How to Change a Document to the Past Tense in MS Word

1. Open the document you want to modify in Microsoft Word.
2. Go to the 'Home' tab and click 'Replace' in the 'Editing' group. The 'Find and Replace' dialog box opens.
3. Type 'is' into the 'Find what' text field and 'was' into the 'Replace with' text field. Click 'Replace' or 'Replace All' to change occurrences of 'is' to 'was.'
4. Type 'am' into the 'Find what' text field and 'was' into the 'Replace with' text field. Click 'Replace' or 'Replace All' to change all occurrences of 'am' to 'was.'
5. Leave the dialog box open as you scroll through your document to find other present tense verbs you may have missed.
6. Return to the 'Find and Replace' dialog box and add additional present tense words into the 'Find what' text field, such as 'do' and 'go.' Type the past tense verb into the 'Replace with' text field. Click 'Replace' or 'Replace All' and close the dialog box.
7. Go to the 'Review' tab and click 'Spelling & Grammar' in the 'Proofing' group or press 'F7' on your keyboard. The 'Spelling and Grammar' dialog box opens.
8. Replace any grammatical errors with the tense you want to use under 'Possible Question' and click 'Change.'