Finding text based on formating instead of text

[FARHAN ISHRAK Fahim]

I am using windows 10 22h2 and nvda 2025.2. Is it possible to find text based on formatting instead of text in different programs such as word processor, pdf reader and web browser? For example, if the document contains bold, italic and if I only want to find those text, is it possible? If I only want to find text which is highlighted, is it possible?

[Quentin Christensen]

This varies by program.

In Microsoft Word this is done with Word's Find function, although you need to go in via "Replace" (Find uses a very simple pane with limited options.  Replace uses a dialog with more options, which we need for this):

1) Press control+h to open the replace dialog (In Word you can press control+f for find, control+g for go to, and control+h for replace)

2) Press alt+m to display "More" options.

3) Press alt+o to open "Formatting" options.

4) Select Font, or paragraph, or H for highlight to find highlighted text.

5) If you selected font or paragraph, a dialog opens with the options for that type of formatting.  Select the desired options and press enter.

Once you've done a search, you can press control+page down to find next / control+page up to find previous (Yes, this overrides the normal move to next / previous page commands while the document is open).

On the web, I don't think there is a way to find text based on formatting, unless the browser implements something (and it's accessible).  If it was a web-based document which was important to work on, you could copy it into Word (Open the page, press NVDA+shift+f10 to turn native selection on, control+a to select all, control+c to copy, alt+tab to Word, then control+v to paste.  Then search for formatting as above in Word.

Kind regards

Quentin

On Wed, Aug 27, 2025 at 4:33 PM FARHAN ISHRAK Fahim <fahim.n...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am using windows 10 22h2 and nvda 2025.2. Is it possible to find text based on formatting instead of text in different programs such as word processor, pdf reader and web browser? For example, if the document contains bold, italic and if I only want to find those text, is it possible? If I only want to find text which is highlighted, is it possible?

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Quentin Christensen

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NV Access

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[FARHAN ISHRAK Fahim]

Though I don't use microsoft word, thank you.

[Rui Fontes]

Hello!

By now, NVDA do not have that feature.

In Microsoft Word, yes you can do that.
Maybe LibreOffice or OpenOffice also allows, but I don't know...

Other programs do not have such possibility.

Best regards,

Rui Fontes
NVDA portuguese team

Às 07:32 de 27/08/2025, FARHAN ISHRAK Fahim escreveu:

I am using windows 10 22h2 and nvda 2025.2. Is it possible to find text based on formatting instead of text in different programs such as word processor, pdf reader and web browser? For example, if the document contains bold, italic and if I only want to find those text, is it possible? If I only want to find text which is highlighted, is it possible?

[Quentin Christensen]

Yes with LibreOffice, it looks like you want to do it in much the same way as Word actually:

1. Control+H for the replace dialog (like Word, when you press control+f it opens a simpler find, but for formatting you need the extra options).

2. Press alt+m to open "Format" and that opens a dialog with a number of tabs you can choose the various formatting from.

3. After you've done one search, use F3 and SHIFT+F3 to search for the next or previous instance.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/nvaccess.org/d/msgid/nvda-users/c7658fd0-1475-43d7-932d-b094725d619a%40gmail.com.

[Cyrille BOUGOT]

Hello

I think that Alberto Buffolino had tried to code an add-on doing this: https://github.com/ABuffEr/documentFormattingHelper.

The add-on is not in the store and does not seem to be finished though...

Cheers,

Cyrille

[FARHAN ISHRAK Fahim]

Thank you. I am out of home now but may try your suggestions after returning home inshallah.

Some of my favourite programs are libre office, google docs, foxit pdf reader, bookworm,  thoriam reader and google chrome.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/nvaccess.org/d/msgid/nvda-users/87150197-49b1-4e59-9228-000dc99a9307n%40nvaccess.org.