Find text and other information on a webpage

The information in this Help topic applies to Windows Internet Explorer 8.

Finding the information you want on the web often requires more than just searching for a webpage. Once you're viewing a webpage, you often need to find the information or reference that is buried somewhere within the page. Now you can search more effectively within webpages by using Internet Explorer 8. Earlier versions of Internet Explorer had the ability to find words or phrases in a webpage. Internet Explorer 8 features several improvements that enable you to do all that and more:

• The text box into which you type the words you want to find now appears on the tab row and not as a separate dialog box. This enables you to stay on the webpage, and doesn't block parts of the page.

• As you type words into the text box, the matching words are highlighted on the webpage, making it easy to quickly scroll the page and see all the instances of the words you're searching for. In addition, you can still click the Next and Previous buttons to move around the page just as you did in previous versions of Internet Explorer.

To find information on a webpage

1. Open Internet Explorer by clicking the Start button , and then clicking Internet Explorer.

2. Click the Edit menu, and then click Find on this Page to display the text box on the tab row.

3. In the text box on the tab tow, type the word or phrase you want to find on this page. The number of matches found will appear next to the Options button, and the page will automatically scroll to the first occurrence of the word or phrase.

4. To go to the next or previous instance of the word or phrase, click the Next or Previous button.

Notes

• If the Edit menu does not appear, press the ALT key to display it. To turn menus on permanently, see Show the menus in Internet Explorer.

• You can also use keyboard shortcuts to find text on a webpage, and to navigate to the next or previous instance of that text. To display the text box on the tab row so that you can find text on a webpage, press CTRL+F. Press ENTER to go to the next word or phrase found on the page, and press SHIFT+ENTER to go to the previous word or phrase.

To fine-tune your matches

By default, Internet Explorer 8 will find anything on the webpage that matches what you typed into the text box. This can sometimes give a lot of matches you don't want. To narrow your search on a page, you can limit matches to whole words only, or match case or capitalization.

If you are trying to find text on a webpage and there are partial or wrong matches, click the Options button, and then click one or both of the following:

• Match Whole Word Only

  This will only show matches that are complete words, and not part of another word or phrase.

• Match Case

  This will only show matches that use the same combination of capital and lowercase letters that you typed into the text box.

Note

For more information on finding what you want on the web, see Tips for searching the Internet.