How to switch on "Replace in All Files" ?

[kevinmcl]

I have a product name ( a TLA- three-letter acronym) that needs to be replaced throughout my project with a different tLA (two-letter acronym).

I can find (what is said to be) all instances of the TLA in my project using "Find in Files".

With a topic open and showing the TLA, I switch to "Find and Replace".

Under "Replace with:" where I insert the tLA to replace the TLA, are three action buttons "Replace", "Replace All", and "Replace in All Files".

"Replace in All Files" is greyed-out. Why?

Where is the setting to make this action.... active?
What is it called?

The Flare Help "Using the Find and Replace Feature" says I should "Find Next" to highlight an occurrence of the text in my current topic and then I should choose one of the action buttons. "Replace in All Files" remains grey.

If I find a feature/option that I can use to switch this on, what am I going to lose? Something important, no doubt, but what?

What search terms SHOULD I have been using in the Help, in order to find the needed instructions to un-gray the "Replace in All Files" button?

Thanks,

- Kevin

[KevinDAmery]

In the "Options" section of the Find and Replace dialog, switch the "Find In" drop down from (current document) to (whole project) or (all open documents).

[kevinmcl]

I did that. I also tried the other two options "(all open documents)" and "(documents in same folder)". "Replace in All Files" remains stubbornly grey.

I even tried exiting Flare and restarting it. "Replace in All Files" remains grey.

When I first populate the "Find what" box, only "Replace All" is available under the "Replace with:" box. As soon as I click "Find Next", Flare highlights the first occurrence of the search term in the current topic and "Replace" becomes active, as well as "Replace All" which remains active. "Replace in All Files" remains inactive.

I'm thinking I've botched some setting way over on the other Flare continent that is affecting this one. Can't imagine what it is. But it's about to make me do a whole LOT of work "by hand" on (last count) 273 individual topics.

I'm using Flare 5.0.1 on Win XP Pro x64.



- Kevin

[Edit] And just now I tried the MS repair function (in Control panel) to basically re-install Flare 5. Nothing has changed.


[Edit 2] I forgot that America is closed for Thanksgiving. We had ours in October . . .

[KevinDAmery]

Ok, one other step you need to do: after you have everything set up for find and replace, click the "Start" button at the bottom of the panel.

[kevinmcl]

Oh.

Blush...


So, if I understand this correctly now:

- the [Replace] button is an action - you click it, it performs
- the [Replace All] button immediately blow it is also an action - you click it, it performs
- the [Replace in All Files] button immediately blow those two is NOT an action but needs to be enabled by a button that says (not "enable", but...) Start and lives in a separate section of the dialog

Everybody else found it so obvious that they couldn't imagine that's what I'd stubbed my metaphorical toe on. Thanks, Kev

I described the "logic and consistency" of that UI design to the Test engineer in the next cubicle and he said "You might be a little slow, but it's not you that's brain-dead."
In the ensuing chat, we came up with the scenario by which it came to be. Here's our best guess:

Late in the project (an upcoming - at the time - Flare release) somebody had the bright idea that search-and-replace should be expanded to work across all files in a directory or project. So they implemented it. But since there was a push to get the release out the door, they didn't have time to properly integrate the function. "Next release, we'll clean that up", they said.

Cost-cutting set in, and MadCap laid off the guy who did the original implementation, and the QA person who would have caught it. (Or their contracts came to an end and weren't renewed), or they got better offers and moved to greener pastures.)
Thus, this marvel of thoughtful UI has persisted through several releases.

Is that a good guess?


Happy New Year

[NorthEast]

Quite the opposite; people don't find it obvious, and you're not the first to ask how it works.
The UI is very unintuitive - the first time I used it, I had to read the help to figure it out.

[kevinmcl]

Ah, well... y'see when I used the search facility in these-here forum thingies to try to find previous conversations about this very topic, I didn't get any useful hits (or if there were, they were buried on page umpty-twelve after a boat-load of non-useful hits).

In other words, I did read Flare Help, but I probably used different keywords than did those who successfully found what they wanted. Probably similar keywords to those I used when poking unsuccessfully at the forums.

- Kevin

[NorthEast]

Pressing F1 on the find and replace panel goes straight to the topic, and to be fair it does say to click Start first.
However, even though it's documented, it does go against intuition and common sense!

[Andrew]

Documentation is not a solution for a poor interface!

...at least, that's what I keep telling our developers when I hear the dreaded "oh, we can just document that..."

[i-tietz]

Documentation is not a solution for a poor interface!
...at least, that's what I keep telling our developers when I hear the dreaded "oh, we can just document that..."

*lol* good to see that others have similar problems.
Try to see the positive in it: If the developers developed an interface that can be used intuitively, nobody would need documentation ...

[lauraj]

ZOMG, thank you all for participating in the forums.

I've *never* gotten "replace in all files" to work, but I've got a huge s-and-r to do, and I *need* it. I had the Find in: dropdown, the checkbox on Find in source code, the need to use Find and Replace rather than Find in Files, but I missed that you have to click the random unmotivated Start button before the Replace in All Files is enabled so that you can click on it.

Also, you need to embark on the task after lunchtime and you must be wearing at least some green.