WD2000: How to Find and Replace Font Color Formatting (224776)

SUMMARY

Microsoft Word 2000 includes a 24-bit color palette that provides for 16,777,216 discrete colors. Most of these 16 million-plus colors are custom RGB (Red-Green-Blue) colors; however, 40 colors have distinct names, as listed in the following table.

   Black          Olive Green          Dark Teal          Indigo
   Dark Red       Dark Yellow          Teal               Blue-Gray
   Red            Lime                 Aqua               Violet
   Pink           Yellow               Turquoise          Plum
   Rose           Light Yellow         Light Turquoise    Lavender
   Brown          Dark Green           Dark Blue          Gray-80%
   Orange         Green                Blue               Gray-50%
   Light Orange   Sea Green            Light Blue         Gray-40%
   Gold           Bright Green         Sky Blue           Gray-25%
   Tan            Light Green          Pale Blue          White

All of the 16 million-plus colors are also represented by numbers. In most cases, each Red, Green, and Blue value for a particular color is represented by a number range of 0 to 255. This number range indicates how much Red, how much Green, and how much Blue are combined to form a specific color.

The following example breaks down what each value of the RGB statement represents:

   Custom Color(RGB(102,102,255))
                    --- --- ---
                     |   |   |
         R (Red)-----'   |   |
         G (Green)-------'   |
         B (Blue)------------'

The purpose of this article is to describe how you can find and replace the font color of text, even when the font color is a custom color.

MORE INFORMATION

How to Determine the Font Color Name or RGB Value

Use the following steps to determine either the font color name or RGB value of a custom font color:

On the Help menu, click What's This?. Your mouse pointer now appears as a question mark (?).
Click the text that you want to find the font color of. A formatting dialog box appears.
Under Font Formatting, the Font color appears in the Paragraph Style section and looks similar to either of the following examples:
- Font color: Red
  
  -or-
- Font color: Custom Color (RGB(102,102,255))
Press ESC to close the formatting dialog box.

How to Find and Replace a Font Color

Use the following steps to find text formatted in one font color and change the text to a different font color.

On the Edit menu, click Replace.
On the Replace tab, click More.
With the insertion point in the Find what box, click Format and then click Font.
On the Font tab, click the Font color box. A list appears showing the 40 named colors in Word. Do one of the following:
- In the Font color list, click to select one of the named colors and then click OK to close the Find Font dialog box.
  
  NOTE: On the Replace tab, under the Find what box, there should now be a Format description similar to the following:
  Format: Font color: Blue
  -or-
- In the Font color list, click More Colors and do the following steps:
  2. Click to select the Custom tab.
  3. In the Red, Green, and Blue boxes, type the RGB numbers for the font color.
    
    NOTE: These RGB numbers can be found by using the procedure in the "How to Determine the Font Color Name or RGB Value" section of this article.
  4. Click OK to close the Colors dialog box.
  5. Click OK to close the Find Font dialog box.
    
    NOTE: On the Replace tab, under the Find what box, there should now be a Format description similar to the following:
    Format: Font color: Custom Color (RGB(102,102,255))
With the insertion point in the Replace with box, click Format and then click Font.
On the Font tab, click the Font color box. A list appears, showing the 40 named colors in Word. Do one of the following:
- In the Font color list, click to select one of the named colors and then click OK to close the Replace Font dialog box.
  
  NOTE: On the Replace tab, under the Replace with box, there should now be a Format description similar to the following:
  Format: Font color: Red
  -or-
- Click More Colors and do one of the following steps:
- - On the Standard tab, click to select one of the custom colors for the font color you want to replace with, and then click OK.
    
    -or-
  - Click More Colors and do the following steps:
    1. On the Custom tab, click in the Colors box and select the exact shade color that you want to replace with, and then click OK to close the Colors dialog box.
    2. Click OK to close the Replace Font dialog box.
      
      NOTE: On the Replace tab, under the Replace with box, there should now be a Format description similar to the following:
      Format: Font color: Custom Color (RGB(102,102,255))
Click Replace All.

NOTE: Both the Find what and Replace with boxes on the Replace tab should be blank. This allows Word to find all the text with the specified color and replace it with the new specified color.
Click Close to close the Find and Replace dialog box.