That better way is known as Replace Genius, and it can make these changes for you batch-style, meaning multiple replacements can be carried out in one fell swoop.
Where Do I Get This and How Much Will It Cost Me?
To get started, guide your web browser over to the RL Vision site, where the software in question is located. Here, you will find a variety of information on the app as well as a Download button.
The app is free, which makes the price just right for any budget. The developer describes the software as a “Find & Replace command on steroids”.
What You Get
Replace Genius promises many things, including the ability to save often-used commands as “Presets” and “Batch Replace” lists for easy recall, the ability to work with text files, Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, highly configurable processing functions and a realtime preview shows the result before you change anything.
Let’s Get Started
This may look a bit complicated at first, but do not be put off by appearances. You will not need to put your computer science degree to work here.
There may be a lot here, but we are going to keep this simple by covering the basics of replacing a series of words in a Microsoft Word document. So, let’s copy and paste a few words from one of my previous stories into Word and get started with replacing some of those words so we can see how all of this works. With the first two paragraphs copied to Word and saved as a test document, it is time to get started. First we need to fire up Replace Genius and click the “Open” button to the far left of the top menu – beware that you will need to close the Word document or fear the wrath of Microsoft as you receive a message that the document is locked by another program. Browse to your file and get started.
The word I noticed most in these two paragraphs was “this” – note to my editor: it was not overused, I swear! Let’s replace it with “the” – it will render the wording nonsensical, but this is just a test, after all. Here is what we need to do to make this minor change. Click the “Replace” tab in the left column and fill in the two blank spaces. In this case we shall enter “this” in the “find” field and “the” in the “and replace with” field. Enable “batch replace” and click the “Apply” button and you will be off and running. The result is an almost instantaneous replacement of every instance of the word. The process is carried out with no problem and no hassle.
The Verdict
At the exorbitant price of free, the app is well worth a look. If you are an Office power user then you may make use of this every day. If not, it is still a handy tool to have around.
