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Find and Replace

Find and Replace is used to find an individual word or a string of text (either regular or HTML) and replace it with a different string of text. This may not sound like a big deal, but in reality it is very powerful.

The power of this tool is our own use of repetitive text or code. A web site will contain many repetitive words or strings of text. An example is the name of the link section at the bottom of this page (Dreamweaver Management Tools Navigational Links). Another example may be the text string "Fall 1999" in a faculty or department web site. Using find and replace we can easily find the desired text and automatically replace it with different text.

Find and Replace in the Current Document

To see how this is done, open the file "FindReplaceMe1.html" from the example web site folder.

1. Go to the "File" menu
2. Choose "Open"
3. Locate the example web site folder (ExampleWebSite)
4. Open ExampleWebSite
5. Open "docs_for_exercises"
6. Open the file "FindReplaceMe1.html"

1. Go to the "Edit" menu
2. Choose "Replace..." (See Figure 5)
3. In the "Find What: Text" box type "Fall 1999"
4. In the "Replace With:" box type "Spring 2000"
5. Click "Replace All"
6. Click "Close"

Two instances of "Fall 1999" have been replaced with "Spring 2000".

Find and Replace in the Current Site

Using Figure 5 as a guide:

1. Go to the "Find In:" drop down menu
2. Choose "Current Site" for a site search
3. Enter find criteria
4. Enter replace criteria
5. Click "Replace All"
6. Click "Close"

Find and Replace in a Folder

Using Figure 5 as a guide:

1. Go to the "Find In:" drop down menu
2. Choose "Folder..."
3. Click on the folder icon
4. Select the folder you want to use
5. Click "Choose"
6. Enter find criteria
7. Enter replace criteria
8. Click "Replace All"
9. Click "Close"

Find and Replace HTML Source

All of the above searches may also be done on HTML code. Using Figure 5 as a guide:

1. Go to the "Find What:" drop down menu
2. Choose "HTML Source"
3. Complete the rest of the task for desired find and replace

You may have noticed in the "Find What:" drop down menu that advanced searches on text and tags also may be done. Find and Replace is a very powerful tool.

Dreamweaver Management Tools Navigational Links

1. Dreamweaver Management Tools Workshop
2. Defining a Site
3. Server-Side Include (SSI) and Library Object
4. Making and Applying a SSI
5. Making and Applying a Library Object
6. Creating and Applying a Template
7. Find and Replace
8. Web Design References

• ITSS Training Homepage