Highlighting Found Text

When Wayne uses the Find feature of Word to locate text in his document, he can have it highlight all instances of whatever it is that he's searching for. This is great, but Wayne would like the highlighting to be permanent, so that it doesn't go away as he makes additional edits in the document. He wonders if there is a way to search for something and apply the highlighter to all instances of what is found.

This is actually easier to do than you might, at first, presume. You cannot do it, however, simply using the Find feature—you must use Find and Replace by following these steps:

1. Press Ctrl+H. Word displays the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
2. Click the More button, if it is available. Word expands the Find and Replace dialog box. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.

3. In the Find What box, enter the text you want to find and highlight.
4. In the Replace With box, enter ^&. This informs you Word that you want to replace whatever is found with whatever it is that you actually found (the contents of the Find What box).
5. With the insertion point still in the Replace With box, click the Format button. Word expands some options.
6. Click the Highlight option. The word "Highlight" should now appear under the Replace With box.
7. Click the Replace All button. Word makes all the changes, effectively adding a permanent highlight to everything you were searching for.
8. Click the Close button to dismiss the Find and Replace dialog box.

That's it; your highlighting is done. After these steps, the instances of what you searched for are probably highlighted in yellow. If you want a different highlight color, you might try changing the highlight color selected in the Highlight tool on the Home tab of the ribbon before going through the steps. (This may not have an effect on all versions of Word.)

It should also be noted that step 4 is technically optional—you don't need to place ^& in the Replace With box. You could, if desired, simply leave the box blank. I think it is a good "safety feature," however, to place the ^& code in the box, as this can help avoid any potential mistakes that will actually delete what you are searching for.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1270) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365.