Quick How-To Guide
Start a search: Enter (or select from the 
combo boxes) a search string, one or more file masks, and a path. (You can drag n drop a specific file from Windows Explorer into the File Mask field). Then click the Search button. See Search and Replace Main Window for more information. ZIP files are searched by default. To configure that and many other items, see Program Options. Note: To conduct a new search across only those files that are currently in the Search Results list from a previous search, press CTRL+ALT as you click on Search.
Use Special Characters or Multiple Lines in Search or Replace: Click the 
button to the right of the Search or Replace String fields to use multiple lines or special characters in that field via the Binary Mode dialog. When you are done, the string “Binary mode –>>” will be displayed. To view the string later, click the button again.
Add Lines to the Beginning or End of Files: Enter string to add in the Replace string field in the main dialog. Next, activate the Search String Binary Mode dialog ( button and mark either “Add at top of file” or “Add at bottom of file”. Click the “OK” button. Click the “Srch & Repl” button on the main dialog and the Replace string will be inserted according to your choice.
Use Include &/or Exclude File Masks: File masks follow the syntax of the DOS dir command (e.g., *.*;*.txt;*.doc;*.??1). More than one mask can be specified via a semicolon separator. Exclude masks use the ~ character to denote a mask NOT to search (e.g., *.*;~*.swp;~*.exe;~*.dll). To specify the ~ character as literal in a mask, use \~ (e.g., *.*;\~*.tmp). See File Masks for more information.
Start a replace (registered version only): Enter (or select from the combo boxes) a search string, a replace string, one or more file masks and a path. Then click on the Search & Replace button. See Search and Replace Main dialog for more information. Please See Word Document Notes for important information on search & replaces in non-text files such as Word documents, Word Perfect documents, spreadsheets, etc. Also note: Replacements are not performed on files in ZIPs.
Change Options: Click on the Options button or select Options from the View menu on the menu bar. Among the options you can change are the display colors, replacement prompts, a file (or printer) to write the output to, the number of items to save in the combo boxes, search filters, etc. See Options for more information.
View the Context of a Search Result: Double-click the Search Result or click the right (left for left-handers) mouse button and use the pop-up menu. The internal context viewer can only display text files. However, Search and Replace can automatically view binary files using our external utility, HexView for Windows 95/NT. The registered version allows you to edit the file using the internal context viewer.
Open a File Listed in Search Results: To open the file using the associated program, double-click the “Processing file…” line in the Search Results or click the right (left for left-handers) mouse button and use the pop-up menu.
Use Regular Expressions: Regular Expressions are supported for both Search and Replace (the shareware permits replacements in the first five files of a program session). Enter an expression in the Search field, a counterpart expression in the Replace field (for a search & replace operation), and click on the Search (or Srch & Repl) button. See Regular Expressions for more information.
Use Scripts for Multiple Search and Replace strings or Paths: Click the “Script” button to activate the Script Dialog to process multiple Search/Replace strings, paths and file masks.
Use Scripts to Process Search / Replace Strings: You can use a script to transform your search &/or replace strings in advance of a latter operation. Develop the script you need and activate the Binary Mode dialog to use the Apply Script function. Note: Press CTRL+Binary Mode button to quickly insert the current search/replace string into the respective binary mode dialog.
Use Command Line Parameters: See Command Line Parameters. For all practical purposes, only the Windows 95/NT version can be used from the command line.
Find Files only: Enter one or more file masks and a path. Do not enter a Search String (or blank it out). Then click on the Search button. See Find Files for more information.
Touch Files: To Touch Files, enter (or select from the combo boxes) one or more file masks and a path. Enter any filter options you desire to exclude files by file date &/or file size. Use ‘Touch’ from the Actions Menu or the Touch toolbar button. The touch dialog will prompt you for the date, time, and file attributes to use for all the files described by your settings. Using Touch this way affects all files that meet your path, mask, & filter criteria. If you want to touch specific files, perform a search highlight one or more files in the Search Results list, and use ‘Touch Selected Files’ on the context menu.
Search ZIP Files: Check the “Search ZIP files” field on the main screen to enable searches in PKZIP-com
patible ZIP files that are present in the search path(s). Any files matching the file masks and filter options specified will be extracted to the extract path specified under Search Options and searched. ZIP searching may slow down operations so you turn it off if you do not need it. It is not necessary to specify *.zip on the file mask field to search ZIP files – simply check the box. Note: Replacements are not made on files in ZIPs.
Write Search Results List to a File: The information in the Search Results area of the main dialog can be dumped to a text file by specifying a path & file to write the results to in the “Write Output to File” field under Output Options. The display options under the Output Options dialog are reflected in the output file, e.g., options such as whether filenames are included and the delimiters before &/or after search hits.
View Search Results as HTML: To generate an HTML version of the Search Results and launch your browser, select “View Results as HTML” from the Context Menu or the Edit Menu.
Print the Search Results List: To send the Search Results to your printer, either:
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Select “Print Search Results” from the Context Menu or the Edit Menu to send a copy of the search results list to your printer. Depending on your computer setup, you will be presented with a standard Windows printer select dialog before the results are printed.
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Go to Output Options and enter the phrase “Default Printer” (case insensitive, no quote characters) in the “Write Output to File” field. As with a dump to file (see above), the display settings under Output Options will be reflected in the printed output. Long lines will be wrapped. To turn off printing, return to Output Options, delete the string Default Printer from the “Write Output to File” field, and save the change by pressing the OK button.