Find looks for a word or phrase on every page of the tab you are on: the writing of its articles and the words on its elements. Every match is highlighted where it sits, a count says how many there are, and the page turns to the one you are on. Replace swaps the match in hand, or every match at once, for other words.
Opening Find
- Press ⌘F (Ctrl+F on Windows and Linux) while you are working on the document: on the canvas, with something selected, or writing in an article. Words you have selected in the writing become the search.
- Press ⌘⇧H (Ctrl+Shift+H) to open it with the Replace row showing.
- On a touch screen, open the search panel and run Find in Tab, or Find and Replace.
Anywhere the editor does not have the keyboard (typing a comment, in a dialog, while a deck presents, or in an embed), ⌘F is your browser's own find, as usual.
The Find bar opens at the top right of the canvas, the caret in its field. On a phone it runs across the top of the canvas instead.
Finding
Type in the Find field and the matches light up a moment after you stop typing:
- In the writing, each match is tinted yellow, and the match in hand is a stronger orange.
- On an element, a dashed ring goes round each element holding a match, and a solid ring round the one holding the match in hand.
The count sits at the end of the field: 3 of 12, or No Results. Press Enter or Next Match for the next one, and Shift+Enter or Previous Match for the one before; both wrap round at the ends. A match on another page brings that whole page into view (on a flashcard, it turns to that card), and the keyboard stays in the field so you can keep stepping.
Two options sit beside the field:
- Match Case (Aa, or Alt+C): only matches with the same capital letters.
- Whole Word (ab, or Alt+W): only whole words, so "plan" no longer finds "planning".
The search follows the tab as it changes: if you or a collaborator edit it, the matches update and the one in hand stays where it was.
What Find Searches
- Every page of the tab, in page order: on each page, the article writing that starts on it, then the words on its elements, top to bottom.
- An article's paragraphs, headings, list items, code and table cells.
- An element's label, its title and subtitle, its code, the cells of a table and the items of a checklist.
It never searches notes, comments, alt text, link addresses or chart data, and it searches only the tab you are on. A search is plain text, never a pattern: every character means itself. Up to 5,000 matches are counted and highlighted; past that the count reads 5,000+.
Replacing
Press the chevron at the left of the bar (Show Replace) for the Replace row, type the new words in Replace With, then:
- Replace swaps the match in hand and moves on to the next one. Press Enter in the Replace With field to do the same.
- Replace All swaps every match at once (⌘Enter in the Replace With field). A message says how many were replaced.
Replacing keeps the formatting: the new words take the formatting of the first letter they replace, so bold stays bold and a link stays a link. An empty Replace With deletes the matches. A Replace All is one step, so one Undo brings every match back. Collaborators see the change land at once.
Who Can Find and Replace
- Editors find and replace anywhere.
- Participants find everywhere, but replace only in text they can write: an article's writing and the words of elements (labels, table cells, a card's title and subtitle, code). Anything else they find, such as a checklist's items, is shown in grey and passed over, and the bar says how many can't be replaced.
- Viewers can find but not replace: the bar has no chevron and no Replace row.
Nobody replaces text on a locked tab, page, layer or element: those matches are found and shown, but skipped, and Replace says "This text is locked".
Closing Find
Press Escape or Close Find. The highlights go and the keyboard goes back to the canvas. The bar remembers your search and options while the document is open, so the next ⌘F picks up where you left off. Switching tabs keeps the bar open and searches the new tab.
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