How to use the Find and Replace Tool.
Specify literal or pattern matching and preview the changes. A global replacement can alter identifiers or quotations that should stay untouched.
Make the workflow fit your task.
Define the search string, replacement, case sensitivity and exact scope. Preview matching locations before changing them, especially when using a regex. Report replacement count and retain enough surrounding text to check that quotations and identifiers were not changed accidentally.
- What you provide
- Text, match rules and replacements.
- What you get
- Previewable deterministic replacements.
See the input and the result.
Illustrative input and output · a teaching example, not a live WebAct run
Example input
Replace the exact case-sensitive text Draft with Final in the heading "Draft report" only. Body text "Keep this draft for review" is outside the selected scope.
Completed example
Heading: Final report Body unchanged: Keep this draft for review Replacements: 1, restricted to the selected heading.
Load this input into the prompt, then copy it to WebAct to try the task. Your result may differ from the illustration.
Decisions and troubleshooting.
How do I replace a word without changing longer words containing it?
Use a suitable whole-word rule for the chosen language or inspect bounded matches. Plain substring replacement will affect longer strings too.
Why did a literal search containing a dot match unexpected text?
The search may be interpreted as a regular expression. Select literal mode or escape pattern characters deliberately.
Try it with your own source.
Replace the example with your material in the task prompt. Keep the requirements you need, then copy the task into WebAct.
Customize and copy the task ↑