Perhaps you wish to change a variable name from [Name of Client] to [Client Name]. Perhaps you want to change the enclosing brackets from '[' and ']' to something else. Forget variables. Perhaps you want to change the word "Executor" as it appears in your estate planning documents to "Personal Representative."

   Making changes such as these within a single document is pretty easy. Just use Word's Find and Replace function and you can accomplish the task in short order.

   But if [Name of Client] appears in dozens of document, and dozens of places within each document, you will want to make those changes using a tool than provides a more global scope. Pathagoras gives you 2 pretty powerful tools.

1. Pathagoras' Search & Replace tool.

   This tool lets you replace selected text in the active document and in all other documents that reside in the same folder. Its operation is similar to that of Word's search and replace function. By selecting the appropriate options, your search and replace can be limited to the current document or expanded

(a) to all documents in the current folder and

(b) even to all documents in child folders of the current folder.

   Activate Pathagoras' Search & Replace tool by clicking the is third button from the top in the Authoring/Editing Toolsl | General Editing Tools screen ('Pathagorizing Tools' tab). After the Search and Replace screen appears, You will be given a variety of options as to action and scope.

 

A click on the Search . . .Replace button leads to the below screen:

Note the'action' and the 'scope' choices that are available to you
with Pathagoras' Search and Replace' tool.

 

   2. Instant Database.

   As stated elsewhere, the Instant Database module is at its core a search and replace device. Not only can it be used to replace variables with person values, it can be used as a 'global' search and replace tool to replace any text (not just variables) with any value.

   If you have a single variable to replace, you probably should just stick with Word's Find and Replace function or Pathagoras' counterpart illustrated in 1. above. But if you want to perform searches and replaces on multiple words, consider the Instant Database. The IDB screen can be used to accomplish multiple search and replace exercises practically simultaneously. (This is particularly helpful when, as the example at the top of this page presents, you are replacing many old variables with new ones.)

  Bonus: when the first button in the Advanced Array (the series of checkboxes at the bottom of the IDB screen) is checked, the replacements will be made against all open documents. So if you happen to have all (or at least several) documents open in separate windows, each of which contain the 'bad' text, consider using the Instant Database to perform a search and replace against all open documents.