Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 21, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021
Eppa needs to replace a company name in a document. The name appears throughout the document, and also in the header and footer. The document has multiple sections. Eppa can use Find and Replace to replace within the document itself, but it won't make replacements in the headers and footers for some reason. So, Eppa wonders if there is some setting that will cause Find and Replace to make the necessary replacements in the header and footer at the same time it does so in the document.
This is a more involved question that it may, at first, appear. Using Word on a Microsoft 365 installation, doing a simple text replacement using Find and Replace did exactly what Eppa wanted—it replaced the text in the main document and in the headers and footers.
If Word does not replace in the headers and footers for some reason, then there is a two-pass approach you can try out. Let's say that your document has an old company name ("Harris Electric") and that you want to replace that with a new company name ("Davis Services"). Follow these steps:
If you need to replace the company name in a lot of documents, then it may be better to use a macro. Here's an example of a macro that will make replacements in the main document and then in each header and footer in all the sections of the document:
Sub ReplaceInHeadersFooters() Dim sec As Section Dim hdr As HeaderFooter Dim ftr As HeaderFooter Dim rng As Range Dim findText As String Dim replaceText As String Dim StartMsg1 As String Dim StartMsg2 As String Dim EndMsg As String ' Set initial information StartMsg1 = "Enter the text to find:" StartMsg2 = "Enter the replacement text:" EndMsg = "Replacement completed in document, headers, and footers!" ' Set the text to find and replace findText = InputBox(StartMsg1, "Find Text") replaceText = InputBox(StartMsg2, "Replace Text") ' Replace in main document body Selection.HomeKey wdStory With Selection.Find .Text = findText .Replacement.Text = replaceText .Forward = True .Wrap = wdFindContinue End With Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll ' Replace in headers and footers for each section For Each sec In ActiveDocument.Sections ' Loop through headers For Each hdr In sec.Headers If hdr.Exists Then Set rng = hdr.Range With rng.Find .Text = findText .Replacement.Text = replaceText .Forward = True .Wrap = wdFindContinue .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll End With End If Next ' Loop through footers For Each ftr In sec.Footers If ftr.Exists Then Set rng = ftr.Range With rng.Find .Text = findText .Replacement.Text = replaceText .Forward = True .Wrap = wdFindContinue .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll End With End If Next Next MsgBox EndMsg, vbInformation End Sub
Run the document and you can enter what you want to find and what you want to replace it with. If you need the finding and replacing to be case sensitive, then add the following to each iteration of the Find and Replace, just before the setting of the .Forward property:
.MatchCase = True
Note:
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2024-12-23 15:28:22
Kevin Swan
I'm not sure if this still works but I seem to remember that if you do a Ctrl-A (Select All) and then do the Find & Replace, it does the main document and the headers and footers. It might only work in draft view mode?
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