Finding and replacing text within a text file can be done using any text editor. Below is a listing of all the major text editors with information on how to replace text.
- Windows 7 Notepad Replacement
- Notepad Download For Windows 10
- Windows Notepad Replacement
- Best Windows 10 Notepad Replacement
In most programs, the Find and Replace option can be accessed by pressing the Ctrl+H or Ctrl+Fkeyboard shortcut on the PC. On Apple computers running macOS, the shortcut key may be either Command+H or Command+F.
Replacing text within Notepad
Microsoft Notepad is included with all versions of Windows and can replace text in plain text files. To replace text in Notepad, follow the steps below.
Why replace Notepad? This is a good question to begin with, and the answer is for the average user, Notepad does everything it needs to with its short list of features. However, if you're reading this article we're not going to assume you're an average user. VIM Editor is one of the best Notepad alternatives for Windows. The software is. Open All.txt Files through Notepad. This one is the easiest way to replace the Notepad with 3rd party Note apps. Before doing the steps below makes sure to install the 3rd party Notepad app such as Notepad or Sublime Text on your PC. A program like Notepad has a lot of file and folder dependencies, and when you copy the EXE file to the desktop, there are a lot of errors. Therefore, we cannot use this instead of Notepad. Remember, when choosing an alternative, do not download the installer or installer. Replace Notepad in Windows. Notepad Replacer will allow you to replace the default Windows version of Notepad with whatever alternative you would like to use. Save up to 50% off any of our desktop apps in our 2020 Holiday sale, including DisplayFusion, ClipboardFusion, FileSeek, LogFusion, TrayStatus, and VoiceBot!
- Open the text file in Notepad.
- Click Edit on the menu bar, then select Replace in the Edit menu.
- Once in the Search and Replace window, enter the text you want to find and the text you want to use as a replacement. See our using search and replace and advanced options section for further information and help.
Press the keyboard shortcut key Ctrl+H to open the Replace window.
NoteThe Replace feature in Notepad is limited. If you need to do more than only replace words, consider a different editor.
Replacing text with WordPad
Microsoft WordPad is included with all versions of Windows and can replace text in plain text files. To replace text in WordPad, follow the steps below.
- Open the text file in WordPad.
- In the Ribbon menu, on the Home tab (shown below), click the Replace option.
- In the Search and Replace window, enter the text you want to find and the text you want to use as a replacement. See our using search and replace and advanced options for further information and help.
Press the keyboard shortcut key Ctrl+H to open the Replace window.
NoteThe Replace feature in WordPad is limited. If you need to do more than only replace words, consider a different editor.
Replacing text in Microsoft Word
To replace text in Microsoft Word, follow the steps below.
- Open the text file in Microsoft Word.
- In the Ribbon menu, on the Home tab, click the Replace option.
- In the Find and Replace window, enter the text you want to find and the text you want to use as a replacement. See our using search and replace and advanced options for further information and help.
Press the keyboard shortcut key Ctrl+H to open the Replace window.
Clicking the More button in the Find and Replace window gives additional Search Options as shown in the above picture.
Replacing text with Notepad++
Notepad++ is a powerful free and open-source text editor that supports more options for finding and replacing text than any of the above suggestions. Ps4 solid state drive. To replace text in Notepad++, follow the steps below.
- Open the text file in Notepad++.
- In the top menu bar, click Search and select Replace.
- In the Replace window, on the Replace tab, enter the text you want to find and the text you want to use as a replacement. See our using search and replace and advanced options for further information and help.
Windows 7 Notepad Replacement
TipPress the keyboard shortcut key Ctrl+H to open the Replace window.
Replacing text in TextPad
Although not free for the full program, TextPad is another fantastic text editor with powerful search and replace features. To replace text in TextPad, follow the steps below.
- Open the text file in TextPad.
- In the top menu, click Search and then Replace.
- In the Replace window, enter the text you want to find and the text you want to use as a replacement. See our using search and replace and advanced options for further information and help.
Find and replace text in Excel
TipThe Ctrl+F and Command+F keyboard shortcut keys also work in Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet programs to open the Find and Replace text box.
In Microsoft Excel, older versions featured the Edit menu, and the Replace option is found in that menu. Newer versions of Excel feature a Ribbon menu, and the Find & Select option is found on the Home tab, at the far right side as shown in the picture.
Once the shortcut key opens or you click the Replace option under Find & Select, a Find and Replace window opens. On the Replace tab, enter the text you want to find and replace in the spreadsheet.
Notepad Download For Windows 10
Using Search and Replace and advanced options
After understanding the above basics on how to open the search and replace features, understanding all the capabilities possible can make your searches even more efficient.
The basics
All the replace options have the two basic features shown below.
- Match case makes the search case-sensitive, which is useful for finding searches like Names.
- Match whole word matches the whole search instead of words containing the word. For example, a search for 'can' only matches 'can' and would not match 'cannot' or scan' in your file.
Wildcard and regular expressions
Programs like Microsoft Word that support wildcards and programs like Notepad++ and TextPad that support regular expressions help perform a search for almost anything imaginable. For example, using regular expressions you can replace text found at the beginning of a line, end of the line, works containing a certain amount of characters, and anything else you need.
Other advanced options
More advanced programs may have the features mentioned below. If your program does not include one of the features below, you need to consider switching programs so you have access to these features.
- Use wildcards is a feature found in Word that allows you to use wildcards.
- Regular expression is the most powerful feature for finding and replacing text in a file.
- Sounds like (English) is a Word feature to match English sounding words. For example, searching for 'color' would find 'colour' in your document.
- Match prefix is a Word feature to match the prefix (beginning) of a word.
- Match suffix is a Word feature to match the suffix (end) of a word.
- Ignore punctuation characters is a Word feature to ignore punctuation marks like the single quote in 'don't.'
- Ignore white space characters is a Word feature to ignore spaces in words.
Additional information
- See our replace term for further information and related links.
I've previously written about some of the best Notepad alternatives for Windows, but I didn't mention anything about replacing Notepad in general. Personally, I find Notepad really useful because you can paste heavily formatted text into it and copy plain unformatted text.
However, if you never do this and only use Notepad when Windows forces you, that is, opening a word document, perhaps replacing Notepad with something else will make you more productive. Unfortunately, the procedure for completely replacing Notepad is quite long and tedious. For most people, I don't think the benefits outweigh the cost of following this procedure.
An easier way to partially replace Notepad is to download an alternative to Notepad and then simply set the new program as the default program for certain file types Basically, you should go to the Set File Associations dialog box and just change all the current defaults to Notepad. You can also change any other extension to open it with the new Notepad alternative.
This is obviously much easier and safer. However, I'm still going to walk you through the steps of actually replacing Notepad with another program, if that's really what you want to do.
Before we move on to the procedure, you should test the alternative program to make sure it works on its own. First, you need to download a version of the program without installation. For example, if you choose to use Notepad2, first make sure you download the 32-bit or 64-bit program files, not the installation.
Unzip the files and you should have a folder with multiple files, one of which is an application (EXE) file. Copy this file to your desktop and see if you can run the program.
If the desktop program starts without error, you can use it to replace Notepad. A program like Notepad ++ has a lot of file and folder dependencies, and when you copy the EXE file to the desktop, there are a lot of errors. Therefore, we cannot use this instead of Notepad. Remember, when choosing an alternative, do not download the installer or installer.
Replace Notepad in Windows
So, the first thing you need to find out is 32-bit or 64-bit Windows. You can do this by going to Explorer, This PC, and then clicking the C drive where Windows is installed. If you see two folders, Program Files and Program Files (x86), it means you have 64-bit Windows.
You can also just click Start, type System, press Enter, and then check what is listed under System Type.
To replace Notepad, we have to replace the Notepad executable, which is stored in several different locations in Windows. If you have 32-bit Windows, only two places. For 64-bit Windows, these are three locations.
Windows Notepad Replacement
C: Windows C: Windows System32 C: Windows SysWOW64 – Windows 64-bit only Windows 10 64 bit usb.
Now we need to go through all the above places and delete the notepad.exe file. The procedure is the same for every file, so I'll only show you one time, and then you'll have to do it yourself for the other two.
Best Windows 10 Notepad Replacement
Go to C: Windows and scroll down until you see Notepad. Now right-click on Notepad and select Properties.
Now go to the Security tab and then click the Advanced button at the bottom.
At the top, click the 'Edit' button next to the owner. This file must be owned by TrustedInstaller. If you are using Windows 7, go to the Owner tab and click the Change button.
In the field that appears, enter the word 'administrators' and click 'Check Names'. It should format it correctly with the computer name in front.
Click OK and you will see the owner now says Administrators instead of TrustedInstaller. In Windows 7, you don't need to type anything. You should see admins listed below, so just select them and click OK.
Now you need to exit all security screens by clicking OK. Make sure you don't click Cancel. You will need to click OK twice: once to exit the advanced security settings screen and once to exit the notepad.exe properties screen. You should go back to the explorer window.
Go ahead and right click on notepad.exe again and select Properties. Click the Security tab again, but this time click the Edit button.
Click Administrators in the list of groups and users, and then select the Allow Full Control checkbox in the permissions box below.
Now click OK to close the permissions screen. You may receive a pop-up message that you are changing permissions and this may reduce the security of your computer. Just click Yes to continue. Then click OK again to close the Notepad Properties dialog box.
You will be returned to the explorer window. You should now be able to right click on the notepad.exe file and delete it. Now take the new notepad application file and copy it to the C: Windows folder.
Please note: if you have a 64-bit version of Windows, you should copy the 64-bit version of the program. This is not a requirement, and if the program does not have a 64-bit version, you can use the 32-bit version and it will still work.
You will also receive a dialog box informing you that access to the folder is denied, but just click Continue and the file will be copied. Now rename the file to notepad. Please note that you do not need to type notepad.exe because Windows hides application extensions by default.
When you rename the file to notepad, you will also see that the icon is replaced with the regular notepad icon. Don't worry, the program is still your Notepad alternative, but Windows changes the icon because it's a system folder and Notepad is a system program.
Now you need to do it again in C: Windows System32 if you have 32-bit Windows, or twice more (C: Windows System32 and C: Windows SysWOW64) if you have 64- bit version of Windows.
The first time takes a little time, but the second and third times pass very quickly. After all of the original files have been replaced, you can click Start, type Notepad, and press Enter. Instead of booting Windows Notepad normally, you should see your replacement program.
You may receive a warning that the publisher of this program cannot be verified on first launch. This is because Windows verifies the signature of the EXE file and knows that it is not the original file. In this case, simply uncheck the 'Always ask before opening this file' checkbox and click Run.
Now when you start it again, it should just open fine without any dialogue.
That's all! Overall, it works well, and you can choose from several Notepad alternatives when you follow these steps. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to comment. Enjoy!
– Top 10 picsart editing.