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You’re almost at the end of drafting your new client’s
contract when you realize that you used the registration symbol (®) throughout
the Microsoft Word document instead of the copyright symbol (©). You would
think you could simply go to Edit | Find and replace all instances of the ®
symbol with the © symbol; unfortunately, it’s not that easy.
The problem is that when the Find And Replace dialog box is
open, Word’s menus and toolbars are unavailable, making it difficult to find
and replace symbols in your document. And, you cannot use Insert | Symbol to
enter the actual symbols in the Find What: text box.
If a symbol has a shortcut key combination assigned to it,
you could enter the symbol’s shortcut key in the Find What:
text box but not all symbols are assigned a shortcut.
To work around this problem, follow these steps:
- With
the Find And Replace dialog box open, select the
Replace tab. - Select
an instance of the specific symbol in your document and press [Ctrl]C. - Put
your cursor in the Find What: text box and press [Ctrl]V. - Select
an instance of the symbol with which you want to replace the current
symbol and press [Ctrl]C. - Put
your cursor in the Replace With: text box and press [Ctrl]V. - Press
the Replace All button and close the dialog box when all the symbols have
been replaced.
This simple trick can save you loads of time when you need
to make a change to the symbols in your document.
