Quick answer: Press Ctrl + H on Windows or Cmd + Shift + H on Mac to open Find and Replace in Google Docs. Type the word you want to find and the replacement, then click Replace all. To search without replacing, use Ctrl + F (Windows) or Cmd + F (Mac).
That works for most cases. The rest of this guide covers the mobile workflow and the regex tricks most people never learn. It also covers the common mistakes that turn a 30-second edit into an hour of damage control.
Table of Contents
Find and Replace shortcuts by device
Bookmark this. The shortcuts split between Find (search only) and Find and Replace (search plus edit), and they differ between Windows and Mac.
| Device | Find only | Find and Replace |
|---|---|---|
| Windows desktop | Ctrl + F | Ctrl + H |
| Mac desktop | Cmd + F | Cmd + Shift + H |
| Chromebook | Ctrl + F | Ctrl + H |
| Android app | Tap menu, then Find and replace | Tap menu, then Find and replace, then options menu |
| iPhone / iPad app | Tap menu, then Find and replace | Tap menu, then Find and replace, then options menu |
How to find and replace in Google Docs on desktop
Open the document. Press Ctrl + H (Windows) or Cmd + Shift + H (Mac). The Find and Replace dialog opens in the middle of the screen.
- In the Find field, type the word or phrase you want to locate. Every match is highlighted in the document.
- Use the Previous and Next buttons to step through the matches one at a time.
- In the Replace with field, type the replacement text.
- Click Replace to swap one match at a time, or Replace all to swap every match at once.
Three options sit below the input fields. Match case makes the search case-sensitive, so “Hare” will not match “hare.” Match using regular expressions turns the Find field into a regex parser. Ignore Latin diacritics treats accented characters as plain ones, so “cafรฉ” and “cafe” both match.
How to search Google Docs without replacing
Sometimes you just need to find something. You do not need to change it. Use Ctrl + F on Windows or Cmd + F on Mac.
This opens a small search bar in the upper right corner of the document. Type the word, and Google Docs jumps to the first match and highlights every other instance. Use the up and down arrows to navigate.
The Find bar is faster than the Find and Replace dialog when you only need to locate something. The dialog is the right tool when you know an edit is coming.
How to find and replace in Google Docs on mobile
The mobile workflow is shorter than the desktop version because there is no keyboard shortcut. The good news is the steps are nearly identical between Android and iOS.
Android
- Open the document in the Google Docs app.
- Tap the vertical ellipsis (three dots) in the top right.
- Tap Find and replace. A search bar appears at the top of the screen.
- Type the word you want to find. Matches are highlighted in the document. Use the arrows beside the search bar to step through them.
- To replace, tap the vertical ellipsis again, then choose Replace or Replace all. A second text field appears.
- Type the replacement, then tap the button beside the field to apply.
iPhone and iPad
- Open the document in the Google Docs app.
- Tap the vertical ellipsis in the top right. A side panel slides out.
- Tap Find and replace. A search bar appears at the top.
- Type the word you want to find. Use the up and down arrows to step through matches.
- Type the replacement in the field above the keyboard, then tap Replace or Replace all.
- Tap the X in the top left to return to the document.
Regex in Google Docs Find and Replace
Most people never check the Match using regular expressions box. They should. Regex turns Find and Replace from a word-swapper into a real text-cleaning tool. It uses the RE2 syntax, which is the same engine Google uses across its products.
Here are the regex patterns that come up most often in real document editing.
| Pattern | What it matches | Common use case |
|---|---|---|
\s+ |
One or more whitespace characters | Collapse double spaces back to single spaces |
(two spaces) |
Exactly two spaces | Same as above, simpler version |
[a-zA-Z0-9._%-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,} |
Any email address | Strip emails from a draft before sharing |
\d{3}[-.\s]?\d{3}[-.\s]?\d{4} |
US phone number in common formats | Find or redact phone numbers |
\b[A-Z][a-z]+\b |
Words that start with a capital letter | Audit proper nouns in a long document |
https?://\S+ |
Any URL | Find every link in the document |
\b\w{15,}\b |
Words with 15 or more letters | Spot accidental run-on text or OCR errors |
To use any of these, paste the pattern into the Find field and check Match using regular expressions. To delete every match, leave the Replace with field empty and click Replace all.
One catch: the capture group syntax (using $1 in the Replace field to reuse parts of a match) only works in Google Sheets, not Google Docs. If you need that, copy the text into a Sheet, run the regex, and paste it back.
Real uses for Find and Replace
The Hare-and-Tortoise example is fine for a tutorial. The cases below are what people actually use Find and Replace for in real document work.
Renaming a character across a manuscript. Find the old name, replace with the new one. Always run with Match case on. Otherwise replacing “Sam” with “Alex” will also rewrite “same” as “alexe” and “samurai” as “alexurai.” That is the single most common Find and Replace disaster.
Fixing a misspelled brand name across a long report. Same logic. Match case on, and step through with Replace instead of Replace all the first time, just to confirm you are catching what you think you are catching.
Stripping double spaces. Find two spaces, replace with one space. Run it twice to catch any triple spaces that collapsed into a double on the first pass.
Standardizing a date format. If your draft mixes “Jan 5, 2026” and “January 5, 2026,” use Find and Replace to settle on one. This is one of the few places where reading the document end-to-end will not help. The Find dialog will.
Removing all hyperlinks. Find http with regex on, replace with nothing. This nukes the hyperlink text along with the URL, so save a copy first if the link text matters.
The mistakes that bite people most
Word-boundary trap. Searching for “corn” matches “corn,” “popcorn,” “unicorn,” and “corner.” Add spaces around the search term (”ย cornย “) or use regex word boundaries (\bcorn\b) to fix it.
Case mismatch. Without Match case, “Apple” and “apple” both match. With it on, only the exact capitalization counts. The right setting depends on what you are doing. Most replacement disasters come from leaving Match case off when it should be on.
No formatting preservation. Google Docs does not carry bold, italics, or links from the original word into the replacement. If you replace a bolded “Acme” with “Globex,” the new word is plain text. The fix is manual: replace, then re-bold.
Replace all in a long document. Once you click it, Google Docs makes the change everywhere. The undo button (Ctrl + Z on Windows, Cmd + Z on Mac) reverses it, but only if you catch it before doing something else. If you have already typed or scrolled, the undo stack may not get you back. Make a copy before any large Replace all.
More Google Docs and Sheets guides
- Find and Replace in Google Sheets
- How to Search for a Word in Google Docs
- How to Track Changes in Google Docs
- How to Check Word Count on Google Docs
- How to Strikethrough on Google Docs
- How to Do Hanging Indent on Google Docs
- How to Delete a Page in Google Docs
- How to Make a Table of Contents in Google Docs
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the keyboard shortcut for Find and Replace in Google Docs?
On Windows, press Ctrl + H. On Mac, press Cmd + Shift + H. To open Find without Replace, use Ctrl + F on Windows or Cmd + F on Mac.
Can I use regex in Google Docs Find and Replace?
Yes. Open the Find and Replace dialog and check the Match using regular expressions box. Google Docs uses the RE2 regex syntax. The capture group feature (using $1 in the Replace field) is only available in Google Sheets.
Why is Find and Replace not finding my word?
Three usual causes. The word might have an extra invisible character such as a space, a non-breaking space, or a special character pasted in from another source. Match case might be on when the document uses a different capitalization. The word might also be inside a comment, header, or footer, which Find and Replace does not always search by default.
How do I find and replace a special character like a tab or line break?
Turn on Match using regular expressions, then use \t for tabs and \n for line breaks in the Find field. To remove all line breaks, use \n+ as the search pattern and replace with a single space.
How do I undo a Replace All in Google Docs?
Press Ctrl + Z on Windows or Cmd + Z on Mac immediately after the replacement. If you have already typed something else, the undo may not reach back far enough. Google Docs version history (File > Version history) is the backup option for restoring the document to an earlier state.
Does Find and Replace preserve formatting like bold or italics?
No. The replacement text comes in as plain text, even if the original word was bolded, italicized, or hyperlinked. You will need to reapply formatting manually after replacement.
What is the difference between Find and Find and Replace?
Find (Ctrl + F) opens a small search bar that locates text but does not change it. Find and Replace (Ctrl + H) opens a larger dialog that locates text and swaps it for something else. Use Find when you only need to navigate. Use Find and Replace when you know an edit is coming.
Can I run Find and Replace across multiple Google Docs at once?
Not natively. Google Docs only searches one document at a time. To search across many documents, use a Google Apps Script that loops through a folder of files and runs the replacement on each. There are also third-party add-ons in the Google Workspace Marketplace that handle this.