re: finding every instance of a phase in a group of files by murratcw

October 30, 2008 03:36 AM

voting has closed for this question

dear internet,
i am writing a book which is stored in a group of files on my pc. how can i find every instance of my use of a given word or phrase throughout the whole book?
for example, suppose I suddenly remember that i sometimes called my uncle barry "clyde" sometimes and vice versa. suppose i can move all the chapters onto one disc drive on my machine, or put the many files in one folder. how can i search a given location? murratcw

results 1 vote

download xyz search engine, enter your target phrase and its location and go (1 vote)
 100%
use google desktop. then go through 1000's of hits that aren't even it my book (0 votes)
 0%
metavote: the internet this question, did you? the internet is divided on this question, how about you? how was this question? loved it hated it
sign in to tag this question yourself.

comments

  • Yuri says:

    Get "egrep" for your OS ('tis free!!) and learn about Regular Expressions. (best book on the market: O'Reilly (of course): http://regex.info/ - they also tell you where to get the software, if google is too haystacky for you) They are really not has scary as everyone makes out. Then you have real power over your files, find, change, whatever you like.
    And as it sounds like a long process, that book of yours, look into versioning software to keep track of your efforts!

    Good luck!

    Oct 30, 2008 05:21 AM
  • laner says:

    depends on your operating system. you can look within files on like, microsoft, but i hope you have a good book handy because it may take forever...

    Oct 31, 2008 09:08 PM
  • sign in to add a comment.