PDF (adobe.com)

Search for and replace text



You can use the Find And Replace command to search for text and for HTML tags and attributes in a document or a set of documents. The Search panel, in the Results panel group, shows the results of a Find All search.

Note: To search for files in a site, use different commands: Locate In Local Site and Locate In Remote Site.

Search for and replace text

  1. Open the document to search in, or select documents or a folder in the Files panel.
  2. Select Edit > Find And Replace.
  3. Use the Find In option to specify which files to search:
    Selected Text
    Confines the search to the text that’s currently selected in the active document.

    Current Document
    Confines the search to the active document.

    Open Documents
    Searches all documents that are currently open.

    Folder
    Confines the search to a specific folder. After choosing Folder, click the folder icon to browse to and select a folder to search.

    Selected Files In Site
    Confines the search to the files and folders that are currently selected in the Files panel.

    Entire Current Local Site
    Expands the search to all the HTML documents, library files, and text documents in the current site.

  4. Use the Search pop‑up menu to specify the kind of search you want to perform:
    Source Code
    Searches for specific text strings in the HTML source code. You can search for specific tags using this option, but the Specific Tag search provides a more flexible approach to searching for tags.

    Text
    Searches for specific text strings in the text of the document. A text search ignores any HTML that interrupts the string. For example, a search for the black dog would match both the black dog and the <i>black</i> dog.

    Text (Advanced)
    Searches for specific text strings that are either within or not within a tag or tags. For example, in a document that contains the following HTML, searching for tries and specifying Not Inside Tag and the i tag would find only the second instance of the word tries: John <i>tries</i> to get his work done on time, but he doesn’t always succeed. He tries very hard. .

    Specific Tag
    Searches for specific tags, attributes, and attribute values, such as all td tags with valign set to top.
    Note: Pressing Control+Enter or Shift+Enter (Windows), or Control+Return, Shift+Return, or Command+Return (Macintosh), adds line breaks within the text search fields, allowing you to search for a Return character. When performing such a search, deselect the Ignore Whitespace Differences option if you’re not using regular expressions. This search finds a Return character in particular, not simply the occurrence of a line break; for instance, it doesn’t find a <br> tag or a <p> tag. Return characters appear as spaces in the Design view, not as line breaks.

  5. Use the following options to expand or limit the search:
    Match Case
    Limits the search to text that exactly matches the case of the text you want to find. For example, if you search for the brown derby, you will not find The Brown Derby.

    Ignore Whitespace
    Treats all whitespace as a single space for the purposes of matching. For example, with this option selected, this text would match this text and this      text but not thistext. This option is not available when the Use Regular Expressions option is selected; you must explicitly write your regular expression to ignore whitespace. Note that <p> and <br> tags do not count as whitespace.

    Match Whole Word
    Limits the search to text that matches one or more complete words.
    Note: Using this option is equivalent to doing a regular-expression search for a search string that starts and ends with \b, the word-boundary regular expression.

    Use Regular Expressions
    Causes certain characters and short strings (such as ?, *, \w, and \b) in your search string to be interpreted as regular expression operators. For example, a search for the b\w*\b dog will match both the black dog and the barking dog.
    Note: If you are working in Code view and make changes to your document, and try to find and replace anything other than source code, a dialog box appears letting you know that Dreamweaver is synchronizing the two views before doing the search.

  6. To search without replacing, click Find Next or Find All:
    Find Next
    Jumps to and selects the next occurrence of the search text or tags in the current document. If there are no more instances of the tag in the current document, Dreamweaver proceeds to the next document, if you are searching in more than one document.

    Find All
    Opens the Search panel in the Results panel group. If you are searching a single document, Find All displays all occurrences of the search text or tags, with some surrounding context. If you are searching a directory or site, Find All displays a list of documents that contain the tag.

  7. To replace found text or tags, click Replace or Replace All.
  8. When you’re finished, click Close.

Search again without displaying the Find And Replace dialog box

 Press F3 (Windows) or Command+G (Macintosh).

View a particular search result in context

  1. Select Window > Results to display the Search panel.
  2. Double-click a line in the Search panel.

    If you’re searching the current file, the Document window displays the line containing that search result.

    If you’re searching a set of files, the file containing that search result opens.

Perform the same search again

 Click the Find And Replace button.

Stop a search in progress

 Click the Stop button.

Search for a specific tag

Use the Find And Replace dialog box to search for text or tags in a document, and to replace the found material with other text or tags.

  1. Select Edit > Find And Replace.
  2. In the Search pop‑up menu, select Specific Tag.
  3. Select a specific tag or [any tag] from the pop‑up menu next to the Search pop‑up menu, or type a tag name in the text box.
  4. (Optional.) Limit the search with one of the following tag modifiers:
    With Attribute
    Specifies an attribute that must be in the tag for it to match. You can specify a particular value for the attribute or select [any value].

    Without Attribute
    Selects an attribute that must not be in the tag for it to match. For example, select this option to search for all img tags with no alt attribute.

    Containing
    Specifies text or a tag that must be contained within the original tag for it to match. For example, in the code <b><font size="4">heading 1</font></b>, the font tag is contained within the b tag.

    Not Containing
    Specifies text or a tag that must not be contained within the original tag for it to match.

    Inside Tag
    Specifies a tag that the target tag must be contained in for it to match.

    Not Inside Tag
    Specifies a tag that the target tag must not be contained in for it to match.

  5. (Optional.) To limit the search further, click the Plus (+) button and repeat step 3.
  6. If you didn’t apply any tag modifiers in steps 3 and 4, then click the Minus (-) button to remove the tag modifiers pop‑up menu.
  7. If you want to perform an action when the tag is found (such as removing or replacing the tag), select the action from the Action pop‑up menu and, if applicable, specify any additional information necessary to perform the action.

Search for specific text (Advanced)

Use the Find and Replace dialog box to search for text or tags in a document, and to replace the found material with other text or tags.

  1. Select Edit > Find and Replace.
  2. In the Search pop‑up menu, select Text (Advanced).
  3. Enter text in the text field adjacent to the Search pop‑up menu.

    For example, type the word Untitled.

  4. Select Inside Tag or Not Inside Tag, and then select a tag from the adjacent pop‑up menu.

    For example, select Inside Tag and then title.

  5. (Optional.) Click the Plus (+) button to limit the search with one of the following tag modifiers:
    With Attribute
    Specifies an attribute that must be in the tag for it to match. You can specify a particular value for the attribute or select [any value].

    Without Attribute
    Selects an attribute that must not be in the tag for it to match. For example, select this option to search for all img tags with no alt attribute.

    Containing
    Specifies text or a tag that must be contained within the original tag for it to match. For example, in the code <b><font size="4">heading 1</font></b>, the font tag is contained within the b tag.

    Not Containing
    Specifies text or a tag that must not be contained within the original tag for it to match.

    Inside Tag
    Specifies a tag that the target tag must be contained in for it to match.

    Not Inside Tag
    Specifies a tag that the target tag must not be contained in for it to match.

  6. (Optional.) To limit the search further, repeat step 4.