It is common knowledge to regular users of Microsoft Word that it does a great job finding specific words or phrases that need to be edited or deleted. What they may not know is that this Find & Replace feature can do so much more!
For example, let’s assume that your document contains misaligned text; that is, some of it is center-aligned opposed to the default left alignment for paragraphed text. Ensuring you are at the top of the document (Ctrl + Home gets you there quick!), open the Find & Replace dialog box (Ctrl + H), click the More… button to open more advanced settings, click the Format button and select Paragraph (see below):
Ensuring you are in the Find What: text box, from the Format-Paragraph settings, on the Indents & Spacing tab, choose Centered from the Alignment dropdown. Click OK. Next, click in the Replace with: text box and from the Alignment dropdown choose Left. Click OK to set the changes. Click the Replace All button for Word to change every centered paragraph in the document to the default left alignment.
In the screenshot below, I have selected Find Next for Word to jump to the first occurrence of a misaligned paragraph. This gives you full control whether you want to Replace that one occurrence and find each one for verification. Of course, Word’s find and replace feature can take hours to master, here is one tidbit. To learn all about the Find & Replace feature, take our Word Level 2 course. 🙂
*Check out our next Tips & Tricks in September showcasing some essential Microsoft Excel commands!
