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Find and Replace Text
Replace every match of a word, name, or symbol in one go, with options for capitalization and whole words.
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Find and Replace Text works on your text locally in your browser.
Change a word everywhere at once
Use it when a product is renamed, a date or price changes throughout a document, a misspelling repeats, or pasted text uses the wrong separator. Enter what to find and what to put in its place, and every match is replaced as you type, with a count of replacements so you can confirm the change reached every spot. It works on plain text copied from anywhere — useful when the program the text came from has no find and replace of its own.
How to find and replace text
- Type or paste your text, or choose Upload Document to open a .txt, .md, .docx, or .pdf file.
- Enter the text to look for in Find and its replacement in Replace with. Leave Replace with empty to delete matches.
- Adjust Match case or Whole words only if needed and check the replacement count.
- Choose Copy Result, or Replace Input with Result to make another change on top — Undo Replace brings the previous text back.
How matches are found
- Find and Replace with are plain text: . * ? [ ( $ and other symbols mean only themselves, so you never need to escape anything.
- Match case is on by default. Turn it off to catch every capitalization; the replacement is still inserted exactly as typed.
- Whole words only ignores matches touching another letter, number, or underscore, in any alphabet.
- Matches are replaced from left to right without overlapping, and line breaks in your text are never changed.
| Text | Find → Replace with | Setting | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price: $5.00. Tax: $0.50. | “.” → “,” | Default | Price: $5,00, Tax: $0,50, |
| The cat sat by the category list. | “cat” → “dog” | Whole words only | The dog sat by the category list. |
| Color, color, COLOR | “color” → “colour” | Match case off | colour, colour, colour |
Your text stays on your device
- The search and replacement run in JavaScript in your browser.
- Your text and the words you enter in Find and Replace with are never uploaded to Looty Tools or any other server.
- Uploaded documents are opened and read in your browser; the file itself is never sent to Looty Tools.
- Nothing is stored — refreshing or closing the page clears the text and both fields.
Limitations
- Uploads accept .txt and .md files up to 5 MB, Word .docx files up to 15 MB, and PDFs up to 25 MB and 50 pages. Older .doc files are not supported, and scanned or image-only PDFs have no text to use.
- There are no regular expressions or wildcards, and one search runs at a time. For several different replacements, use Replace Input with Result between them.
- Find is a single line, so a match cannot include a line break.
- Ignoring case uses standard Unicode case matching; a few special cases, such as German ß versus SS, are not treated as equal.
- Formatting such as bold or links is not kept, because the tool works with plain text.
Related text tools
- Case ConverterSwitch text between upper, lower, title, and sentence case.
- Remove Extra SpacesCollapse repeated spaces and trim each line.
- Add Prefix to Each LineInsert the same text at the start of every line.
Guides
- Literal vs. Regex ReplaceWhy a full stop can match every character, what $1 does in a replacement, and when plain-text find and replace is safer than regular expressions.
- Find and Replace MistakesCommon Replace All mistakes — matching inside longer words, losing capitals, swapping two words, repeated runs, and lookalike characters — and their fixes.
- Find and Replace in Word and DocsShortcuts, options, and special codes for find and replace in Word, Google Docs and Sheets, Excel, and VS Code, including line breaks and wildcards.
Find and Replace Text FAQ
- Can I use regular expressions or wildcards?
- No. Find and Replace with are plain text. A period only matches a period, an asterisk only matches an asterisk, and “$1” in the replacement is inserted exactly as typed.
- Is the search case-sensitive?
- Yes by default — Match case is on, so “Cat” and “cat” are different. Turn it off to match any capitalization. The replacement is always inserted exactly as you typed it.
- How do I delete a word everywhere?
- Type the word in Find and leave Replace with empty. Every match is removed; check the result for double spaces left behind, which Remove Extra Spaces can tidy up.
- What does “Whole words only” do?
- It skips matches that are part of a longer word, so replacing “cat” leaves “category” and “concat” alone. It works with accented letters and other alphabets, not just A–Z.
- Can I find or replace line breaks?
- No. The Find box is a single line, so a match cannot span two lines. Line breaks in your text are never changed.
- What if the replacement contains the text I am finding?
- That is fine. Matches are found once, from left to right, in the original text, so replacing “cat” with “cats” adds one “s” per match and never loops.
- Can I upload a Word document or PDF instead of pasting?
- Yes. Upload Document accepts .txt, .md, Word .docx, and text-based .pdf files, or you can drop a file onto the text box. The file is read in your browser — it is not sent to Looty Tools — and its text replaces whatever is in the box. Scanned PDFs without a text layer and older .doc files are not supported.
- Is my text uploaded?
- No. The search and replacement run in your browser; your text and what you type in Find and Replace with are never sent to Looty Tools or saved.
