The find bar is open above the editor. Type what to look for, see the number of matches, then type the replacement and choose Replace All. Undo reverses the whole replacement in one step.
How to use it
- Paste your text into the editor.
- Type a word or phrase in Search text. The badge shows how many matches there are.
- Press Enter to jump to the next match and Shift+Enter for the previous one; the match is selected in the editor.
- Type the new text in Replace with and choose Replace All. Leave it empty to delete every match.
The keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) inside the editor opens the bar on every WordPico tool page, and Escape closes it.
Matching rules
| Option | Matches | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Case-sensitive off | 3 | Cat, cat(s) and (con)cat(enate) all contain the letters |
| Case-sensitive on | 2 | Cat with a capital C is skipped |
Search is literal: punctuation such as dots, brackets and asterisks is matched as typed, so you do not need to escape anything. It also matches inside longer words. To replace whole words only, include the surrounding spaces in both boxes, for example cat to dog , and check the start and end of the text separately.
Common jobs
- Rename a person or product throughout a draft, with case sensitivity on so other words are not touched.
- Remove a repeated phrase, such as a tracking code or a signature, by replacing it with nothing.
- Swap spelling variants such as colour and color before submitting to a publication with a house style.
- Fix punctuation: replace two spaces with one, or straight quotes with typographic ones.
- Repair converted text: after a case conversion, restore acronyms such as NASA in one step.
Check before you replace
Use the match count as a sanity check. If you expect to rename a client mentioned four times and the badge says eleven, step through the matches with Enter first: the extra hits are often parts of other words or a second person with a similar name. Replacing with case sensitivity on and the exact spelling you see in the text is the safest approach for names.
Safe replacements
A Replace All that would push the text past the 200,000-character editor limit is refused and nothing changes. Every successful replacement is a single undo step, so you can try a replacement, look at the result and press Ctrl+Z if it went too far. The word and character counts beside the editor update as soon as the text changes.
Your text stays in this browser. Nothing you search for or replace is sent to a server.