Looking for Search and Replace tool for MS Word Files

[Bill Steo]

   *Find and Replace for multiple MS Word documents.*
   The program finds and replaces any one character, or  sequence of characters, that can be found on a standard keyboard, in many Word  .doc files. How?
   1. In an open directory, the user highlights the names of files in which he/she wishes characters replaced. If more efficient, this could be done after the program has been opened. 
   2. User opens the program which displays a dialog box with a window headed by "Character(s) to be replaced." or the like.
   3. User identifies a character or character strings he/she wants replaced by typing or copying them into the window in the  dialog box.
   3.1 Ideally, user can enter different characters/strings in the same box if they are separated by commas or ?.   
   3.2  User specifies action by pressing a button: "delete," or "replace."
   3.3 If user checks replace, he/she enters the new characters/strings in another window in the box.
   4. User presses "Go." button.
   5. The program
   5.1. finds the highlighted Word files.
   5.2 Opens them
   5.3 Performs function.
   5.3.1 Finds one of the files
   5.3.2 Opens it.
   5.3.3 Finds and replaces
   5.4  "Saves-as" the files, that is, saves the files with the same name plus "ED," or some other term to indicate they are the files that have been changed.
   The orginal files remain undisturbed in case of a problem.
   5.5. Closes the file.
   5.6. Repeats 5.1 to 5.5 with a different file until no more highlighted files remain.
   5.7  Program closes itelf.

Thank you.
Bill Steo

[edit: i removed your email Bill, as it's generally a bad idea to post email addresses on the web, since spammers find them; just keep your eye open here for any suggestions people come up with -mouser]

[mouser]

I know such a program must exist but don't know of any (especially freeware) to recommend; hope that someone will post some good suggestions.

[cmpm]

here's two
don't know if they meet your requirements though

http://camtech2000.n...Pages/ReplaceEm.html

http://www.digitalvo....uk/textcrawler.html

[lanux128]

i haven't tried this but if you're comfortable with macros, you can use this program by Funduc Software - Word Search and Replace.

[rjbull]

HandyFile Find and Replace, Office and WorkBench editions.

[cmpm]

Not sure if Bill Steo is still interested but,
EditPad Lite has search and replace for all the files it has opened in it's tabs. (I don't think it will save the original, but you could duplicate the files before starting.)

Pretty cool imo.

http://www.editpadpr...com/editpadlite.html

[Bill Steo]

  I have not yet tried all the programs suggested by the very kind readers. But let me say now: Thank you all very much! I have hundreds of Nota Bene files with non-alpha characters remaining them (for outlines and formats). Thanks again. Bill Steo

[criss]

Be careful, don't replace text inside a word file with a tool suitable only for plain text files (txt, html, xml, ~rtf).
The only one I know that can replace inside word files are:
Advanced Find & Replace http://www.abacre.com/afr/index.htm
HandyFile Find and Replace http://www.silverage...ftware.com/hffr.html
I think both use ActiveX or ... to make a Word-component  to do the search/replacement in background, so Word does have to be installed on your computer.
I use the first one with rtf files and it works fine (you cannot use a use plain text replace tool to replace non ascii characters in rtf-files, like f.e. öäü € ...).

[mouser]

good point by criss:

Be careful, don't replace text inside a word file with a tool suitable only for plain text files (txt, html, xml, ~rtf).

and in general, make sure you BACK UP your word files before experimenting with such things.

[rjbull]

Here's another one:

MegaReplacer for Microsoft Word

MegaReplacer finds and replaces multiple text strings (characters, words, or phrases), text formatting (such as bold and italic), or styles in the active document, all open documents, or all documents in a folder—automatically or with your manual approval. The perfect tool for achieving complete consistency in a manuscript.

It appears to be a Word macro, as the archive only contains .DOT and .DOC files.  I haven't tried it.  Haven't had much success with either HFFR Text Workbench, nor (on very brief trial) with AFR.  However the Word docs I tried were converted from PDFs, so might have been problematic anyway.