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Find/highlight multiple instances of a word and retain selection while editing document

Anonymous
2017-03-21T12:58:16+00:00

Someone asked this question about Word 2003, and no one replied with an actual solution. I am having the same issue in Word 2016, maybe someone can help.

I want to find all instances of a term and edit them. I search for the term, and Word highlights/selects all of them in yellow. But once I start to edit the text, the highlighting/selection disappears, and I have to do the search again. Is there a way to retain the selection/highlighting while I edit the document?

I know I can use the 'find next' feature, but what I really want is to have all instances of this word highlighted visually so I can easily just choose all of them and apply my formatting/edits.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 435K Reputation points
    2017-03-21T13:57:37+00:00

    As far as the selection shading applied by the Find feature, no. However, one method that may serve your purpose is to use Edit> Find> Advanced Find & Replace... - the simple Find method won't work.

    On the Find page, check the box for Highlight all items found in: & be sure Main Document is specified, then click the Find All button. Close the dialog window if you wish, then use the Highlight Tool on the Home tab to apply the Highlight color of your choice.

    Another method of doing essentially the same thing:

    1. Choose your Highlight color on the Home tab
    2. Go to the Adv F&R dialog
    3. Click the Replace button
    4. Enter the Find what: term
    5. Click the Expander button 🔽 if necessary
    6. In the **Replace with:**field;
      • Open the Special dropdown to choose Find What Text [or just type ^& into the field]
      • From the Format dropdown select Highlight
    7. Click Replace All

    You can remove the individual instances of Highlighting as you work or once done you can just use Command+A to Select All, then go to the Highlight Tool & select No Color to remove all Highlighting.

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