Removing Entire Paragraphs from Your Document

The Replace function built into Word is extremely powerful. Because of this it is possible to do quite a bit of damage to your documents. But sometimes you want to do damage, right? For instance, you may want to remove all occurrences of a certain type of paragraph. In lesser word processors, this can be quite a chore. But Word makes it relatively painless and quick, provided you have formatted your document using styles. To remove paragraphs, follow these steps:

1. Position the insertion point at the beginning of your document. (This is not necessary, but makes the replace operation quicker.)
2. Choose Replace from the Edit menu, or press Ctrl+H. Word displays the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
3. If the More button is available, click on it. (Click here to see a related figure.)
4. Delete anything in the Find What box. Click on the No Formatting button if it is available.
5. Click on Format, then choose Styles. This displays the Find Styles dialog box.
6. Select the style of the paragraphs you want to remove from your document.
7. Press Tab to advance to the Replace With box. Delete anything there, and click on the No Formatting button if it is available.
8. Click on Replace All.