Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 4, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
Word allows you to search not just for text, but also for special characters that normally do not print. One of these special characters is a marker indicating where a picture is inserted in your document. To search for graphics, follow these steps:
Figure 1. The expanded Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
Unfortunately, while you can search for graphics, you cannot easily replace one graphic with another. There is a way to work around this, however. You can replace one graphic with another by following these steps:
Figure 2. The expanded Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
If the graphic you copied in step 2 was originally inserted with the "Link to File" option selected, the graphic inserted by the replace command will also have this attribute. Likewise, if you resize the graphic before performing these steps, the graphic inserted by the replace command will retain the dimensions of the resized graphic.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13276) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Searching and Replacing Graphics.
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