In your table or text, do you want to replace one word with another (each time it occurs) or one formatting with another?

Use the Find and Replace feature. It can be accessed directly with the following keyboard shortcut.

CTRL + H

This feature can be used in Excel and Word with specificities for each application.

In Excel

From the following table, let‘s look at how it is possible to change:
  • The year 2022 in 2025
  • The orange background of the titles in blue

First of all, you can also find the Replace feature in the ribbon: in the Home menu, the Find & Select button opens a list where you will find Replace.

Which is the equivalent of the keyboard shortcut.

This opens the next window. You will notice that this is the same window as Search, but the 2nd tab.

In this window you will have to fill in what you are looking for and what you want to replace it with.

Replace text

In the Find what field we put 2022. In the Replace with field, we fill 2025. Then by clicking Replace All, Excel will replace all occurrences “2022“ with “2025“.

Replace format

In the Find and Replace window, if you click the Format button, you can choose to configure a Format or Choose it from a cell. So an eyedropper will appear and you just have to click on the cell.

In our example, we chose the format from the cell for the area we are looking for. And we‘re replacing the formatting with another fill color.

In Word

In Word, the feature is directly accessible from the Home menu.

The window that opens offers you to Find and replace only text.

But clicking More>> you get a lot more options, including Format (layout) and Special (symbols and different marks).

You will have to put the cursor in the Find what field and then specify a format or a special. Do the same with Replace with if you want to do a formatting override.