If you are working with documents that are no longer than a couple of pages, the slider on the right will be sufficient to move from one end to the other. But, to work with really long documents, you need the so-called navigation panel because it is the only one that allows you to move to the appropriate part of the document or find a characteristic text with one move. This means that in Word all search functions are in one place, and in this lesson you will learn how to use them.
First, I’ll show you how to open the Navigation Pane. This can be achieved by selecting the Find option or by simultaneously pressing the Control and F keys. Unfortunately, if you start the Replace function, a frame will appear on the screen that has not changed much since Word 2003, but therefore the navigation panel can also be reached by selecting options of the same name from the Show section. Regardless of the method you used, a frame should appear on the left with a field for entering the content you want to find. I will use this opportunity to write Part-time in it because I am interested in whether this term appears in the text. If I press Enter after that, the requested content will appear on the right, while all the results inside the navigation panel will be sorted into three sections. The first includes all titles, while moving to the second one can display individual pages. If you want to see the search results, click on the third section.
On this occasion, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that only those titles for which you have applied the appropriate styles will appear in the first section. You can use them if you click on the Home option and select one of the offered options from this section. Since navigation within the document in Word is based on the correct use of styles, do not fall into the temptation to shape your document using parameters related to Fonts. After all, the use of styles is not complicated and gives you much more flexibility in your work. Since this document is completely formatted using different styles, it will not be difficult for me to automatically display the corresponding part of the text by selecting one of these options.
The second section is called the Page Tab and in it you can see some of the pages that make up your document. If you are interested in what is on them, click on one of the thumbnails on the left and Word will immediately display the desired content.
At the moment I am most interested in what is in the third section. Namely, if I click on it, the entire navigation panel will be filled with the results of the previously performed search. At the same time, in addition to the searched term, the context in which it is located will also be displayed, so it will not be difficult for me to find my way.
You must have noticed that some pages were skipped in the Page Tab. This means that the term I’m looking for doesn’t appear on them at all, but if I click on this button and cancel the search, the navigation panel will show the complete content of the document again. The same applies to the section where the titles are displayed.
In addition to finding text, you can also use the navigation panel for other elements. For that, you need to click on this small arrow and select, for example, Tables from the auxiliary menu. At that moment, a list will appear on the left, on which the titles containing the tables are highlighted. A similar principle applies to the second section, as only pages with tables will now appear there. Unfortunately, the third section will remain empty on this occasion, it will only contain a notification that the requested content cannot be displayed in this way. Regardless, by selecting one of these arrows, it is possible to directly display the selected elements and thus reach concrete results.
As you have already seen, this function allows you to search your document for all illustrations (Graphics), tables, equations, footnotes and even comments originating from different sources (Comments All Reviewers). On this occasion, I must mention that with the help of the Graphics option, all images, ClipArt and SmartArt elements and even diagrams can be searched because they all belong to graphics.
If you want to set all search-related parameters in detail, select Options and open a new window. In it you will find well-known options such as Match Case, Find whole words, etc. To return to the default values, simply click on the Set Default button and close the frame.