Quick answer
Paste your text, type what to find and what to replace it with; the tool counts and highlights every match and shows the result instantly. Run several pairs in one go, match case, match whole words, ignore Vietnamese accents (“Ha Noi” matches “Hà Nội”) or use regular expressions with $1, $2. Press “Apply” to write the result back, “Undo” to step back.
When to use find and replace
Renaming a company throughout a template contract, fixing a misspelt name across a list, removing stray spaces before commas, turning 2026-10-21 into 21/10/2026: all of it is find and replace. Editors have the feature, but usually one pair at a time and without accent-insensitive matching. This tool runs in your browser; your text is never uploaded.
How to use it
- 1
Paste your text into the “Text” box.
- 2
Type the text to find and its replacement. Press “Add pair” for more; pairs run top to bottom.
- 3
Choose options: match case, whole words, ignore accents or regex. Match counts appear inside each Find box and matches of the first pair are highlighted.
- 4
Copy the result, or press “Apply to text” to keep editing the new version; “Undo” restores the previous one.
What each option does (finding “an” in “An ăn ban an toàn”)
| Option | Matches | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Default | An, b·an, an | 3 |
| Match case | b·an, an | 2 |
| Whole words only | An, an | 2 |
| Ignore accents | An, ăn, b·an, an, to·àn | 5 |
Handy regex patterns
| Task | Find | Replace with |
|---|---|---|
| Collapse repeated spaces | {2,} | (a single space) |
| Remove spaces before punctuation | \s+([,.;:!?]) | $1 |
| 2026-10-21 to 21/10/2026 | (\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2}) | $3/$2/$1 |
| 10/21/2026 to 2026-10-21 | (\d{1,2})/(\d{1,2})/(\d{4}) | $3-$1-$2 |
| Strip leading “1. ” numbering | ^\d+\.\s* | (empty) |
Examples
Renaming parties in a template
Pair 1: “Acme Ltd” → “Northwind Inc.”; pair 2: “Mr Smith” → “Ms Jones”. One pass, with a count of every change.
Fixing Vietnamese place names
Turn on “Ignore accents”, find “Ha Noi”, replace with “Hà Nội”: it matches “Ha Noi”, “Hà Nội” and “HA NOI”.
Reformatting dates
With regex on, find (\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2}) and replace with $3/$2/$1: “2026-10-21” becomes “21/10/2026”.
Deleting a word
Leave “Replace with” empty and every match is removed.
Common mistakes
- Replacing “cat” also changes “category”.
- Turn on “Whole words only”. Accented letters count as letters, so Vietnamese words are handled too.
- Dots and brackets match the wrong things in regex.
- In regex, . ( ) [ ] + * ? are special; escape them with \ or turn regex off.
- “The regular expression ran too long”.
- Nested repeats such as (a+)+ or (.*)* can take forever. The tool stops after 2 seconds so the page stays responsive; make the pattern more specific.
- A later pair changes text an earlier pair just inserted.
- Pairs run in order on the previous result. Reorder them if needed.
How accent-insensitive matching works
Both the text and the search term are stripped of accents (đ becomes d) for comparison while every character keeps its position, so the original accented text is what gets replaced. Text is also normalised to precomposed Unicode first, so words typed with different keyboards still match.
Regular expressions
Patterns use JavaScript syntax in Unicode mode: \d is a digit, \s whitespace, \p{L} any letter including accented ones. ^ and $ match the start and end of each line. In “Replace with”, $1, $2… insert captured groups and $& inserts the whole match.
Regex runs in a separate Web Worker with a 2-second limit, so a bad pattern cannot freeze the page.
Glossary
- Match
- A piece of the text equal to the search term.
- Whole word
- A match with no letter or digit directly before or after it.
- Regex
- A regular expression: a pattern describing text, e.g. \d+ for a run of digits.
- Group ($1)
- A bracketed part of a regex, reinserted with $1, $2…
Frequently asked questions
Can I replace several different words at once?
Yes, up to 20 pairs, applied top to bottom.
How do I delete a word?
Type it in Find and leave “Replace with” empty.
Does it keep Word formatting?
No, it works on plain text. For long formatted documents, use Ctrl+H in Word.
Is my text uploaded?
No, everything runs in your browser.
How many steps can I undo?
The last 20 “Apply” steps.
How do I match a line break?
Turn on regex and use \n for a new line or \t for a tab.
Ratings and comments
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