Find and Replace Text (literal or regex, with options)

Two modes — literal and regex

Literal (regex off): the find string is matched exactly. Special characters like '.' and '*' are treated as themselves. This is the safe default for most everyday text edits.

Regex (regex on): the find string is interpreted as a JavaScript regular expression. Use this for patterns — for example /\b\w+@\w+\.\w+\b/ to find emails, or (^.+:) to match labels at the start of a line. With multi-line mode, ^ and $ match at line breaks.

Replace string special syntax

When in regex mode, the replace string supports backreferences: $1, $2 etc. for capture groups; $& for the entire match; $$ for a literal dollar sign. Example: find /(\d{3})-(\d{3})-(\d{4})/ replace ($1) $2-$3 reformats US phone numbers.

In literal mode, the replace string is taken as-is — no backreferences, no special handling. What you type is what gets inserted.

Common uses

Bulk edit: standardize spelling ('color' → 'colour' for UK style), update product names, fix typos in long documents.

Code refactoring: rename a variable across a paste of code (use case-sensitive). For real refactoring across many files, an IDE is better.

Data cleanup: convert tabs to commas in CSV, replace one delimiter with another, normalize whitespace.

Markdown to plain: strip Markdown syntax with regex (e.g., /\*\*([^*]+)\*\*/g → $1 to remove bold markers).