Universal Search-and-Replace | Feedback

Universal Search-and-Replace

in progress

Equal Pigeon

A search-and-REPLACE option in Codex so we can change the names of characters / objects / locations universally across multiple entries with one click. It would save a lot of time instead of manually updating each separate Codex entry.

November 17, 2023

Persistent Woodpecker

is there a release date for this?

Breezy Iguana

Much needed for Character names, lore, etc.

Currently it takes a long time to refactor codex/ novel manually with CTRL+F and/or extensions.

Dutch white Panda

Boy, do I need this!

Nougat Dragon

Honestly! Why isn't this feature in Novelcrafter already! I am now faced with changing ALLOT of codex entries, chapters and so on as I need to change 1 name! If this was a Word document, or something like that, it would be so easy to do Find & Replace, but a tool, specifically built for writing novels, somehow the developers forgot this INSANELY important feature, how!? Please make this happen as soon as possible, pretty please! At this point, I am honestly thinking of copying everything into Word and just do it there, at least I would have Find & Replace.

Proper Firefly

This is fundamental. Having to copy out one scene at a time and make a find/ replace using another app just to paste the

scene

(not chapter) back in is incredibly demoralizing.

Alabaster Stork

Seriously this feature missing is enough for me to not want to persist through the trial period.

Present Scallop

I can absolutely understand how this would be difficult to do in an application like Novelcrafter where everything is stored in separate files (or database entries, not sure how you're doing this under the hood), but please try to find a way to make it happen.

spaceemotion

Present Scallop The exact specs and designs have already been prepared, yeah. We do want to allow find and replace across scenes, codex entries, snippets and such after all.

Maroon Rabbit

It seems this feature has been requested for a while now... nearly 460 times since 2023. Just wondering how many requests it takes to acknowledge that it's an important, fundamental feature for writers to have.

spaceemotion

Maroon Rabbit The number of votes isn't always the top-most reason for us to work on something. It's the development effort. We've been slowly preparing the system to allow search and replace with all the prior updates we've done so far. That's why this post is already set to "in progress". There's still a couple technical things we need to resolve before tackling this.

A proper find and replace will take months to work on (with multiple people), which we haven't had the personnel for in the past. It's one of the things we have on our roadmap for 2025 though :)

Rapid Bovid

Side Solution

Use the extension button in Chrome and navigate to the Chrome Web Store and search for "Find Replace". There are currently 2 extensions that do this competently. I needed to change the name of an object in my novel and I did this in 5 seconds using a browser extension.

Major Vole

Rapid Bovid THANK YOU!!!

Maroon Rabbit

Rapid BovidThanks!!

Rapid Bovid

You're welcome, except it isn't fool proof. I still had to go through my codex manually and I didn't get everything on the first pass. I might have a go at making my own extension in Chrome that systematically goes through all sections of a novel.

Gunmetal Locust

Please!! I’m begging!

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