Resizing "Find and Replace" box

[Craig Harlan]

It's so much bigger than it needs to be, and so ungainly, it obscures so much
of the text, and it bounces around from one place on the screen to another.
I would like to make it smaller, more stationary, and off to the side of the
text. Is this possible?

 

[Stefan Blom]

The Find and Replace dialog box cannot be resized. What you can do is click
the Less button (if it shows) to hide the Search Options.

The moving around is supposed to be helpful: Word tries to move the dialog
box so that it shouldn't hide the text you are searching. Of course, it
would be more helpful if the dialog box was dockable.

 

[Craig Harlan]

Ah, yes. Wouldn't it be nice if we could downsize the thing and make it
dockable. But this tells me exactly what I wanted to know. Thank you Stefan
Blom.

 

[Cheryl Flanders]

You do not have to keep opening Find (Ctrl + F) to repeat a search.
Search once, then close the dialog box. Press Shift + F4 and Word
will perform a search for the word (or phrase) most recently entered
in Find without the dialog box obscuring your view.

Cheryl

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You can also use the Find Next/Find Previous buttons at the bottom of the
vertical scroll bar.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

You do not have to keep opening Find (Ctrl + F) to repeat a search.
Search once, then close the dialog box. Press Shift + F4 and Word
will perform a search for the word (or phrase) most recently entered
in Find without the dialog box obscuring your view.

Cheryl

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

If only there were a way to Replace with a shortcut after you use the
shortcuts (Ctrl-PgDn/PgUp might be easier to reach) to Find. There
isn't, is there?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

No, but I've often thought the same thing.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

If only there were a way to Replace with a shortcut after you use the
shortcuts (Ctrl-PgDn/PgUp might be easier to reach) to Find. There
isn't, is there?

 

[Craig Harlan]

Oh, this makes life easier. Thank you.
--
CH

You do not have to keep opening Find (Ctrl + F) to repeat a search.
Search once, then close the dialog box. Press Shift + F4 and Word
will perform a search for the word (or phrase) most recently entered
in Find without the dialog box obscuring your view.

Cheryl



.

 

[Craig Harlan]

Yes, that works. Thank you!
--
CH

You can also use the Find Next/Find Previous buttons at the bottom of the
vertical scroll bar.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

You do not have to keep opening Find (Ctrl + F) to repeat a search.
Search once, then close the dialog box. Press Shift + F4 and Word
will perform a search for the word (or phrase) most recently entered
in Find without the dialog box obscuring your view.

Cheryl




.

 

[Cheryl Flanders]

You can reassign default shortcuts to something easier to reach. You
can even change 3-key assignments to 2 keys. You just need to watch
the description portion of the dialog box closely when you press your
new keys so you are not wiping out another valued shortcut.

By the way, Shift + F4 also repeats the last GoTo search.

Once you use Ctrl + F to open the Find dialog box, Ctrl + PageUp/Down
no longer work as expected. You need to turn Find off by clicking the
silver button between the blue up/down arrows at the bottom of the
scroll bar and select Browse Next (Browse by Page in Word 2007). Or
you can press Alt + Ctrl + Home, then press Enter to accept the
default selection of Browse Next (or by Page). Since this turns Find
off completely, you would have to bring that dialog box up again and
search once before you can use Shift + F4 again. I have a separate
macro that does all of that in one fell swoop.

Cheryl

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

I could only find three two-key shortcuts that I knew I'd never use
and could profitably turn over to other functions -- I made Ctrl-\ and
Ctrl-| Accept and Reject Change respectively, and I used Ctrl-T to
call Graham's incredibly useful Transpose macro (btw it operates
noticeably more slowly in Windows 7 than in Vista, and I think the
Windows 7 processor is faster than the Vista one -- the computer is
several years newer).

It's _really_ annoying that the PageUp/Down buttons double as the
FindPrevious/Next buttons. (Is there a way to disable that?)

As long as I'm using a key combo or a click to do a FindPrevious/Next,
I wouldn't have occasion to open the Find panel again, so I don't see
that as a problem.

But won't Shift-F4 only FindNext, and not FindPrevious?

 

[Cheryl Flanders]

Shift + F4 is assigned to the RepeatFind command, which finds the next
word/phrase only. When you reach the end of the document, you are
presented with a message asking if you want to start again at the
beginning of the document. Pressing Enter will start the Find process
again. If you used Find to locate a word and you edited that word,
you would need to recreate a Find command to locate that edit.

There are no FindNext and FindPrevious commands. The BrowseNext and
BrowsePrevious commands are assigned to Ctrl PageUp/Down commands.
You can remove those shortcuts and assign Ctrl PageUp/Down to
GoToNextPage and GoToPreviousPage, which will automatically turn off
Find (if that was the previous command).

Pages are considered "objects" in Word. The Browse feature enables
you to navigate through your document by specific objects you can
select from the Browse Object menu (which always looks for the "next"
object). There are 12 objects that include the following: Go To,
Find, Edits, Heading, Graphic, Table, Field, Endnote, Footnote,
Comment, Section, and page.


Cheryl

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

Shift + F4 is assigned to the RepeatFind command, which finds the next
word/phrase only.  When you reach the end of the document, you are
presented with a message asking if you want to start again at the
beginning of the document.  Pressing Enter will start the Find process
again.  If you used Find to locate a word and you edited that word,
you would need to recreate a Find command to locate that edit.

That doesn't sound too useful.

There are no FindNext and FindPrevious commands.  The BrowseNext and
BrowsePrevious commands are assigned to Ctrl PageUp/Down commands.
You can remove those shortcuts and assign Ctrl PageUp/Down to
GoToNextPage and GoToPreviousPage, which will automatically turn off
Find (if that was the previous command).

What I want to detach the BrowseNext/Previous commands from is the
double-arrows below the vertical scroll bar. I often want to go to the
next page. I rarely want to find again something I was looking for
twenty pages ago.

Pages are considered "objects" in Word.  The Browse feature enables
you to navigate through your document by specific objects you can
select from the Browse Object menu (which always looks for the "next"
object).  There are 12 objects that include the following: Go To,
Find, Edits, Heading, Graphic, Table, Field, Endnote, Footnote,
Comment, Section, and page.

But the GoTo panel is much more useful for that -- and there are
specific buttons for most of those on the Ruler anyway (and any that I
would actually use, I have put on the QAT).

 

[Cheryl Flanders]

There are at least three ways to accomplish almost every task in
Word. I prefer keyboard shortcuts and rarely touch the mouse. I
don't even show the Ribbon. I have rarely-used tasks on the QAT so I
don't have to go searching for features when I need them. You pick
the most convenient method for the way you work. You just need to be
open to suggestions made by others because the easiest way for one
person does not mean it's the easiest way for another. Microsoft
can't possibly fill all of our individual wants and needs so you find
a workaround and be grateful when there is a workaround. And who
knows the workarounds better than the MVPs in this forum!

Cheryl