How to Use Find and Replace?

[Ron Kihara]

Can anyone tell me how to use find and replace. I was expecting this to work like it does in a word processor. It takes me to the search box, but what I have to do after that is a puzzle. I see no info in the manual on how to use this.

[Brendan]

Hi Ron,

There are actually 2 Find & Replaces in Tap Forms 5 for Mac. There is one that’s used when the Note field edit window is active. That may be the one you triggered.

The second is the Advanced Find & Replace available from the Records menu.

See the attached screenshot.

Basically you type what you want to find, choose the field you want to find the value in, enter what you want to replace it with and away you go. There are other settings there to determine how you want to find the term you’re searching for.

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[Tyson Schoeber]

Hi Ron and Brendan,

I had exactly the same question today and managed to find this old thread. Brendan’s explanation was perfect so I learned something new about TapForms! As a result, I probably saved two hours of manual data clean-up work after discovering this feature! So thanks to both of you!

That said, I also agree with Ron’s query. The standard “Find and Replace” that can be found under the Edit menu does not seem to do anything at all. It is not clear that it only applies to Note fields and I actually thought it was some sort of bug.

My hunch is that the kind of people who are looking for a Find and Replace function probably want what TF calls “Advanced Find and Replace.” So maybe it should be moved under the Edit menu! As strange as it may seem, I don’t think I would EVER have thought to look for Find and Replace under the Records menu! ;)

[Brendan]

Hi Tyson,

Perhaps I need to either move it to the Edit menu or add a copy of it to the Edit menu so as not to alarm people who are used to seeing it under the Records menu.

By the way, Bento had “Advanced Find…” under their Records menu, so that’s why I put mine there too. A ton of my customers are Bento refugees, so I did what I could to make them more comfortable in using Tap Forms.

[Daniel Leu]

Never would have found the “advanced find and replace” if not for this thread. Adding/moving it to the Edit menu does make sense to me.

[Brendan]

Ok, the next update will have a copy of the menu item within the Find menu under Edit.

See attachment.

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[Tyson Schoeber]

I wonder if it might help to add some explanatory text to the regular Find and Replace options? As Ron noted earlier, that option appears to do nothing — unless you’re in the exact right spot (i.e. a Note field). Alternatively, could the simple Find and Replace be greyed out unless the pointer is actually in a Note field?

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