14 DAY TRIAL // Dealing with multiple text documents at once can become pretty confusing at some moments, especially if you have to find and replace certain parts of it with something else. You actually have to open the files and type in the two elements (the one you want to be replaced and the one you want to replace the first one with), save the file, etc. Although it is not hard work, it is time consuming and we all know how routine can bring you down.
A faster and better way to do this would be to have an application that can automatically search for a piece of text in the file and replace it with what you are feeding it. And all this without having to open a single file. As crazy as it may sound, Actual Search & Replace does just that. The application is capable of looking inside the text files without opening them and replacing certain elements with whatever you want.
All this action is done accurately and responsibly in just a jiffy. The software comes at a $29.95 price and a thirty-day trial period that allows full testing with absolutely no restriction. Actual Search & Replace is designed as a complex instrument to be used for searching and replacing text, and inserting entire lines across multiple text files at once.
However, you should know from the start that the software supports only ASCII files like plain text or HTML and works with every Windows operating system starting with Windows 95 and ending with Windows Vista.
The interface is nothing much and the simple design is a proof that the developer concentrated more on the the functional side of the software rather than its looks. Actual Search & Replace is straightforward in design, diving directly into settings area.
There are three tabs available in the main application window and a bunch of additional settings to make working with it easier. Find tool is limited to looking inside ASCII files in a certain location and identifying the file and then the line or the query term in the text. Search bar permits typing in entire phrases, words, or regular expressions.
Also, you have the option of making the results more accurate by enabling "Case Sensitive" option or "Whole Words". If you want only certain file types to be verified by the application, you can apply extension masks and confine the search only to a certain type of documents.
Search and Replace tab is richer in options, but as simple to use, as search criteria is limited to phrases, multiline and regular expressions. However, the surplus of options allows the user to modify the text without even opening the files. Users have the possibility of replacing specific strings of text or adding new information before or after the specific strings of text with the utmost use.
The result is displayed immediately and Undo option is always at hand if you want to revert the document to its previous state. The great advantage of Actual Search & Replace is that it can detect multiple documents containing the search query and permits modifying all of them or just the ones the user selects.
By default, Actual Search & Replace will automatically create backups of the original files you modify and if this option is disabled you will no longer be able to use Undo option. The feature is found in Options tab of the main interface. One piece of advice, though: BAK extension Actual Search & Replace used for backup files is considered by some junk files cleaners as useless and is often included on their list of obsolete files. So be careful when using Actual Search & Replace in combination with such apps.
The list of Options also features ignoring leading and trailing spaces when working with multilines, enabling recursive scan when searching files and file size, and date criteria for better accuracy of the results. These options are to be used when searching and working with documents.
Configuring the entire application is done from Settings panel which can be accessed from File menu or by pressing F6. This window allows setting the text editor to be used by the application (by default, it is Notepad), define the type of line separators in altered files (Windows, Unix or Mac) and creating a list of folders and files which should be ignored by the application.
There is nothing complicated in handling Actual Search & Replace and its functionality does not stop here, as it also brings to the table options for batch renaming and replace of text strings in detected files as well as the possibility of erasing all available backups (which are actually the same document but with extension changed to BAK). Opening modified documents for editing is also an option in the list of Actual Search & Replace, so you do not have to browse for them in your file manager.
Actual Search & Replace makes for a great search and replace tool for multiple documents as it is easy to use and the results to your query are almost instantaneous. It comes with valid features and lots of functionality, but its activity is limited to working with ASCII files only (plain text, HTML, etc.) and the price is quite high. However, it works with the same success on both Vista and XP, with absolutely no problems.
The Good
Actual Search & Replace is extremely easy to use and should not pose any problems to users, regardless of their computer skills. It provides great functionality and finding and replacing a string of text in multiple documents becomes a matter of seconds.
It can make backups to the original document in case you want to revert the file to the previous state.
The Bad
It can onlyu deal with ASCII files which makes its action quite limited. Increasing its flexibility in this sense would make it raise to its current price.
The Truth
Actual Search & Replace is designed to work with ASCII files and does a great job with them. It can search in any location on your computer, search a more or less specific element (regular expressions are supported) and replace it with whaever you want. And all this in just a matter of seconds and with opening the files and saving them again with the new modifications.
The price and the fact that it only works with ASCII documents are the worst parts of the software, but it is good at what it does and does it fast.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
