Use Find/Replace to Make Document-Wide Revisions and Corrections

It is sometimes necessary to make a revision to a word, term, or phrase in a text that is already (or for the most part) completed. It is often necessary to make a text-wide correction to a word, term, or phrase in a text that has come from someone else. You may need to re-do a text for use as another text (such as revising a how-to manual for one procedure into a manual for a second procedure that is very similar to the first one). You can make almost “error-proof” corrections and revisions by learning to make the most of using Find/Replace (Search/Replace or Seek/Replace).

Depending on the software you are using, you need to locate the option for Find/Replace on your toolbar. It may be in the “Edit” drop-down menu, under Tools, or perhaps even Options. If you cannot locate the Find/Replace feature, then consult the user-manual for your software (most softwares provide a “Help” option or a “wizard” of some type that will allow you to search that software’s help manual).

To initiate a Find/Replace sweep, you need to be aware that doing a sweep without giving it some thought may actually introduce errors into the text. You need to be deliberate about what you enter into the “Find” field and what you enter into the “Replace” field. You need to take into consideration upper or lowercase letters, spacing, and punctuation. You should be able to choose specific options for Find/Replace, such as “Match Case” (which means that Find/Replace will replace a lowercase letter for an uppercase letter, or vice versa), “Whole Word” (which will only make a Find/Replace revision only if the “Find” locates a word, term, or phrase exactly as you have it entered into the Find field), and other advanced options. The options for “Match Case” and “Whole Word” are likely to be the options that you will use most often and, therefore, are the only options discussed in this tutorial.

If you are new to doing Find/Replace sweeps, then consider this simple example. In the text you are working on, a specific activity is described as Test A. At some point, a decision is made to revise Test A to Model 1. Rather than reading through the text, looking for each instance of Test A, you can perform a Find/Replace sweep to automatically revise all instances.

1. In the Find field, type: Test A (that is, type Test, hit the space bar, type A)
2. In the Replace field, type: Model 1 (that is, type Model, hit the space bar, type 1)
3. Be sure that there is no space after the A and 1 (unless you specifically want to include a space, but normally you do not want to inadvertently add spaces into the text).
4. To insure that the Find/Replace sweep maintains the upper case letters, be sure to check off the “Match Case” feature.
5. If you are confident that you have completed the Find and Replace fields appropriately, you can hit the “Replace all” button. The computer will automatically find Test A and replace it with Model 1 everywhere that Test A appears in the text.
6. If you are not confident about this, you can hit the “Find next” button. The cursor will jump to the next Test A that appears in the text. If you want to change that instance to Model 1, then hit just the “Replace” button. Now, click on “Find next” again, and repeat the process until you have swept through the entire text.
7. Remember also to try the word/term/phrase with a capital letter for the first word, in case it starts a sentence (if you are not already doing a Find/Replace for a word, term, or phrase that starts with a capital letter).

On the other hand, let’s say that you want to revise Test A to test A (that is, you decide to lowercase the “t” in “test”). Type Test A into the Find field, type test A into the Replace field, check off the option for “Match Case” and hit the Replace all button. It follows that you can do the reverse, and change test A to Test A.

Once you master the concept of using Find/Replace to make text-wide revisions or corrections, it will become a powerful tool. You can get very “creative” with what you find and how you replace it. Getting into more advanced Find/Replace sweeps, you can change text to italic, add bold, make a phrase hyphenated (or unhyphenated), etc. You can also change characters to symbols, or vice versa.

After you’ve been using Find/Replace sweeps successfully, you can learn to make revisions for situations in which different word forms are used in one sweep. For example, you determine that any instance of “intercontinental travel” should be “Intercontinental Travel” (uppercase letters I and T), for all forms of the word “travel” (travel, travels, traveled, traveling, travelers). Rather than making five separate Find/Replace sweeps, do this:

1. In the Find field, type: intercontinental trav
2. In the Replace field, type: Intercontinental Trav
3. Be sure to check off “Match Case” and also be sure not to check “Whole Words” (otherwise the process will only revise instances of trav to Trav, instead of looking for travel, travels, traveling, traveler, and travelers).
4. Hit Replace All, and any instance of the phrase “intercontinental trav” (regardless of the form of the root word “travel”) will be revised to “Intercontinental Trav” (that is, the text will now be revised to Intercontinental Travel, Intercontinental Travels, Intercontinental Traveled, Intercontinental Traveling, Intercontinental Traveler, and Intercontinental Travelers). This saves you from having to run five Find/Replace sweeps.

The use of Find/Replace can revise or correct a multitude of words, terms, phrases, font treatments (changing regular text to italic, adding bold, etc.). If you are new to using Find Replace, then I suggest that prior to attempting your first Find/Replace sweep, you first save the document as a new file (that is, do Save As and make a new copy of this file by changing the file name, such as revising the file name Procedure_Manual to Procedure_Manual_working for the new copy of the file). Do your first Find/Replace sweep. Skim through the text to determine that your Find/Replace sweep didn’t introduce an unintentional error (such as add an extra space between words). If you are satisfied that the Find/Replace was successful, then hit Save. Otherwise, hit Undo, and try again.

Remember that Find/Replace is a “dumb” feature. If you want to change US to U.S. (that is, add periods after the U and S), but don’t check off “Whole Words” as one of the Find/Replace options, then you are going to change a word like “adventurous” to “adventuroU.S.” (if it sounds like this specific example of a botched Find/Replace sweep is based on the personal experience of the author, then you would be right).

Start slowly with Find/Replace. Once you gain some confidence, get creative with how you utilize this handy tool. You’ll be amazed at just how powerful a tool this can be.

Looking for more timesaving typing shortcuts? If so, then you’ll be interested in these articles (also provided by Jan K., The Proofer):

• How to Use AutoCorrect
• Are You Typing the Same Thing Over and Over Again? Run a Macro!

Jan K., The Proofer is a freelance copyeditor and proofreader. Visit Jan’s Portal (http://www.jansportal.com) for more information about Jan's free crafts, recipes, tutorials, other resource sites, and free content articles, as well as Jan’s freelance proofreading business services. Be sure to visit Mom's Break (http://www.momsbreak.com/) for free printable crafts and projects. © Copyright 2005 to present. All rights reserved.