and Replace
.
- Type a search string in the Find box.
As you type, Word lists matches in the Search Pane and highlights them in the document.
- Optional: To insert a special character into the search string (such as a tab or wildcard), choose it from the Find box’s menu
.
- Optional: Choose additional search criteria from the drop-down menu
.
- To go to a match, do any of the following:
- To jump to a specific match, click the match text in the Search Pane.
- To review all matches in order from the text insertion mark, repeatedly click the Find button.
- To randomly review the matches, manually scroll the document.
- To end the search, click the Sidebar’s close icon
.
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To replace text using the Search Pane:
- Perform steps 1–5 of “To find text using the Search Pane,” earlier in this section.
- Enter a replacement text string in the Replace box . Note that you can insert special characters in the replacement string in the same manner as with the find string
.
- Do one of the following:
- Step through the matches. To find the first match (searching from the text insertion mark), click Find. If the instance is one that you want to replace, click Replace. Word replaces the text and moves to the next match.
- Replace a particular instance. Click the instance in the Matches section of the Search Pane and click Replace.
- Replace all instances. Click Replace All to simultaneously replace all matches with the replacement text.
- When you’re finished, click the Sidebar’s close icon .
Automatically entering text
The AutoText feature is designed to help you avoid repetitive typing. AutoText lets you quickly insert any amount of frequently used text into a document—from one word to multiple paragraphs.
To create an AutoText entry:
- In the active document, select the text from which you want to create an AutoText entry.
The selected text must consist of at least five characters.
- Choose Insert > AutoText > New.
The Create New AutoText dialog box appears and suggests a name
.
- Optional: Edit the suggested name.
If you want to be able to insert the entry using AutoComplete, make sure that the name contains at least four characters.
- Click OK to add the text to the list of available AutoText entries.
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To insert an AutoText entry:
As you type, Word watches for the name of an AutoText entry. When it detects one, a yellow box containing the AutoText entry’s name appears 
. Do one of the following:
- To accept the AutoText replacement, press Return or Enter.
- To ignore the proposed AutoText replacement, continue typing.
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To delete an AutoText entry, choose Insert > AutoText > AutoText. On the AutoText tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box 
, select the entry in the list box and click Delete.
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You can insert an AutoText entry into the current document by selecting the entry from the list box 
and clicking Insert.
Working with smart buttons
To make certain edits more flexible, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint provide smart buttons. A smart button is a pop-up icon that displays a menu of options when clicked. There are two types of smart buttons: AutoCorrect Options and Paste Options.
The Replace list of words, phrases, and symbols in the AutoCorrect dialog box 
determines which text will automatically be substituted for other text as you type. For instance, if you type (c), a copyright symbol (©) is substituted. Common typos, such as ones caused by transposing letters, are also corrected. After
an autocorrection occurs, you can click the AutoCorrect Options button to modify the correction.
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Paste Option buttons are immediately available after pasting or using drag and drop. You can specify that the pasted or dropped text keep its original formatting or that it adopt the formatting of surrounding text.
To use an AutoCorrect Options button:
- After an autocorrection, move the cursor over the corrected text.
A blue underline appears under the text.
- Move the cursor over the blue underline to reveal the AutoCorrect Options button, and click the button to open the menu
.
- Do one of the following:
- Choose Undo or Change back to restore the original, uncorrected text.
- Choose Stop Automatically Correcting condition to prevent future instances from being corrected and to delete the item from the Replace list.
- Choose Control AutoCorrect Options to change your AutoCorrect settings.
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To use a Paste Options button:
- Immediately after most paste or drag-and-drop operations, a Paste Options button appears
.
- Click the button to reveal its menu, and choose one of the following:
- Keep Source Formatting. Keep the original formatting for the pasted or dropped text.
- Match Destination Formatting. Make the pasted text match the formatting of surrounding text.
- Keep Text Only. Strip the formatting from the pasted or dropped text. (For instance, red italicized text would be reduced to plain black text.)
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Paste Options buttons can be a nuisance. To disable them, choose Word > Preferences, and click the Author and Proofing Tools
: Edit icon. In the Edit dialog box, remove the check mark from Show Paste Options buttons 
and click OK.
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