It's worth a shot. Sure would be helpful if you decided to change a character's name. If not, I suppose I must go in chapter by chapter and change the MC's name from Lily to Emma.
Can you have one word in your entire document on MS word changed to another?
- Thread starter Marzipan
- Start date
CTRL-A to select all.
CTRL-F to find, then click on replace. In the top box put the word you want to change, in the lower, the word you want to change it to, then click 'replace all'.
CTRL-F to find, then click on replace. In the top box put the word you want to change, in the lower, the word you want to change it to, then click 'replace all'.
Ctrl + h will bring up the replace dialog box. You can enter the word you want to change, and the word you want to change it to in the appropriate box, and then click Replace All (which should un-grey itself as soon as you type something in the Find box).
- Joined
- May 11, 2007
- Messages
- 20,569
- Reaction score
- 4,814
- Location
- youtu.be/QRruBVFXjnY
- Website
- www.ifoundaknife.com
A WORD OF CAUTION:
Think about what you are replacing for a moment.
Example:
If you are replacing the word "place" with the word "town", and you have the word "fireplace" in your document, you may well end up having the non word "firetown" in your document.
You might want to include the spaces before and after the word in your "find & replace".
Think about what you are replacing for a moment.
Example:
If you are replacing the word "place" with the word "town", and you have the word "fireplace" in your document, you may well end up having the non word "firetown" in your document.
You might want to include the spaces before and after the word in your "find & replace".
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2005
- Messages
- 18,805
- Reaction score
- 4,600
- Location
- Caledonia
- Website
- derekpaterson.net
When using Find and Replace (Ctrl-H), remember to tick "Match case" (in Word 2000, this option is visible when you click on the "More" button when the Find and Replace window is visible).
-Derek
-Derek
Thank you everyone. I was 40k words into my story and realized that I had made a bad mistake in naming my character. This will help me out a lot. The good thing is that it's a name and I shouldn't have to many problems in replacing it.
Don't do what I did, though. I had a Christopher in a previous WIP and I changed his name to Alexander. Well, from Chris to Alex in some instances.
I ended up with characters exclaiming, "Jesus Alext!"
I ended up with characters exclaiming, "Jesus Alext!"
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2008
- Messages
- 13,979
- Reaction score
- 1,533
- Location
- Wisconsin's (sore) thumb
- Website
- www.firefromthesky.org
If you have no lilies of the flower kind, you should be safe.
Never mind Ctrl+A, it is irrelevant, not needed.
Save a backup copy. Re-open the original.
Now...I am assuming that whatever version of W___ you have has a normal replace dialog.
Ctrl+H should bring up the replace dialog. Type Lily in the "Find what:" field, and Emma in "Replace with:"
Below that, there is a button that says "More" -- click it. Check the "Match case" box, especially if you have any flower-lilies.
Click "Replace all".
Save.
Done.
If you are feeling too chicken, use "Find next" instead. Over and over and over and over.
Never mind Ctrl+A, it is irrelevant, not needed.
Save a backup copy. Re-open the original.
Now...I am assuming that whatever version of W___ you have has a normal replace dialog.
Ctrl+H should bring up the replace dialog. Type Lily in the "Find what:" field, and Emma in "Replace with:"
Below that, there is a button that says "More" -- click it. Check the "Match case" box, especially if you have any flower-lilies.
Click "Replace all".
Save.
Done.
If you are feeling too chicken, use "Find next" instead. Over and over and over and over.
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2006
- Messages
- 3,348
- Reaction score
- 854
- Age
- 67
- Location
- Ontario, Canader
- Website
- www.chumpletwrites.blogspot.com
I'd replace each instance one at a time. It might take a few more minutes but at least you'll see the word being replaced each time. That way you won't replace the wrong word.
Keep hitting "Find Next" and skip the ones you don't want to replace.
I have a big task ahead, eliminating the word "finally". It seems to occur a zillion times in my WIP.
Keep hitting "Find Next" and skip the ones you don't want to replace.
I have a big task ahead, eliminating the word "finally". It seems to occur a zillion times in my WIP.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2009
- Messages
- 145
- Reaction score
- 16
- Location
- Australia
- Website
- white-tean.livejournal.com
Oh gosh yes. I love Find+Replace, I had to use it just the other night on someone's writing I was readding where they'd typed -- in the place of proper Em Dashes, and it was very visible in the nice reading typeface I'd changed it into, as were the other erratic types of quotation marks. I would of course be careful with using it on actual words or risk monsterous creations like 'firetown' as in the example above.
Another thing no one's mentioned is select "Find whole words only." that will eliminate the "Firetown" problem.
Also make sure you have a space after the replaced word, otherwise your new word will connect to the following word.
Watch out for possessives and plurals.
It's much safer to replace the words one at a time, hitting the "Replace" button, each time you land on a found word. Unfortunately, the replace function happens so fast, you won't be able to see if it worked the way you wanted it to, unless you scroll back to where the old word was located, a difficult and time consuming task.
Also make sure you have a space after the replaced word, otherwise your new word will connect to the following word.
Watch out for possessives and plurals.
It's much safer to replace the words one at a time, hitting the "Replace" button, each time you land on a found word. Unfortunately, the replace function happens so fast, you won't be able to see if it worked the way you wanted it to, unless you scroll back to where the old word was located, a difficult and time consuming task.