To find certain words in Google Docs, use the built‑in Find and Find and replace tools, plus a few shortcuts that work on desktop and mobile.

Basic find (desktop)

  • Press Ctrl + F on Windows/Chromebook or Cmd + F on Mac to open the small search box at the top‑right of the doc.
  • Type the word or phrase you want; Docs will highlight all matches and show how many were found, with arrows to jump between them.

Find and replace

  • Go to Edit → Find and replace to open the full dialog.
  • Enter your word in Find , and (optionally) a new word in Replace with , then use Replace or Replace all to change every occurrence at once.

Extra options (case & patterns)

  • In Find and replace , you can usually enable options like Match case so “Apple” is treated differently from “apple.”
  • Some versions let you use regular expressions (regex) to search patterns (like words starting with a capital or specific formats), which is useful for more advanced editing.

On phone or tablet

  • In the Google Docs mobile app, tap the three dots (⋮) menu and choose Find and replace.
  • Type your word; use the arrows beside the search field to move through each highlighted match, and replace if needed.

Quick “how‑to” recap

  • Open your doc → use Ctrl/Cmd + F for quick search.
  • Use Edit → Find and replace for bulk changes and extra options like case‑matching or pattern searches.

If you tell what exactly you’re trying to do (e.g., “find only whole-word matches” or “find all emails in a doc”), a more tailored step‑by‑step workflow can be suggested.