Lesson · 7 min

Using Find & Replace in PowerPoint

Learn how to quickly locate text in your presentation and replace it with new content using the Find and Replace tools.

By the end of this lesson you can

Find text across all slides in a presentation
Replace text throughout a deck
Use Replace Fonts to swap a typeface everywhere
Check that a replacement has not broken anything

Video

Watch the lesson video, then complete the reading and challenge.

Lesson Notes

Read through the key concepts before you try the challenge.

One command for a change that touches every slide

On the job

You update the orientation deck at Lakeside Medical Associates.

The practice changes its name. The old name appears on thirty-one of forty slides, including several inside diagrams. Slide by slide, this is half an hour and a guarantee of missing two.

Your task: Replace throughout the deck in one action, then verify the result.

Replace (Ctrl+H) works across every slide at once. Match case is available and worth using for a proper noun, so you change the practice name without touching an ordinary word that happens to contain the same letters.

Replace Fonts, on the Replace dropdown, swaps one typeface for another everywhere in the deck. It is the correct fix when you inherit a presentation using a font your machine does not have, and far faster than selecting text on every slide. Check the deck afterwards — different fonts have different widths, so text that fitted before may now overflow its placeholder.

Find and Replace does not reach text inside images or embedded objects. After a replacement, use Outline View to confirm the old text is gone from all the real text, and then look through the slides for any that appears in a picture or a screenshot.

Finding Text

The Find tool allows you to search for specific words or phrases within your presentation.

This is useful when working with presentations that contain many slides or repeated information.

To use Find, go to the Home tab and click the Find command in the Editing group.

The Find dialog box will appear where you can enter the word or phrase you want to locate.

Locating Text

After entering the search text, click Find Next to move through the presentation and locate each occurrence.

When PowerPoint finds the text, it will highlight the matching word or phrase on the slide.

Using Replace

The Replace feature allows you to search for text and replace it with different text automatically.

This tool is especially useful when you need to update names, dates, or repeated information across multiple slides.

To open Replace, click the Replace command in the Editing group on the Home tab.

The Replace dialog box allows you to enter both the text you want to find and the text you want to replace it with.

Replacing Text

Once the text is found, you can click Replace to change the highlighted occurrence.

If you want PowerPoint to replace every occurrence of the text in the presentation, click Replace All.

PowerPoint confirmation after replacing text

Completed Slide Example

After replacing the text, the updated content will appear throughout the presentation.

This allows you to quickly update repeated information without manually editing each slide.

Knowledge Check

Check your understanding

What is the main use of Replace in PowerPoint?

Practice File

Download this file and follow along with the lesson.

Find and Replace Practice File

Challenge

Apply what you've learned in this lesson.

Complete the following tasks using the presentation:

Open the presentation.
Use the Find command to search for the text '2015-2016'.
Use Replace to change it to '2016-2017'.
Click Replace All to update every occurrence.
Confirm the changes when PowerPoint displays the replacement message.

Final result of the Find and Replace challenge

Finished this lesson?

Progress is saved in this browser only. It is not a grade — official progress lives in Brightspace.

← Indents and Line Spacing Module 3: Slide Design & Themes →