Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Keeping a Replace Operation Displayed.

Keeping a Replace Operation Displayed

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 30, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365

When Sarra uses the Find and Replace feature in Word and clicks on the Replace button, Word makes the change and automatically moves to the next occurrence of whatever she is searching for. She would like the program to make the change and not move to the next occurrence, but keep visible where the change was made.

If you use the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box, then there is no way to do this; clicking the Replace button does the replace and automatically displays the next occurrence of whatever you are searching. There is, however, a rather simple workaround. Follow these general steps:

Copy the replacement text to the Clipboard.
Use Ctrl+F to find the first match, then press Esc to get rid of the dialog box. (What you were searching for should still be selected.)
Press Ctrl+V. Word replaces the selected text with the replacement text in the Clipboard.
Press Ctrl+Pg Dn.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 as many times as desired.

This isn't the only workaround, however. You can also follow these similar steps:

Copy the replacement text to the Clipboard.
Use Ctrl+F to find the first match, then press Esc to get rid of the dialog box. (What you were searching for should still be selected.)
Press Ctrl+V. Word replaces the selected text with the replacement text in the Clipboard.
Press Shift+F4 to repeat the last find operation.
Press F4 to repeat the last edit operation.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 as many times as desired.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10600) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Keeping a Replace Operation Displayed.

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. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Inserting Special Spaces

Do you need to frequently add en spaces and em spaces to your documents? You can add special tools to Word that make ...

Discover More

Printing to a PDF File in Windows 10

Want to easily create a PDF file from your favorite program? Windows 10 makes it easy with a built-in PDF printer driver. ...

Discover More

Multiple References to an Endnote

Adding endnotes in a document is easy in Word. If you want to create multiple references to a single endnote, you can do ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Changing Formatting for a Portion of Found Text

The Find and Replace capabilities of Word are quite powerful. If you want to change the formatting of just a part of text ...

Discover More

Counting a Particular Word

Need to know how many times a particular word appears in a document or a portion of a document? Here's a handy trick that ...

Discover More

Using Search Text in the Replacement

When you use the Find and Replace tool in Word, you may want to include what you searched for in the replacement text. ...

Discover More

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.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 9 - 7?

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 ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.