Program Name: TextCrawler
Use: Search and Replace Text across multiple files
Cost: Freeware
Works on: Windows (XP/Vista/7)
Detailed Review: Read here (opens in a new window)
Download Link: http://www.digitalvolcano.co.uk/content/textcrawler/tcdownload
I’ve often faced disappointment from various Help Authoring Tools when it comes to a simple text operations such as search and replace among multiple files. Most of the time I had to create a small macro that could do the job, or had to manually search and replace the text in html mode. Few years back I started using specialized text editors such as Crimson Editor and Notepad++ to do the job. They were good but limited in their functionality and took a lot of time to do the job.
I recently started using TextCrawler and have been pretty impressed with its ability to find and replace text among multiple files.
TextCrawler is a powerful yet easy to use freeware tool for searching and replacing text across multiple files. It supports regular expressions and allows you to work with an interactive file list and highlighted search results.
TextCrawler developers define it as “a fantastic tool for anyone who works with text files. This cool utility enables you to instantly find and replace words and phrases across multiple files and folders. It utilises a powerful Regular Expression engine to enable you to create sophisticated searches, preview replace, perform batch operations, extract text from files and more. It is fast and easy to use, and as powerful as you need it to be.”
Features of TextCrawler
- Search and Replace across files, Insert or Delete text
- Fast searching, even on large files.
- Simple to use interface
- Flexible search parameters
- Text Extractor – rip text into a new file
- Post-process extracted text – sort, remove duplicate lines, remove whitespace
- Search and replace using Regular Expressions. Create sophisticated searches.
- Regular Expression test tool
- Regular Expression library – Save your searches.
- Create backup files
- Fully Unicode Compatible – Search ANSI, UTF-8, UTF-16, etc
- Highlighted search results
- Export Results
- Preview Replace Function
- Copy found files to new location
- Batch Find and Replace
TextCrawler is a handy tool for technical writer who have to replace text in html or txt files. Have you ever used TextCrawler? Can you recommend a better tool to do the job? Leave a comment and let me know.
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Looks like a useful tool, but since I work on a variety of platforms I’ll be sticking to old-style vim and sed. They won’t give that neat everything-in-one-place GUI, of course, and I should also take a look at what UltraEdit can deliver; I used to use it a lot, but have drifted away from it these last few years.
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