How to Use the Find Feature on Google Chrome

Use your mouse to open the Find tool

Navigate to the website you want to search. After opening Chrome, type the website URL into the address bar and tap ↵ Enter. Wait for the data to finish loading before proceeding to the next step.

Click the guide icon with three horizontal bars located at the top right of the browser page. On the computer interface, this button is located right below the 'X' mark (used to close the browser). When you hover your mouse pointer over the icon, the text 'Customize and control Google Chrome' will appear.

Find and click on the 'Find' or 'Find' option. Once clicked, the drop-down menu will disappear and be replaced by a small text box just below the address bar. Inside the text box is a search bar, up and down arrows and an 'X'.

Type the word or phrase you're looking for on the website. If you haven't used the Find tool before, there will be nothing in the search bar. However, if you have already used it, delete the old keyword in the search bar.

You can press it ↵ Enterwhen you're done typing, but it's not really necessary. After you finish typing, Chrome will automatically search for keywords.

Determines the number of times a word or phrase appears on the page. After you enter a keyword, Chrome highlights all instances of the word on the page. For example, the search feature will display '1 of 20' to the right of the search box to indicate how many times this word has appeared.

You can click the up and down arrows to scroll across the times the word or phrase is used.

When you click the arrow, the currently displayed case will be highlighted in orange (previously yellow).

Click the 'X' or press the Escape (Esc) button to turn off the Find tool. When you're done searching, you can use one of the two methods above to close the dialog box. The highlight marks will disappear.

Use keyboard commands to open the Find tool

Open the website you want to search. After opening Google Chrome, type the website URL into the address bar and press ↵ Enter. Wait for the data to finish loading before proceeding to the next step.

Use the keyboard to activate the Find tool. Depending on the type of computer (such as Windows or Mac), the key combinations will be different:

On a regular computer, press Ctrl+ F.

On a Mac computer, press ⌘ Command+ F.

The search bar will drop down from Chrome's menubar, cut into the top right corner of the web page.

Type the word or phrase you want to search for on the website. The search bar will be empty if you have never used the Find tool, otherwise you will need to delete the last word you searched for.

There's no need to tap ↵ Enterwhen you're done typing because Chrome will automatically search for the word you type.

Scroll down on all the times that word or phrase appears on the page. After you enter a keyword, Chrome highlights each instance of the word on the web page. For example, the search feature will display '1 of 20' to the right of the search box to indicate how many times this word has appeared.

You can click the up and down arrows to scroll across the times the word or phrase is used.

When you click the arrow, the currently displayed case will be highlighted in orange (previously yellow).

Click the 'X' or press the Escape (Esc) button to turn off the Find tool. When you're done, you can use one of the two methods above to close the dialog box. The highlight marks will disappear.

Lesley Montoya

Update 13 November 2023