- The Search window offers more options and more kinds of searches than the Find toolbar. When you use the Search window, object data and image XIF (extended image file format) metadata are also searched. For searches across multiple PDFs, Acrobat also looks at document properties and XMP metadata, and it searches indexed structure tags when searching a PDF index.
- Find command: Recursively Search All Files For A String find command is recommend because of speed and ability to deal with filenames that contain spaces. Cd / path / to / dir find.
Many of us rely on Windows Search to find files and launch programs, but searching for text within files is limited to specific file types by default. Here’s how you can expand your search to include other text-based files.
To add the file type, type the extension in the “Add New Extension to List” box and then click the “Add” button. By default, Windows Search will use a plain text filter to search the contents of those types of files, since another app is not associated. Search for text in multiple Word files via the Terminal Authored by: Glide on Feb 24, '05 02:14:31AM Once you find what you're looking for you might then want to change the sought after text to something else. The search string is what you need to alter. You want to replace SEARCH_FOR with the text you're searching for and REPLACE_WITH with the text you want to use as a replacement.
We have shown you some advanced search operators using Windows Search before and even how to change which files are indexed and how to rebuild your search index. But what about searching for text inside of .html, .php, .js, and other text-based web and scripting files? Windows search allows you to include other file extensions in its index with a few simple clicks.
This technique works in Windows 10, 8, 7, or even Vista. The screens might look a little different, but it’s the same basic process on all versions.
Hit Start, type “index,” and then click the “Indexing Options” result.
In the “Indexing Options” window, click the “Advanced” button.
In the “Advanced Options” window, switch to the “File Types” tab. Select the extension for the file type you would like to include in content searches, and then select the “Index Properties and File Contents” option under the list. The text in the “Filter Description” column should change to reflect whatever filter is used to open that file type by default. In our example, we’re selecting the BAT extension, so the filter type changes to “Plain Text Filter.”
If you don’t find file type you’re looking for on the list, it means no app is set as the default handler for that file type. To add the file type, type the extension in the “Add New Extension to List” box and then click the “Add” button. By default, Windows Search will use a plain text filter to search the contents of those types of files, since another app is not associated.
After the index is rebuilt, searching for text inside one of the new file types should now show results.
How To Search Multiple Files
If you’d like to always search within file contents for a specific folder, navigate to that folder in File Explorer and open the “Folder and Search Options.”
On the “Search” tab, select the “Always search file names and contents” option.
After the index rebuilds, searches in that folder will automatically include file contents.
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If you need to find and replace the occurrence of a word, phrase, URL, or whatever, and it's in several documents, this can be a really tedious task. If you're running Mac OS X, Linux, or really any Unix-based operating system, you can use the command line to save you a lot of time and effort.
All you really need is this simple command:
perl -pi -w -e 's/SEARCH_FOR/REPLACE_WITH/g;' *.txt
Search For Text In Files
The search string is what you need to alter. You want to replace SEARCH_FOR with the text you're searching for and REPLACE_WITH with the text you want to use as a replacement. You'll also want to change *.txt if you're working with HTML files (or another type of text file). This command also assumes you're in the directory you want, so you'll also need to use cd to change to the directory you want or will have to specify the full path. For example:
perl -pi -w -e 's/stupid/awesome/g;' ~/Desktop/*.txt
The above command will replace all occurrences of 'stupid' with 'awesome' found in any .txt files on the desktop. Pretty neat!
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UNIX: Find and replace text across multiple files | Pressbin.com
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