Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Searching for ASCII and ANSI Characters.

Searching for ASCII and ANSI Characters

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 8, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


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

  1. Choose Find from the Edit menu, or press Ctrl+F.
  2. 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.
  3. Set other searching parameters, as desired.
  4. Click on Find Next.

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

  1. Choose Find from the Edit menu, or press Ctrl+F.
  2. 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.
  3. Set other searching parameters, as desired.
  4. Click on Find Next.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (19) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Searching for ASCII and ANSI Characters.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Entering Regular Text in the Equation Editor

The Equation Editor is a great tool for designing and displaying all sorts of equations in a document. It is not very ...

Discover More

Seeing Full File Names in the Files Menu

Wouldn't it be great if you could look at the files in the MRU list and see the full path and file names? Excel condenses ...

Discover More

Figure Captions Change Incorrectly

Word allows you to easily add captions to your images. You may not always get what you expect, however, when you have ...

Discover More

Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!

More WordTips (menu)

Special Characters in Pattern Matching

The most powerful search engine in Word use pattern matching, but the way you specify special characters in a ...

Discover More

Searching for Optional Hyphens

If you have a document that contains optional hyphens (special characters that mark where a word can be split between ...

Discover More

Quick and Dirty Paragraph Count

Need to know how many paragraphs are in a document? You can use Word's Find and Replace feature to get a count quickly.

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 2 + 8?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.