# Finding and Replacing in Writer

/text/swriter/guide/finding.xhp
finding; text/text formats/styles/objects
replacing; text and text formats
styles;finding
searching, see also finding
text formats; finding
formats; finding and replacing
searching; formats
objects;finding by Navigator
Asian languages;search options
3. mw added 2 index entries and changed "finding;"
2. mw copied 6 index entries from shared/01/02100300.xhp. Then made one entry of two "finding;" entries, one entry of two "replacing;" entries and one entry of two "formats;" entries
1. mw copied 5 entries from shared/01/02100000.xhp and then made one entry of two "finding;" entries.
Finding and Replacing in Writer
In text documents you can find words, formatting, styles, and more. You can navigate from one result to the next, or you can highlight all results at once, then apply another format or replace the words by other text.
The Find & Replace dialog
To find text within the whole document, open the Find & Replace dialog without any active text selection. If you want to search only a part of your document, first select that part of text, then open the Find & Replace dialog.
To Find Text
- Choose Edit - Find & Replace to open the Find & Replace dialog.
- Enter the text to find in the Search for text box.
- Either click Find or Find All.
When you click Find, Writer will show you the next text that is equal to your entry. You can watch and edit the text, then click Find again to advance to the next found text.
If you closed the dialog, you can press a key combination (Ctrl+Shift+F) to find the next text without opening the dialog.
Alternatively, you can use the icons at the lower right of the document to navigate to the next text or to any other object in the document.
When you click Find All, Writer selects all text that is equal to your entry. Now you can for example set all found text to bold, or apply a character style to all at once.
To Replace Text
Unlike searching text, replacing text cannot be restricted to the current selection only.
- Choose Edit - Find & Replace to open the Find & Replace dialog.
- Enter the text to search in the Search for text box.
- Enter the text to replace the found text in the Replace with text box.
- Either click Replace or Replace All.
When you click Replace, Writer will search the whole document for the text in the Search for box, starting at the current cursor position. When text is found, Writer highlights the text and waits for your response. Click Replace to replace the highlighted text in the document with the text in the Replace with text box. Click Find to advance to the next found text without replacing the current selection.
When you click Replace All, Writer replaces all text that matches your entry.
To Find Styles
You want to find all text in your document to which a certain Paragraph Style is assigned, for example the "Heading 2" style.
- Choose Edit - Find & Replace to open the Find & Replace dialog.
- Click More Options to expand the dialog.
- Check Search for Styles.
  The Search for text box now is a list box, where you can select any of the Paragraph Styles that are applied in the current document.
- Select the style to search for, then click Find or Find All.
To Find Formats
You want to find all text in your document to which a certain direct character formatting is assigned.
Finding formats only finds direct character attributes, it does not find attributes applied as part of a style.
- Choose Edit - Find & Replace to open the Find & Replace dialog.
- Click More Options to expand the dialog.
- Click the Format button.
- Click Find or Find All.
More options
The similarity search can find text that is almost the same as your search text. You can set the number of characters that are allowed to differ.
Check the Similarity search option and optionally click the ... button to change the settings. (Setting all three numbers to 1 works fine for English text.)
When you have enabled Asian language support under %PRODUCTNAME - Preferences Tools - Options - Language Settings - Languages, the Find & Replace dialog offers options to search Asian text.
The Navigator
The Navigator is the main tool for finding and selecting objects. You can also use the Navigator to move and arrange chapters, providing an outline view to your document.
Choose View - Navigator to open the Navigator window.
Use the Navigator for inserting objects, links and references within the same document or from other open documents. See the Navigator guide for more information.
Click the icon with the blue circle at the bottom right part of your document to open the small Navigation window.
Use the small Navigation window to quickly jump to the next object or find the next text in your document.