Files and Text Tab

This is the main page that allows you to set preferences and parameters for the search and replace process.

This page can have two visual contexts - common and advanced.

Common Context

The common visual context is active by default and is most commonly used. The illustration below shows how the tab looks in this mode.

The table below describes the tab fields.

Field	Description
Folders (drop-down list and text field)	Allows to set the folder that the application will scan for files. You can specify here multiple folders separated with semicolon (;). To facilitate assigning multiple folders, you can open the Folder Manager by clicking the button . The path that you specify here may contain not only canonic path. You can include system environment variables here. For example, you can specify path similar to the following: %WINDIR%\TEMP\
Folders (button)	Clicking this button shows or hides a folder tree in which you can select folders by checking the appropriate boxes. If you select more that one folder, these folders are all included in the *Folders text field* separated by semicolon.
Search files	One or more semicolon-separated masks to match against files in folder(s) to search. The two types of masks are allowed. Wildcard Mask Wildcard mask allows using asterisk to match one or more symbols. For example, the following mask set will match `htm`, `html` and `aps` files: `.htm;.html;.asp` Regular Expression Mask A mask is considered a Regular Expression Mask* if it contains one of the following symbols: `? \| \ / < >` . A regular expression mask is just a regular expression that is matched against a file name. For example, the following mask will match all files names beginning with get, having a digit in the end and an extension .html: `get.+\d\.html`
Exclude files	One or more semicolon-separated masks of files which should not be processed. Note! This field allows only Wildcard Masks (see above). The Regular Expression Masks are not recognized.
Find What button	Click this button to open the Multiline Editor dialog. This dialog allows entering text with multiple lines in normal mode, converting line breaks to `\r` and `\n` as appropriate.
Find What text field	This field is used to enter the text to search for. You can click the drop-down button to select the previously specified text. The recent text list can contain up to 15 lines. You can leave this field empty to only search for all files matching the supplied mask in the search folder(s).
Replace With button	Same purpose as for Find What button, but applies to the replacement text.
Replace With text field	Same purpose as for Find What text field, but applies to the replacement text. Note Generally, it is not necessary to escape non-alphabetical symbols except backslash (\) in the Replace With field if replacing with the Regular Expressions, but doing so is highly recommended to avoid collisions.
Control Escape buttons	If you have the option Regular Expressions selected, shows a menu with regular expressions that you can select and insert. If the Regular Expressions option is not selected, shows a menu with common control escapes.
Regular Expression Laboratory button	Opens the Regular Expression Laboratory window, where you can test your regular expressions.
Options Group
Batch Replace button	Clicking this button invokes a menu containing the Scenario options. If you select a scenario or open the Scenario Manager dialog and activate a scenario, the Files and Text tab switches to the Advanced mode (see below).
Recur subfolders	With this option checked, the HFFR will scan all the nested subfolders of the specified search folder(s) recursively.
Case-sensitive search	Checking this button allows restrict your searches to those phrases that match the sought text exactly. If using Regular Expressions, you can control case sensitivity with the regular expression switches(`\L`, `\U`, `\c` and `\C`). See more information on Regular Expressions.
Regular expressions	Check this button to allow searches with Regular Expressions.
Search only	This option overrides the behaviour of the Replace button. If checked, no replacements will occur even if the sought text is found.
Replace text in file names, not in file content (rename files)	Checking this box brings the programme to the file renamer mode. In this mode, the HFFR does not search the file content. Instead, it searches text in the file names. Depending on the user interface settings, the following scenarios apply. If you click Search, or if the Search only box is checked, the programme searches file names and displays new possible names of the matching files. If you click Replace and the Search only box is not checked, the programme searches file names and renames the matching files. Note! The Renamer cannot be used with scenarios.

The Advanced visual context is active in case any search Scenario is active. In this mode, all standard text options are disabled and the corresponding controls hidden. The scenario name is displayed instead:

The only text control that remains on the screen is Replace text in file names, not in file content (rename files). If you check this box, the active scenario is switched off, because the Renamer cannot be used with scenarios.

Files and Text Tab

Common Context

Wildcard Mask

Regular Expression Mask

Advanced Context

See Also