diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index fd646f98..fd7c6833 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Package: officer
 Type: Package
 Title: Manipulation of Microsoft Word and PowerPoint Documents
-Version: 0.6.6.002
+Version: 0.6.6.003
 Authors@R: c(
     person("David", "Gohel", role = c("aut", "cre"), email = "david.gohel@ardata.fr"),
     person("Stefan", "Moog", role = "aut", email = 'moogs@gmx.de'),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index c534c11e..e1571329 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@
 ## Features
 
 - add coverage to rtf, contributions from Davide Garolini at roche.
+- `cursor_reach()` gains new argument `fixed` to enable exact matching.
+It defaults to FALSE for backward compatibility.
 
 # officer 0.6.5
 
diff --git a/R/docx_cursor.R b/R/docx_cursor.R
index c95f3bd7..2a32ac7a 100644
--- a/R/docx_cursor.R
+++ b/R/docx_cursor.R
@@ -131,11 +131,12 @@ cursor_end <- function(x) {
 #' @export
 #' @rdname cursor
 #' @param keyword keyword to look for as a regular expression
+#' @param fixed logical. If TRUE, pattern is a string to be matched as is.
 #' @section cursor_reach:
 #' Set the cursor on the first element of the document
 #' that contains text specified in argument \code{keyword}.
 #' The argument \code{keyword} is a regexpr pattern.
-cursor_reach <- function(x, keyword) {
+cursor_reach <- function(x, keyword, fixed = FALSE) {
   nodes_with_text <- xml_find_all(
     x$doc_obj$get(),
     "/w:document/w:body/*|/w:ftr/*|/w:hdr/*"
@@ -146,7 +147,7 @@ cursor_reach <- function(x, keyword) {
   }
 
   text_ <- xml_text(nodes_with_text)
-  test_ <- grepl(pattern = keyword, x = text_)
+  test_ <- grepl(pattern = keyword, x = text_, fixed = fixed)
   if (!any(test_)) {
     stop(keyword, " has not been found in the document", call. = FALSE)
   }
diff --git a/man/cursor.Rd b/man/cursor.Rd
index 0f9e04da..2a42bba9 100644
--- a/man/cursor.Rd
+++ b/man/cursor.Rd
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ cursor_bookmark(x, id)
 
 cursor_end(x)
 
-cursor_reach(x, keyword)
+cursor_reach(x, keyword, fixed = FALSE)
 
 cursor_reach_test(x, keyword)
 
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@ cursor_backward(x)
 \item{id}{bookmark id}
 
 \item{keyword}{keyword to look for as a regular expression}
+
+\item{fixed}{logical. If TRUE, pattern is a string to be matched as is.}
 }
 \description{
 A set of functions is available to manipulate