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SOLVED: How can I find and highlight all instances of a phrase in Microsoft Word?

JoannaG 40 Reputation points
2026-03-15T16:01:00.0233333+00:00

How can I find and highlight all instances of a phrase in Microsoft Word?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | MacOS
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  1. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 434.8K Reputation points
    2026-03-15T17:59:18.6133333+00:00

    The described procedure is needlessly complex.

    1. As suggested, use Edit> Find> Advanced Find & Replace in the main menu. (Be sure to notice the expand buttonUser's imagein the lower left corner of the dialog window if you wish to include options sch s Match Case.)
    2. Enter the phrase in the Find what field,
    3. Tick the Highlight all items found in: Main Document check box
    4. Click Find All.

    All matching items will be highlighted [selected] for the purpose of identification but no Text Highlighting Color will be applied. Click the Close button. The text will remain selected until you click somewhere in the body of the document,. If you actually do want to apply a Text Highlighting Color use the tool on the Home tab while the found content still is selected

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Answer accepted by question author
  1. EmilyS_726 16,210 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2026-03-15T17:02:36.08+00:00

    Hello

    The AI answer gives you the correct answer, sort of.. it left out a bit of details

    The replacement instruction itself is solid.

    But before you do that, you want to manually highlight the first phrase in the text with your highlight color selected, then follow the AI answer, it will highlight the rest. If you don't have the highligt color selected first, by default it is set to "no color", so the replacement will run through without any highlight.

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  1. JoannaG 40 Reputation points
    2026-03-16T15:25:51.21+00:00

    The AI answer contained incomplete instructions.

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  2. Q&A Assist
    2026-03-15T16:01:14.16+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    In Word for Mac, use Find and Replace with formatting to locate and highlight all instances of a phrase.

    1. Open the document in Word for macOS.
    2. Select Edit > Find > Advanced Find and Replace.
      • This opens the Find and Replace dialog box.
    3. In the Find what box, type the phrase to search for.
    4. If needed, select the arrow at the bottom of the dialog to show all options.
    5. Click Format at the bottom of the dialog, then choose Highlight.
      • This tells Word to search for the text (and optionally formatting) specified.
    6. Switch to the Replace tab at the top of the same dialog.
    7. In the Replace with box, type the same phrase (or leave it blank if only formatting is being applied), then click inside that box.
    8. Click Format again and choose Highlight so the replacement text will be highlighted.
    9. Select Replace All to highlight all instances of the phrase throughout the document.

    If only highlighting is needed (without changing the text), ensure the same phrase is in both Find what and Replace with, and apply Highlight formatting only via Format for the Replace with box.

    References:

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