Finding and Changing Attribute Values
The > feature enables you to search for attribute values and change or remove them. This menu choice opens the Replace Attribute dialog box. This dialog box provides great flexibility in modifying existing attribute values in your document. Following are some of things you can do with the dialog box:
• Search for values on one or more attributes and change them to different values.
• Search for attribute values on a specified tag or set of tags or on all tags in your document.
• Restrict your search to just the attributes on tags contained within a specified tag or set of tags.
• Remove attributes from tags by replacing their existing value with a null value.
Follow these steps to find and change attribute values in your document:
1. Place the cursor where you want to begin searching and choose > .
The Replace Attribute dialog box opens.
2. Enter the name of the attribute or attributes for which you want to change the value in the Attributes option.
You can enter the name of one or more attributes separated by spaces. You can also enter any defined alias names for attributes. If you want to search all attributes, leave this option blank.
3. Enter the attribute value for which you want to search in the Value option in the Find section.
If you want to search for any value, leave this option blank. If you want to search for an empty string, enter a space and then press the BACKSPACE to delete it. If the Exact Match and Match Case options are checked, you can search for an alias attribute value.
4. Enter the tag or tags containing the attribute(s) for which you want to search in the On Tags option.
You can enter the name of one or more tags separated by spaces. You can also enter any defined alias names for tags. If you want to search all tags, leave this option blank.
5. If you want to restrict the search to tags contained within another tag or set of tags, enter those tags in the Within Tags option.
You can enter the name of one or more tags separated by spaces. You can also enter any defined alias names for tags. If you want to search within all tags, leave this option blank.
6. Enter the value you want to replace the existing attribute value in the Value option in the Replace With section.
You can enter a single attribute value or an alias attribute value. If you want to enter an empty string, enter a space and then press the BACKSPACE to delete it. If you want to replace the searched for value with a null value, then leave Value blank. Note that if an attribute is left with just a null value after a replace, that attribute is removed from the tag.
7. If desired, choose options to restrict your search in the Value Search Options section.
8. If desired, choose a direction to search in the Direction section.
9. Click Find Next to start the search.
Arbortext Editor searches your document and stops at the first tag with an attribute value matching the search criteria. That tag is highlighted briefly, and the relevant attribute and value are displayed in the Found option.
10. Click Replace to replace the attribute value displayed in the Found option with the replacement value.
If you do not want to replace the current value, click Find Next. In either case, the search moves to the next tag matching the criteria.
When the search is complete, an information dialog box opens showing how many attribute values were found and how many you replaced.
11. When you are done replacing attribute values, click Close to close the Replace Attribute dialog box
If you just want to replace all of the attribute values that match the search criteria without going through them individually in the document, click on Replace All to start your search. In this case, Arbortext Editor searches your document, replaces all attribute values that match the search criteria, and displays an information dialog showing how many attribute values were found and replaced.