Word offers two tools that every writer should know: FIND and FIND AND REPLACE. Each feature can improve the quality and efficiency of writing. Both are especially helpful during the editing/revision process.

FIND

One of my favorite ways of using the FIND feature is to type in each of the words we are encouraged to avoid in writing. FIND lists the number of times the particular word occurs and the exact location shown. Often, deleting the offending word makes stronger prose.

Examples of words and phrases that should be avoided are:

• felt
• just
• that
• very
• suddenly
• began to/started to
• there was or it is

Using the FIND feature will highlight which of these words you overuse. Once awareness is raised, it is much easier to avoid it in the future. (I’m trying to avoid “it is” and failing miserably!)

Multiple sites provide lists of words to avoid in writing. One such site is here. Many other lists are available.

Another way to use FIND is to locate a passage you know you wrote but cannot recall which chapter or page it is located on. As an example, you have a character riding on an escalator, but you decide you would rather have it be an elevator. Was it on page 37 or 67? Using FIND, you will quickly find each time “escalator” appears. You might also use the FIND AND REPLACE function.

FIND AND REPLACE

FIND AND REPLACE works great for making global changes. For instance, you decided to change the name of your fictional character from “Mark” to “Trent.” Using the FIND AND REPLACE feature you can find all the places “Mark” appears and replace them one at a time or do replace all for the global change. This works for individual words and for phrases.

Finally, one caution with using FIND AND REPLACE is to be careful to not make a global change that has unintended consequences. An example would be to make a global change for “OK” to “okay” without realizing that the letter combination of “ok” also appears in words (i.e., token, broken). Making the global change for that letter combination would result in misspelled words. So use caution!

Other WORD Tools

FIND and FIND AND REPLACE are two Word features that help a writer. There are others; some of these other features will be highlighted in future posts. This post ties into The Art and Business of Writing posted previously.