How to replace an "X" in your document with a "check mark"

Q: How can I replace an X throughout my document with a Check Mark?

A: It’s easier than you think to replace any word, number, phrase or character in a document without doing it one at a time.  You can do it quickly and easily by using your Find and Replace Dialog Box.  In this case you will be finding the capital X in your document and replacing it with a check mark character.

ü                     Note: you can find the check mark character " ü "   that I used in the Wingdings font.

There are several ways you can go about the task, but they all follow these general steps:

1. Press Ctrl+H to display the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
2. Click the More button, if it is available and  the Find and Replace dialog box will appear.
3. In the Find What box enter an uppercase X.
4. Make sure the Match Case check box is selected.
5. Place the insertion point in the Replace With box.
6. Click the Format button and then choose Font. Word displays the Font dialog box.
7. In the Font list, select the Wingdings font.
8. Click OK to close the Font dialog box. The insertion point should still be in the Replace With box, and the font specification you made should appear just under the box.
9. Type the character you want to use for your check mark. (More on this in a moment.)
10. Use the control buttons in the dialog box (Find Next, Replace, or Replace All) as desired to make your replacements.

The confusion sometimes occur in Step 9, so there are several ways you can specify the check mark character.

One way is to copy the check mark to the Clipboard before you start the steps. Just type the check mark into the document, as desired, and then use Ctrl+C to copy it to the Clipboard. Then, in step 9, you can either press Ctrl+V to paste it into the Replace With box or you can use the ^c characters to tell Word you want to use the contents of the Clipboard as your replacement.

Or remember that all characters, such as the check mark or any style bullet have specific "character codes" in Word, Word Perfect and other Word Processing programs..  If you can find out the character code for the check mark (it is available in the Symbol dialog box if you use that method of creating the check mark), then you can use the code in the Find and Replace dialog box. 

The character code for a check mark ü  is 252, which must be entered using four characters and a carat mark, like this ^0252 in the Replace With box. When you do the replacement, you'll see the check mark (which corresponds to the character code) appear in your document.