In this lesson
Replace two phrases, leave a protected heading unchanged and paste a sentence using the memo’s formatting.
Practice material
Start with the practice file. Open the worked answer after trying the exercise. CSV and text briefs are also available. All resources and import notes →
Example
An office move memo with inconsistent terminology
The office move memo uses both “office relocation” and “office move”. A paragraph pasted from email has a different font. Change the repeated phrase while leaving the project heading “Relocation Readiness” intact. Copy the downloaded memo and add the practice phrases if needed.
How it works
An edit affects the current selection. Select a word when you need one word, or a paragraph when you need the whole paragraph. The ¶ mark stores paragraph formatting; deleting it joins paragraphs and can change their appearance.
Find shows where text occurs. Replace changes it. Check a match in its sentence before replacing it: the same word may be part of a project name or quotation. Match case distinguishes “move date” from “Move Date”.
Steps
Save a copy as Move-Memo-Edit.docx. Add “The office relocation starts in October.” and “Office relocation needs a clear owner.”, plus the heading “Relocation Readiness”.
Turn on Home › Show/Hide ¶. Double-click a word, then select a paragraph. Copy a sentence and undo a deletion to see what each selection includes.
Use Ctrl+F to find “office relocation”. Read both matches in their sentences. Leave the “Relocation Readiness” heading alone.
Open Home › Replace. Find “office relocation” and replace it with “office move”. Leave Match case off for these two sentences. Use Find Next and Replace one match at a time.
Find “Relocation Readiness” again. It should be unchanged. For the later exercise, turn Match case on so “move date” and “Move Date” are treated differently.
Paste a paragraph from another document using Keep Text Only, then apply the memo’s paragraph style. This removes the source font and list formatting.
Run Review › Editor or Spelling & Grammar. Read suggestions before accepting them. Save a new version and compare the heading, two changed sentences and word count with the starting copy.
Try it yourself
- Add “move date”, “Move Date” and “removal date” to a paragraph. Turn on Match case and replace only “move date” with “relocation date”. Paste a sentence from another document using Keep Text Only.
Show expected result
- Both office-relocation phrases now read “office move”. The heading still reads “Relocation Readiness”.
- Only “move date” changes to “relocation date”; “Move Date” and “removal date” stay as written. The pasted sentence uses the memo’s formatting.
If something goes wrong
- “Move Date” changes along with “move date”.
- Undo the replacement. Turn on Match case and use Find Next to check the match before replacing it.
- A pasted paragraph has the wrong font or list numbering.
- Undo the paste and choose Keep Text Only. Apply the destination style. If two paragraphs joined, show ¶ and restore the missing paragraph break.
Quick check
Try these questions after the exercise. Check the result in your app before marking the lesson complete.
Choose an answer for all 3 questions to check your understanding.
Optional: try it with Copilot
If you have Copilot, try this after the exercise. Keep the original file and compare its suggestions with your own result.
List inconsistent terms in this memo, showing each phrase in its sentence. Suggest replacements while preserving project names and quotations. Leave me to approve each change.
More from Microsoft
These Microsoft guides cover the tools used in this lesson.
Loading your progress…