TechKnowSurge
CompTIA Tech+ 3.6
TechKnowSurge Catalog Videos DEMO: Find and Replace
VideoComputeFree

DEMO: Find and Replace

Find and Replace is a time-saving tool available across applications like Microsoft Word and Google Sheets, allowing users to locate specific text and swap it out individually or all at once.

⚑ Complete this video to capture a CTF flag worth 1 point.

About this video

Find and Replace is a fundamental text-management feature available across virtually every major productivity application, from word processors and spreadsheets to web browsers. At its most basic, the Find function lets users quickly locate any word, phrase, or string of characters within a document or page without manually scanning through the content. Triggering it is straightforward — the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F opens the search panel in most applications, providing instant access without navigating menus. The Replace function extends this capability by allowing users to substitute found text with new content, either one instance at a time or all at once using Replace All. In a word processor like Microsoft Word, this means a repeated term can be updated throughout an entire document in seconds. In Google Sheets, the tool offers additional precision through options such as case-sensitive matching, whole-cell content matching, and the ability to limit the search scope to a selected range, a single sheet, or all sheets in a workbook. These controls make Find and Replace a reliable tool for managing consistency and accuracy across large or complex files.

What you'll learn

What's covered

Find and Replace

Aligned to

CompTIA Tech+
3.6 Compare and contrast general application concepts and uses.

Key terms

Find
A function in productivity applications that locates specific text or data within a document, spreadsheet, or webpage.
Find and Replace
A function that searches for a specific word or phrase and substitutes it with new text, either selectively or all at once.
Replace All
An option within Find and Replace that simultaneously substitutes every instance of the search term throughout the document or selected scope.
Search Scope
A setting that defines the range of content searched, such as the current sheet, all sheets, or a specific cell range within a spreadsheet.
Match Case
A search option that restricts results to text matching the exact capitalization of the search term.

Topics

Find And Replace Microsoft Word Google Sheets Text Editing Productivity Applications Spreadsheets Word Processors

Transcript

Another thing that I use a lot is find, or find and replace. I use find and replace a lot on my documents, and I use find a lot when I'm surfing the web.

Now, I'm not going to go real in depth into this; it actually has quite a few features that we could use to really hone down and find exactly what we're looking for. I'm just going to do a really high overview of replace.

Find and replace in a Word document

I'm on a Word document here, and I can click on this find, or I can click on replace, depending on what I'm doing. If I'm just trying to find something on this document, that's obviously just a find. If I want to replace all instances of something, then I can hit this replace.

So for instance, let's say I want to replace these ones and I want to replace it maybe with a uno. Instead of using these buttons over here, I'm just going to hit Ctrl+F and it brings this up. It's the same thing. If I hit this over here, it brings up that same thing. In fact, if I hover across here, it says Ctrl+F. So there's the find, or I can hit the replace.

So I'm going to find, and I want to find all instances of one, and I am going to replace it with uno. And so then what I can do is I can start finding these and I'll scroll through. These arrows here will allow me to scroll through all instances of this. And then once I find one that I want to replace, I can replace it and then go to the next one, and whichever one I want, and then replace it. Or I could just hit replace all and it replaces everything all at once. And so now you can see all the ones are unos instead.

Find and replace in Google Sheets

Find and replace you'll find in a lot of different programs. Here we have Google Sheets right here. What I can do is I can select a range. In this case I'm going to hit the Ctrl+F here, and it's going to say, what do you want to find in the sheet? Well, I'm going to go to more options in this case. And what I'm going to do is find intro to applications, and we're going to call this instead intro to software.

And then, where do I want to search? I can search all of this sheet, so all of these tabs would be included in that, all sheets, or I could just do this sheet, or I could do a specific range. And so this specific range is selected right here. If I wanted to select a different range, I could click on here and it would allow me to select a different range. And then, do I want to match case with this, or do I want to match the entire cell content? So I've got extra options with this.

I'm just going to keep most of what I have right here and just say replace all. And now you can see that it replaces all of them. Now, I didn't want to make that change, so what I'm going to do is reverse this replace. Now of course I can do a control V and do the same thing, or just do this method. So at this point in time I will do a Ctrl+Z, and it's back to application.

Finding on a page

This is all of the videos that I'm creating for this course, and here's an example right here. If I want to Ctrl+F and just find something like TechKnowSurge, then it will allow me to find all the instances of TechKnowSurge.

About TechKnowSurge

TechKnowSurge builds IT and cybersecurity professionals through hands-on, concept-first training built around real understanding — not memorization. Free interactive tools, structured programs, and 25+ years of real-world experience, all in one place.

Explore free tools and programs →