Find and Replace

What it is and why it exists

A product name changes, a term is renamed, a placeholder such as "TBD" finally gets its value, or an old unit has to go. In a specification of hundreds of requirements the same text has to change in many artifacts at once.

DOORS Next can only edit one artifact at a time. Find and Replace searches a whole module or a selection, shows every place where the text is and how it will read, and replaces it everywhere after one confirmation. Only the visible text changes: formatting, links, pictures and tables stay as they are.

Problems it solves

• Opening hundreds of artifacts one by one to change the same word or phrase.
• Missed places: an old term that stays in a few requirements nobody found.
• Bulk changes that break formatting or links because the stored text was edited blindly.
• No record of what a bulk change did, and no easy way back.

Benefits

• See before you change: every artifact with the text, and for each place the old text struck through and the new text after it.
• Exact matches: Match case and Whole words only, so "pump" does not change "pumps" or "Pump" unless you want it to.
• Formatting stays: bold, lists, links and pictures are kept; only the text you are looking for changes.
• Names too: search the artifact names as well as the primary text, if you choose.
• Whole modules in one run, without the 200-artifact limit of selections, and an Excel change report with every text before and after.

How to use

1. In Settings (click Change when it is folded), type the text in Find what and the new text in Replace with (leave it empty to remove the text). Choose Match case, Whole words only and where to search: Primary text, Name or both. Done folds Settings to one line.
2. Open a module, choose Whole module under Replace and click Find. The result shows how many artifacts have the text and how many times; open a row to see each place with the old text struck through and the new text after it.
3. Click Replace, read the confirmation and click Replace in N artifacts. A progress card shows the run, and you can Stop at any moment. Click Log in the result to download the change report.
4. To change only some artifacts, select them in DOORS Next and choose Selection · N: the widget searches them at once. Click Replace and confirm.

Good to know

• Run Find and Replace in a change set, so you can discard the change set if the result is not what you wanted.
• The text is found exactly as typed, spaces included; there are no wildcards. A space also finds a non-breaking space.
• A text split by formatting (part of a word in bold) is not replaced; the search counts such places so you can fix them by hand.
• Pictures and other files keep their content; only their name changes when Name is chosen.
• On the whole module, Replace also works without a search first: every artifact is read and the text is replaced where it is; the numbers are known at the end.
• On very large modules the browser can get slow. Stop the run, reload the page and open the module again: Continue from … goes on from where it stopped, with the same settings.