Replace
Replace allows you to replace anything within a field. It can be used to update company names when a name change occurs or used by a data steward to standardize address fields (such as abbreviations). In the example shown, we've recently updated our website domain and need to update our email addresses.
Instead of locating each record and changing each email address individually, we can replace them. Start by going to Edit > Replace.
You can either perform a search and then do the replacement against those results or you can apply the replacement against the entire database (which can take a bit longer).
In the example shown, we're looking at All Records in the database and replacing any email addresses that include colevalley.com with contactease.com. To complete the Replace dialog, you'll need to make the following selections:
- Search What:
- All Records (looks at all records in your database)
- Marked Records (records marked by your user ID)
- Selections Only (selected records in the list view)
- Current List Only (all records in the list view)
- Search Field: Choose the field to search (choose Whole Record to search the entire record)
- Find What: This is the text you are replacing. Use the icon next to the text field to look for records that do not include the data entered.
- Replace With: Type the text you wish to insert.
There are three additional options at the bottom of the dialog:
- Match Case: Locates only those records where the exact case as entered is found
- Find Whole Words Only: Locates complete words only (in other words, searching for "Corp" will not return "Corporation")
- Begins With: The field searched must begin with the text entered
ContactEase will notify you once the first match is found and allow you to select from the following options:
- Replace: replaces the selection and searches for the next one to display
- Replace All: Replaces the selection and continues to replace all other matches
- Find Next: Skips the selection and searches for the next
- Cancel: Stops the search and returns you to the list view
Once the system has concluded its search, a notification will appear indicating the number of changes made and the total number of records searched. Click OK to acknowledge the message.