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: Copying Found Items to a New Document.

Copying Found Items to a New Document

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 2, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


1

Robert notes that Word allows him to locate and highlight all the instances of an item that he enters in the Find dialog box. He wonders if, from that point, there is some way he can select all the highlighted instances so that he can copy and paste them into a new document.

Copying individual items that are found is easy?all you need to do is have the source and target documents open, find what you want in the source document, copy it to the Clipboard, and then paste it into the target document. Copying a bunch of found items at once is a bit trickier, however. Here's how to do it:

  1. Make sure you have the source and target documents both open, with the source document active.
  2. Press Ctrl+F. Word displays the Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.

  4. In the Find What box enter what you want to search for.
  5. Set any other parameters you desire for your search.
  6. Make sure the Highlight All Items Found In check box is selected. (The drop-down list under the check box should be set to Main Document.)
  7. Click Find All. (If you don't see a Find All button, it means you didn't perform step 5.) Word selects all the matches it found.
  8. Click the title bar of your source document. This moves focus from the Find and Replace dialog box to the document itself, and all the selected items remain selected.
  9. Press Ctrl+C. This copies all the selected items to the Clipboard.
  10. Switch to the target document.
  11. Press Ctrl+V. Word pastes the Clipboard contents (all the matched information) into the target document.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (3850) 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: Copying Found Items to a New Document.

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

Creating a Plus/Minus Button

Want a quick way to convert positive values to negative and vice versa? You can create your own plus/minus button by ...

Discover More

Dates with Periods

You may want Excel to format your dates using a pattern it doesn't normally useâ€"such as using periods instead of ...

Discover More

Adjusting Formulas when Pasting

The Paste Special feature in Excel can be used to uniformly adjust values and formulas. This tip shows how powerful this ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 365 applications with VBA programming. Written in clear terms and understandable language, the book includes systematic tutorials and contains both intermediate and advanced content for experienced VB developers. Designed to be comprehensive, the book addresses not just one Office application, but the entire Office suite. Check out Mastering VBA for Microsoft Office 365 today!

More WordTips (menu)

Replacing Text with a Graphic

The Find and Replace feature in Word provides you with some powerful tools you can use to process a document. One such ...

Discover More

Finding Text Not Using a Particular Font

Word makes it easy to find text that uses a particular font or font characteristics. What it doesn't do is make it easy ...

Discover More

Keeping a Replace Operation Displayed

The Find and Replace tool is designed to help you find and replace information as quickly as possible. However, you may ...

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 two less than 6?

2023-01-25 13:54:54

Sarah

Thank you so much for this excellent tip—I have relied on it for a few months now for a project I am working on! For some reason, however, all of a sudden, whenever I paste the selections to a new document, it only pastes one letter per line. I have checked my columns and paragraph settings and am pasting using the "keep text only" feature, but I still can't get it to work. Do you have any suggestions?


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.