find and replace

[bilbo2]

Is there any software available that would facilitate Multi File Find and Replace operations in Open Office Writer. Sausage Software have an add on which allows multi file find and replace across HTML files. Something like this would be very useful for authors who write chapters in separate files and then decide to change something later in the plot. I am not aware of such a facility in either Word or Wordperfect. It would be nice to see it first in Open Office.

[Iannz]

This would not be hard to write. But to help me know where to place this on my "to do" list how many people would be interested in such a feature?
Should it be all:
.odt files in a folder,
or should the user select which files in a folder (using a multiselect list box),
all files matching a pattern, optionally below a certain folder
or as above and user selct which of the "found" files to perform the operation on?

It would be fastest to do this without revision marking and without versioning - but this is a little dangerous, what do you think? The alternative is to automate the opening, finding and replacing, and closing of each of the files. Slower but safer.
_________________
Cheers, Ian

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Extensions_development_basic a wiki about writing OpenOffice.org extensions.

[hwtan]

This is a good feature to have however, the implementation may need many sub-feature to make it usable. For example, it would be great to be able to use the "regular expression" in both the find and replace boxes. Also, the user might want to look at the context of each replacement, so will there be a preview on the context before each change?

In the end of the day it can be quite a large project. Nevertheless, I would encourage lannz to take up the challenge.