Computer Skills

Beginner

60 mins

Teacher/Student led

+95 XP

What you need:
Chromebook/Laptop/PC or iPad/Tablet

Find, Replace & Word Count

Master three essential document-proofing tools: Find to locate text instantly, Replace to update words consistently throughout, and Word Count to verify assignment or application briefs are met.

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1 Introduction
2 Key Concepts
3 Explore the Proofing Tools
4 Worked Example — Fix a Sample Work Experience Letter
5 Clean up Your Proposal Draft
6 Common Issues
7 Reflection
8 Lesson Summary
Quiz

1 - Introduction

Welcome

You already have a proposal draft sitting in your Digital Portfolio. It works, but it needs tidying before anyone else reads it. Today you'll pick up three quick proofing tools that turn a rough draft into a clean, submittable document: Find, Replace, and Word Count. These are the same tools a solicitor uses to swap a client name across a contract and the same tools you'll use to fix placeholder text in a Work Experience proposal.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

Use Find to locate a word or phrase anywhere in a document
Use Replace to change text consistently throughout a document
Check the word count against an assignment or application brief

Warm-up

Imagine you wrote a Work Experience cover letter using [COMPANY NAME] as a placeholder in six different places. Your placement is confirmed at Centra Ballina this morning. How long would it take to fix all six by re-reading the whole letter? What is the risk of missing one?

Teacher Notes

Students should have {{code:03_proposal_draft}} already in their Digital_Portfolio folder from an earlier lesson. If any student doesn't, pair them with a classmate who does for the Portfolio Build step.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Key Concepts

Three small tools, three big wins for any document you submit for marking or send to an employer.

Concept	Why it matters	Example
Find — a search tool that jumps to every occurrence of a word or phrase in your document	Lets you confirm you used a name consistently, or check you haven't left a placeholder behind	Searching for `[COMPANY` in your proposal draft to catch every placeholder before printing
Replace — swaps found text with new text, one match at a time so you can review each change	Safer than Replace All when the search term might appear inside another word	—
Replace All — one click that changes every match at once	Fast, but blind. If the search term is part of another word, that word gets hit too	Replace All "cat" with "dog" turns "catastrophe" into "dogastrophe" and "category" into "dogegory"
Match case — a Find option that makes the search care about capital letters	Stops you replacing "apple" the fruit when you meant "Apple" the company	—
Word count — a live counter that reports words, characters, and pages	Key Assignment briefs and job applications often set a word limit; overshooting or undershooting looks careless	A Key Assignment brief says 250-300 words; Word Count tells you when you've hit the target

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Explore the Proofing Tools

Before you follow a guided walk-through, take 8 minutes to poke around the proofing tools in your own word processor. There is no single right answer here. The goal is to notice what is available and how it behaves.

Tip: if you can't find a tool straight away, check the Edit menu first, or press {{kbd:Ctrl+F}} to open Find. It's OK if you can't figure every prompt out on your own — the worked example that comes next covers each tool step by step.

Open any document you have in your portfolio, or a blank one with a paragraph pasted in, and work through the prompts below. Jot a quick one-line answer on paper for each so you can compare with a classmate afterwards.

Exploration

Find where Find & Replace lives in your word processor's menu. Notice the keyboard shortcut shown next to it.
Search for a common word like "the". Notice how the tool shows you where each match is, and what happens when you click Next.
Turn on Match case. Search for a word with a capital letter (e.g. "The"). Compare the results with Match case turned off.
Find the Word Count tool. Notice what it reports besides words. Which number would matter most for a 250-word Key Assignment?
Look at the Replace and Replace All buttons in the dialog. What do you think the difference is between them? Try each on a test word and notice what happens.

Teacher Notes

Circulate and nudge students to actually try each prompt rather than just read it. The Match case prompt is the one most often skipped.

+15 XP

4 - Worked Example — Fix a Sample Work Experience Letter

Now try the three tools on a sample Work Experience enquiry letter. You'll create a new practice document in your Digital_Portfolio folder called {{code:20_findreplace_practice}}. This is a throwaway for practice, not a real portfolio page, so you can delete it at the end of class if you like.

Sample text to paste

Dear [MANAGER],

My name is [STUDENT NAME] and I am applying for a Work Experience placement with [COMPANY NAME] starting [START DATE]. I am currently completing the LCA programme at [SCHOOL NAME] and I am particularly interested in [COMPANY NAME] because of the variety of day-to-day tasks I have heard about from friends who have worked there.

I have good attention to detail, I am punctual, and I am happy to take on whatever tasks help the team. I would welcome a short meeting with [MANAGER] to discuss how I can contribute at [COMPANY NAME].

Please contact me at [EMAIL] to arrange a chat.

Yours sincerely,
[STUDENT NAME]

Work through the steps below in order. By the end your practice file should have no square brackets left, real details in every placeholder, and a word count you have noticed.

Teacher Notes

The bracket-hunt safety check is the habit worth reinforcing. Students who rush Replace All often leave one unclosed placeholder and never spot it.

+15 XP

5 - Clean up Your Proposal Draft

Independent Practice

Your goal: Use Find, Replace, and Word Count on your own proposal draft so the version in your portfolio is free of placeholders, consistent throughout, and inside the word count your brief asked for.

Time: ~15 minutes

Task: Open your {{code:03_proposal_draft}} from your Digital_Portfolio folder. Use Find to scan the document for any square brackets or leftover placeholders, and use Replace to swap them for real names, dates, and places. Once the placeholders are gone, open Word Count and note your total at the bottom of the document as a single line (for example: Word count: 214), then compare it to the length your brief asked for.

Success criteria:

No square brackets or placeholder text remain anywhere in your proposal
Names, dates, and places are consistent across every mention (no "Centra Ballina" in one paragraph and "Ballina Centra" in another)
Your word count is recorded at the end of the document and you can say whether you are inside, over, or under the brief's range

Teacher Notes

Students whose proposal draft contains no placeholders can instead use Find to check for overused words (really, very, just, actually) and Replace a few with stronger alternatives. Record the word count either way.

+15 XP

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This lesson is copyright of Coding Ireland 2017 - 2025. Unauthorised use, copying or distribution is not allowed.

Find, Replace & Word Count

Teacher Class Feed

1 - Introduction

Welcome

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

Warm-up

2 - Key Concepts

3 - Explore the Proofing Tools

4 - Worked Example — Fix a Sample Work Experience Letter

Sample text to paste

5 - Clean up Your Proposal Draft

Independent Practice

Unlock the Full Learning Experience

XP