Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 12, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365
When Peter wants to find a word at the end of a paragraph, he searches for XXX^p and replaces it with YYY^p. This doesn't, however, find words at the very end of table cells. He wonders how he can search and replace the words at the end of table cells and if there is a special code similar to ^p.
There is no special code similar to ^p (end of paragraph) to indicate the end of a cell. There is a trick you can try, however, that works well for many people.
First, create a unique paragraph style that you will use only for the contents of the cells in your table. Make sure you apply this style to all of the cells within the table. Next, use Find and Replace to search for the style. In the Replace With box, enter the code ^& followed by what you want to add to the end of the cell. Then, step through all occurrences and do your replacements, as desired. The ^& code specifies that you want to replace what you found (the text in the cells formatted with the unique style) with what you actually found.
If you want to replace a specific word in the table cells (XXX) with something new (YYY), you can follow the same steps as above, simply search for any occurrences of XXX using the unique table-cell style and replace it with YYY. You'll still want to step through the matches and determine if the replacement should be made on a case-by-case basis, but you will be able to make the changes in your table much quicker.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13571) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365.
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