Word with Screen Reader: Finding and Replacing Text

Hello, my name is Vikki Vaughan. Today we'll examine using shortcut commands to locate and replace text within a Microsoft Word document. Our task will include using Word's Find and Replace feature to locate, go to, and replace text.

Finding and replacing text is an invaluable skill that can help streamline the editing process. With a few simple keyboard commands, we can find all instances of a word, letter, or phrase, and easily replace them.

Let's open a Word document and try out these commands. To find text, we first need to identify the word or words that we need to locate. Our document, "Wilderness Value", is from the National Park Service. Let's use the word skies for our search. We press CTRL plus F to bring up the Navigation pane.

Screen Reader: Navigation tool bar, search document edit. Blank pane.

Vikki: This pane contains an edit field where we enter the text we wish to find. The edit field might be empty, or it might contain a highlighted word from a previous search. I will type in the word skies.

Screen Reader: S-K-I-E-S.

Vikki: Meanwhile in our document, the cursor has moved to the first occurrence of the text, and the word is highlighted, and our screen reader announces the word. Let's explore the Navigation pane. By tabbing through the controls we can explore the number of instances of the word in our document. We hear our word announced in context, as the screen reader announces the line and a portion of the next line in which the word appears. Let's do that now. I'll Tab through our controls to listen to our word in context.

Screen Reader: Tab control. Results Tab selected. Search results list. Grouping, result one of two button. We have taken. It is our frontier. Dark night skies are a wilderness characteristic. A part that. Result two of two, button. Park service preserving pristine night skies in National Parks and the wilderness ethic.

Vikki: In JAWS we press the Tab key to move to, and then spacebar to read each instance of the word in context. If there are no instances of our word, a dialog box appears and our screen reader announces no matches. At this point we press Escape to return to the document.

Screen Reader: Wilderness Value. Microsoft Word document, edit multi-line. Heading level one page one section one. Wilderness Value. Heading level three. We have taken. It is our frontier. Dark night skies.

Vikki: The navigation tool bar closes, and our focus is on our found word. To move between occurrences between the desired text, we press CTRL and page down, to move to the next result. And CTRL and page up, to move to the previous result. When the focus is on a result the text itself will be selected. I'll demonstrate by pressing CTRL and page down, to move to the next instance of the word.

Screen Reader: Heading level five page three link. Pristine night skies in National Parks.

Vikki: After the last result in our document, Word displays a dialog box which informs us that we are at the end of the document.

Screen Reader: Microsoft Word dialog. We've reached the end of the document. Do you want to continue searching from the beginning? Yes button Alt plus Y.

Vikki: We are then asked if we wish to continue searching from the beginning, and we can choose either yes or no. We press Y or the spacebar to select yes, and continue searching from the beginning of the document, or we can Tab to no, or press the letter N to end our search. Our selected words are still highlighted in our document. When we finish a task of locating a word, we use our arrow keys to un-select the highlighted words. I'll press the letter N to end our search, and the left arrow key to un-select the highlighted words.

Screen Reader: Wilderness Value word. Wilderness Value. Heading level five page three section one link.

Vikki: The Go To feature provides us a quick way to jump to a specific location within a document. The keyboard command of CTRL plus G opens the Find and Replace dialog box. And there we find three tabs, Find, Replace, and Go To.

Screen Reader: Find and Replace dialog enter plus N to move relative to the current location. Example plus four will move forward four items.

Vikki: CTRL plus G places us in the Go To tab. Here we find 13 elements from which we can choose, including Page, Field, and Heading. The default element is Page, and we initially land in the inter-page number edit field. To navigate to a specific page, we type in the number and press Enter. I'll do that now, I'll enter the number two in the edit field, followed by the Enter key.

Screen Reader: Two. Enter page number. Edit Alt plus E. Selected two.

Vikki: We then press the Escape key to close the dialog box, and our cursor will be at the top of the desired page.

Screen Reader: Wilderness Value Word. Wilderness Value. Microsoft Word document edit multi-line. Heading level four page two section one bullet. Untrammeled, unhindered and free of modern.

Vikki: When we wish to go to a specific location by another element, such as Heading, we Tab to the Go To What list, then use the Arrow keys, or first letter navigation to move by that desired element. I'll demonstrate that now by tabbing to the list and pressing the letter H for heading.

Screen Reader: Go To What list. Page H, heading.

Vikki: We then Tab to the inter-heading number edit field. Type in the desired heading number and press Enter. Let's navigate to the Heading two. I'll press Tab.

Screen Reader: Enter heading number.

Vikki: Type two.

Screen Reader: Two.

Vikki: And press enter.

Screen Reader: Two selected.

Vikki: We then press the Escape key to close the dialog box, and our cursor is at the beginning of the desired heading. I'll press Escape to exit find and replace.

Screen Reader: Wilderness Value Word. Wilderness Value. Microsoft Word document edit multi-line. Heading level two page one section one. By Neal Herbert, National Park Service.

Vikki: Often our goal in locating text is to replace it with another word or phrase. To find and replace text, we use the keyboard shortcut of CTRL plus H.

Screen Reader: Find and replace dialog.

Vikki: This command opens the same Find and Replace dialog box that we used in the Go To command. But this time the focus lands on the replace tab. Our cursor is in the Find What edit field, where we enter the word or phrase we wish to locate. Let's search for the word qualities in our document. I'll type in the word.

Screen Reader: Q-U-A-L-I-T-I-E-S.

Vikki: And then Tab to the Replace With edit field, and enter our new text. We'll replace the word qualities with the word traits.

Screen Reader: Replace With edit Alt plus I blank. T-R-A-I-T-S.

Vikki: We can refine our search by tabbing to our next control, More.

Screen Reader: More greater greater button Alt plus M.

Vikki: We open this control with spacebar.

Screen Reader: Space. Less less less button Alt plus L.

Vikki: The action expands a dialog box with various search options, such as matching case, upper or lower, finding whole words only, and matching prefix or suffix. These options are check boxes, and they are selected and un-selected with the spacebar. When we wish to have fewer choices, we select the Less button to exit these choices. The More control can be opened with the shortcut Alt plus M then closed with the shortcut of Alt plus L, for Less.

Screen Reader: Find What. Edit qualities Alt plus N. More greater greater button Alt plus M.

Vikki: Let's Tab to our next control, Replace.

Screen Reader: Replace button Alt plus R.

Vikki: This control commands Word to replace this one instance of the word qualities, with the word traits. We use the keyboard command of Alt plus R to replace the original text with the alternative text on this one occasion. Our next control, Replace All, replaces all occurrences of the word with our new word. We use the keyboard shortcut of Alt plus A to replace all occurrences within our document.

Screen Reader: Replace All button Alt plus A.

Vikki: This is particularly helpful when we have incorrectly written a proper name or term throughout the document, and we prefer to change these numerous typos with one simple command. Our next control is the Find Next button, which allows us to move between each instance of the word, until we come to the instance we want to update. The keyboard command is Alt plus F.

Screen Reader: Find Next button Alt plus F.

Vikki: Finally we have the Cancel button.

Screen Reader: Cancel button.

Vikki: Which when selected allows us to exit out of the Find and Replace dialog box without making any changes. Let's end this session by pressing Alt plus A, to replace all instances of our selected text with our new text.

Screen Reader: Microsoft Word dialog all done. We made two replacements. Okay button.

Vikki: Word informs us of the number of replacements that were made in our document. I'll press Escape to close this dialog box. With these helpful tips, we can use Windows shortcuts to find and replace text in our document. I'm Vikki Vaughan, and I thank you for joining me today.