Searching for Text With a Certain Format

Summary: The Find and Replace tool in Word is very powerful. You can use it to search not only for text but for the formatting that may be applied to text. This tip explains how you can search for just the formatting you need. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007.)

Word has a power search capability that you can use to search not only for text, but also for any formatting you have applied. To instance, you can search for specific character formats applied to your text by following these steps:

Press Ctrl+F. Word displays the Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
Click on the More button if it is available. Word displays an expanded version of the Find and Replace dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
Delete anything in the Find What box. Click on the No Formatting button if it is available.
Click on the Format button and then choose Font. Word displays the Find Font dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.) Notice that all the character attributes (Superscript, Subscript, and so on) in the Effects area are shaded. This means these attributes do not matter; they are ignored by Word when searching.
Select the character attributes you want the matched text to have. Make sure the check box beside the attribute is selected. It should have a check mark in it without any gray.
Click on OK.
Click on Find Next.

Tip #1817 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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