How to search for acronyms in a Word document

There’s nothing worse than seeing acronyms you don’t understand used in Word documents, and trying to find out what they mean. In this article, we’ll explain how to search in a Word document and how to use the FIND function to find abbreviations you don’t know the meaning of.

Open Microsoft Word

When you are searching through a text document in Microsoft Word, there is an easy way to find any acronyms you may have forgotten. To find any acronym, type your term into the Find box at the top of the page and hit enter. This will bring up all of the instances that you have written that particular word throughout your document.

Go to the Search tab

Click the arrow in the Search tab and type acronym or initialism (whatever you’re looking for) in the search bar. If you know the first letter of your acronym, start your search with that letter. If not, just start typing it and see what comes up.

Click on Special

The word comes with a great feature that makes it easy to find what you’re looking for: Quick Parts. Here’s how to use them:

*Right-click on the Find button, then select Special. *Find and click on the Quick Parts option. *In the window that pops up, use the keyword box on the left to enter what you’re looking for. Hit enter or go to Add new entry, and voila!

Check Acronym

1. Click the Find icon on the menu bar at the top of your screen.
2. Type in the acronym you’re looking for into the Find what box, and press enter.
3. You should now see all of the places that term was used, including with letters and numbers (if applicable).

Type what you are looking for into the field

1. Type Ctrl+F on your keyboard.
2. Select Find.
3. A small window will appear and you can type the abbreviation of the acronym you are looking for, such as DPS (Department of Public Safety).
4. Click the Go button.
5. The page will be scanned and highlighted if it is found on that page, so press Ctrl+F again if necessary to find it in another area of the page.

Click Ok

1. Select the Edit tab in your toolbar at the top of your screen and select Find & Replace.
2. Type acronym into the Search field, then press find next to it.
3. It should bring up various documents with acronym in them. Scroll through the list of titles and click on one that seems relevant enough to work with (e.g., an acronym list).