A library I used to work for had a very long domain name. When a shortened version of the library name became available as a domain, they jumped at the chance and rejoiced at their shortened URLs and email addresses. Then reality set in. Everywhere the old domain appeared in print and online, it needed to be changed to the new one.
Each document or spreadsheet could have many instances of the domain name. How would we find them all? One thing that helped make this job manageable was “find and replace.” This feature is available in Office and Google Suite apps and does just what the name implies. We typed in the old domain name and set it to replace every instance with the new domain name. It not only saved time, but it also saved our eyes from straining to find them all.
Find and Replace in Office
For this example, the screenshots are in Word. However, this feature is available in all Microsoft Office software. On the home tab, select “Replace” at the far right of the menu, in the editing section. As you can imagine, “find” only does the first part.
This opens a dialog box. In the “Find” field, enter the text to be changed. Then enter the new text in the “Replace” field.
If you need additional parameters, click “More >>” to reveal more options.
Make sure everything is spelled correctly, and then click on “replace all.” If you are concerned that you want to keep the original text for one or more instances, click “Find Next” to highlight the first instance. Then you can either click “Replace” to replace it or “Find Next” to skip that instance.
Find and Replace in Google Apps
Like Microsoft Office, Find and Replace is available in most Google apps. To use Find and Replace in Google Docs, Click “Edit” in the top menu and select “Find and Replace” at the bottom of the submenu. This dialog box is nearly identical, and it works in the same way. There is no “more” button, and the additional options are fewer:
Video Help
If you’d prefer to watch a video on this topic. Tech-Talk has included a video with their article on Find and Replace. To learn more about Tech-Talk, view our introductory post.
