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How to Find and Replace Text in Your Manuscript

Find & Replace lets you search for any word or phrase in the writing canvas and swap it out, one occurrence at a time, or all at once. Open it from Write.

Opening Find & Replace​

There are two ways to open it:

  • Menu bar: Open the Edit menu and select Find & Replace
  • Write toolbar - Open More and choose Find & replace (with View > Show full ribbon on, a search icon sits in the toolbar)

The Find & Replace panel appears within the editor.

Finding Text​

  1. Type your search term in the Find field.
  2. The editor highlights all matching occurrences immediately.
  3. A match count is displayed (for example "3/12", or No results) so you know how many instances were found.
  4. Use the up and down arrow buttons (Previous and Next) to move between matches.

By default the search is case-insensitive. Enable Match case to find only exact-case matches (e.g., searching "Book" with Match case on will not match "book"). Next to it are Match whole words only and Search in selection only.

Replacing Text​

  1. Enter your replacement text in the Replace with field.
  2. Choose one of two actions:
    • Replace: Replaces the currently highlighted match and moves to the next one.
    • Replace All: Replaces every occurrence of the search term in the document at once.

The matches are replaced right away, with no confirmation message.

Scope​

Find & Replace searches the chapter you have open only, as the panel reminds you (Find searches this chapter only.).

To look through every chapter, click Search the whole book in the panel. That opens the book-wide search in the top bar, which finds text but does not replace it.

Closing Find & Replace​

Click the Close button (X) in the panel to dismiss it. The editor returns to normal view.

See also: Formatting | Chapter Mode | Book Mode