Replacing without Automatically Finding

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 8, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365

Shlomit uses InDesign more than he uses Word, and some of the behavioral differences between the two are rather frustrating to him. For instance, in InDesign, Shlomit can use Find and Replace to replace something without automatically advancing to the next occurrence of what he is finding. This allows him to visually look at the replacement just made to make sure there are no problems. In Word, when he clicks Replace in the Find and Replace dialog box, Word makes the replacement, but automatically finds the next occurrence. So, if Shlomit wants to check what was just done, he has to go back (sometimes many pages) to find the replacement point. This is very frustrating to him, so he wonders if there is a way to make Word not do the next find after he clicks on Replace.

There is, unfortunately, no setting or way to do this in Word; the behavior is native to InDesign, but not to Word. There is a workaround, which may allow you to accomplish what you want, but it is clunky, at best.

Click Replace in the Find and Replace dialog box, as normal.
Immediately hit the Esc key, which closes the Find and Replace dialog box.
Press Shift+F5. This causes Word to return to the place where the previous edit was performed. (The place at which the replacement was made.)
Once you are satisfied with the replacement, press Ctrl+H, which again displays the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
Click Find Next.

This brings you to the next suggested replacement, where you can continue moving forward with your editing.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13580) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365.

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

Creating Add-Ins

Want to create your own add-in? Excel makes it easy to do. Here are all the steps you need.

Discover More

Inserting a Bullet

Need to place a bullet in the middle of a sentence? There are a couple of easy ways you can do this, as described in this ...

Discover More

Converting Words into Numbers

Sometimes you need to spell-out numbers in a document. When you have spelled-out numbers, at some point you might want to ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2021 or Microsoft 365. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word Step by Step today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Quick and Dirty Paragraph Count

Need to know how many paragraphs are in a document? You can use Word's Find and Replace feature to get a count quickly.

Discover More

Searching for Footnote and Endnote Marks

Do you want to quickly search for any footnote or endnote marks in your document? Word makes it easy using the Word's ...

Discover More

Special Differences when Searching

Word includes two different search engines. Which search engine you choose to use will dictate what Word shows as ...

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 7 - 4?

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.