Find and Replace

link - wordmvp.com/FAQs/General/UsingWildcards.htm
link - gregmaxey.com/word_tip_pages/words_fickle_vba_find_property.html

Find Object

The Find property returns a Find object that you can use to Search a Range.

Selection.Find 
ActiveDocument.Content.Find 

Properties and Methods

Find.Execute

expression.Execute(FindText:="text to find", _ 
                   MatchCase:=, _ 
                   MatchWholeWord:=, _ 
                   MatchWildcards:=, _ 
                   MatchSoundsLike:=, _ 
                   MatchAllWordForms:=, _ 
                   Forward:=, _ 
                   Wrap:=wdFindWrap.wdFindContinue, _ 
                   Format:=, _ 
                   ReplaceWith:=, _ 
                   Replace:=, _ 
                   MatchKashida:=, _ 
                   MatchDiacritics:=, _ 
                   MatchAlefHamza:=, _ 
                   MatchControl:=) 

FindText - Optional Variant. The text to be searched for. Use an empty string ("") to search for formatting only. You can search for special characters by specifying appropriate character codes. For example, "^p" corresponds to a paragraph mark and "^t" corresponds to a tab character. For a list of special characters you can use, see Find and replace text or other items .
MatchCase - Optional Variant. True to specify that the find text be case sensitive. Corresponds to the Match case check box in the Find and Replace dialog box (Edit menu).
MatchWholeWord - Optional Variant. True to have the find operation locate only entire words, not text that's part of a larger word. Corresponds to the Find whole words only check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.
MatchWildcards - Optional Variant. True to have the find text be a special search operator. Corresponds to the Use wildcards check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.
MatchSoundsLike - Optional Variant. True to have the find operation locate words that sound similar to the find text. Corresponds to the Sounds like check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.
MatchAllWordForms - Optional Variant. True to have the find operation locate all forms of the find text (for example, "sit" locates "sitting" and "sat"). Corresponds to the Find all word forms check box in the Find and Replace dialog box.
Forward - Optional Variant. True to search forward (toward the end of the document).

Iterating through all occurrences

You can use the Find object's Found property to iterate through several found items instead of checking the return value of Execute everytime.

Dim objFind As Word.Find 
   objFind = objRange.Find 
   objFind.Text = "better" 
   objFind.MatchWholeWord = True 
   objFind.Execute 
   While objFind.Found 
      objFind.Execute 
   End While 

Looping through paragraphs in a document is very slow
If you are looking for certain text always use Range.Find

Replacing HTML tags

If you want to find and replace special characters you may need to prefix them with a back slash

objFind.Text = "\<b\>" 

When the Execute method of the Find object is executed successfully a new Range object is returned

Set objRange = ActiveDocument.Sentences(2) 
objRange.Find.Text = "some text" 
objRange.Find.Execute 

If (objRange.Find.Found = True) Then 
   objRange.Select 
End If 

The following example finds the next double-spaced paragraph after the selection.

With Selection.Find 
    .ClearFormatting 
    .ParagraphFormat.LineSpacingRule = wdLineSpacing.wdLineSpaceDouble 
    .Text = "" 
    .Forward = True 
    .Wrap = wdFindWrap.wdFindContinue 
End With 
Selection.Find.Execute 

This example finds all double-spaced paragraphs in the active document and replaces the formatting with 1.5-line spacing.

With ActiveDocument.Content.Find 
    .ClearFormatting 
    .ParagraphFormat.Space2 
    .Replacement.ClearFormatting 
    .Replacement.ParagraphFormat.Space15 
    .Execute FindText:="", _ 
             ReplaceWith:="", _ 
             Replace:=wdReplace.wdReplaceAll 
End With 

This example steps through the words in myRange (which spans from the beginning of the active document to the end of the selection) and deletes the word "BetterSolutions" (including the trailing space) wherever it occurs in the range.

Set myRange = ActiveDocument.Range(Start:=0, End:=Selection.End) 
For Each aWord In myRange.Words 
    If aWord.Text = "BetterSolutions" Then 
      aWord.Delete 
   End If 
Next aWord 

Finding

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting ?? 
With Selection.Find 
   .Text = "text_to_find" 
   .Replacement.Text = "replace_with_text" 
   .Forward = True 
   .Wrap = wdFindWrap.wdFindContinue 
   .Format = False 
   .MatchCase = False 
   .MatchWholeWord = False 
   .MatchWildcards = False 
   .MatchSoundsLike = False 
   .MatchAllWordForms = False 
End With 

If Selection.Find.Execute = True Then 
End If 

Public Sub DoFindReplace(ByVal sFindText As String, _ 
                         ByVal sReplaceText As String) 
   With Selection.Find 
      .ClearFormatting 
      .Replacement.ClearFormatting 
      .Text = sFindText 
      .Forward = True 
      .Wrap = wdFindWrap.wdFindContinue 
      .Format = False 
      .MatchCase = False 
      .MatchWholeWord = False 
      .MatchWildcard = False 
      .MatchSoundsLike = False 
      .MatchAllWordForms = False 
   End With 

   Do While Selection.Find.Execute 
'keep going until nothing is found
      .Execute Replace:=wdReplace.wdReplaceAll 
   Loop 
'free up some memory
   ActiveDocument.UndoClear 
End Sub 

Finding field codes

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting 
Selection.Find.Text = "^b" - this is a section break 
Selection.Find.Text = "^d" 
Selection.Find.Text = "^p"  - this is a paragraph mark 
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting 
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplace.wdReplaceAll 
Selection.Find.Text = "^L" 
Selection.TypeText Text:="some text" 
Selection.Range.InsertAutoText