Searching for ASCII and ANSI Characters

Summary: The Find and Replace feature in Word is very powerful. It even allows you to search for any ASCII or ANSI characters, by code. This tip explains how to enter those codes so the characters can be easily found. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.)

Word allows you to search for any ASCII or ANSI character. To search for ASCII characters, follow these steps:

Choose Find from the Edit menu, or press Ctrl+F. Word displays the Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
In the Find What box, enter the text for which you want to search. To search for an ASCII character, enter a carat (^) followed by the three numbers representing the ASCII value of the character. For instance, to search for an uppercase A, you could enter ^065.
Set other searching parameters, as desired.
Click on Find Next.

You can search for an ANSI character by following these steps:

Choose Find from the Edit menu, or press Ctrl+F.
In the Find What box, enter the text for which you want to search. To search for an ANSI character, enter a carat (^) followed by a zero and the three numbers representing the ANSI value of the character.
Set other searching parameters, as desired.
Click on Find Next.

Tip #19 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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Searching for ASCII and ANSI Characters