Share via

OneNote Search and Replace

  • Article

It is Friday evening after a nice long busy week and I got permission to release another powertoy!  This powertoy is the OneNote Search and Replace feature so please check it out.  I know a few people have asked for this on the newsgroup as well as via the comments section.  Perfect for when code names change (think Longhorn-->Vista).  This powertoy was written by an superstar OneNote developer so a big round of applause for Jeffrey; thank you much for coding this and letting me release this.

How it works

  1. Download the application from here: OneNoteSearchReplace.zip
  2. Extract the application and run the setup.exe
  3. You will now have a new toolbar button in OneNote which looks like this:
    image
  4. Click the button and you will see a window like this:
     image
  5. Now you can choose your search terms and what scope.
  6. Click Preview and Replace to try it out!

Remember all powertoys available from this blog are AS IS and are not supported by Microsoft.  

Please use at your own risk, but please do enjoy!  Have a great weekend all!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    June 22, 2007
    PingBack from http://www.onenotepowertoys.com/2007/06/23/onenote-search-and-replace/

  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2007
    I am a big Search and Replace person, especially in Word and Dreamweaver. It boggled my mind why the

  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2007
    Daniel Escapa has released a new OneNote 2007 Powertoy . The Search and Replace Powertoy does just what

  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2007
    Hey Daniel. Good idea but the folks at GBM are reporting it's not UMPC-friendly at 800x480 any chance for supporting that resolution?

  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2007
    Josh - Yes sadly it seemed to be hard coded, that is why this is a powertoy since it isn't as polished as most things Microsoft officially releases.  Sorry about that but alas..."AS IS"  BTW sorry to be unhelpful but there is really all I can do.  Otherwise I hope it works well...take care.

  • Anonymous
    June 25, 2007
    Just last week I was looking for Search and Replace.  I couldn't find it.  I started to blog about it and was going to ping you with a big, old, WHY CAN'T I SEARCH AND REPLACE?  I got a little distracted with other work and didn't send it yet.  Great timing and nice to find this now! Now I can delete that draft post.  :)

  • Anonymous
    July 02, 2007
    I was elected to write regarding this add-in and the Read over your How-to on creating an add-in for OneNote

  • Anonymous
    August 12, 2007
    It's getting hard to keep blogging about OneNote in detail now that I am no longer on the team, but I

  • Anonymous
    August 12, 2007
    It's getting hard to keep blogging about OneNote in detail now that I am no longer on the team, but

  • Anonymous
    October 08, 2007
    After I install it, I don't see any new button in OneNote. I just uninstalled and reinstalled it just to make sure I didn't do anything wrong. There's a folder in my Programs directory called "OneNote Search and Replace" with files such as an icon, dll and an executable. I just can't figure out how to get the button in OneNote.

  • Anonymous
    October 13, 2007
    I installed it and it just says Search Failed no matter what I try to search for and what options I set.  OneNote2007...

  • Anonymous
    October 17, 2007
    Same problem as Joel. Installed it on OneNote 2007 on Vista Business and no matter what I try searching for, I get a "Search failed".

  • Anonymous
    October 24, 2007
    Some other people have reported that if you never installed Desktop search 3.0 you get "search failed". Maybe that solves it?

  • Anonymous
    January 18, 2008
    A few astute readers pointed out I (intentionally) missed a few addins the OneNote team finished last

  • Anonymous
    January 18, 2008
    A few astute readers pointed out I (intentionally) missed a few addins the OneNote team finished last

  • Anonymous
    February 13, 2008
    This is great!  I am among those avid OneNote users who missed the original posts about these powertoys.  Thanks for the repost, and keep up the great work!

  • Anonymous
    February 14, 2008
    Like several others, when I press the Preview button I get a "Search Failed" message. Pressing the Replace button does nothing. This is on OneNote 2007 12.0.4518.1014, running under XP SP2.

  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2008
    You Have to install Windows Desktop Search for this PowerToy to work. I was having the "Search Failed" error consistently now matter what I searched for, but installed the WDS fixed that. The PowerToy works perfectly now. Get Windows Desktop Search for XP at the URl below: http://tinyurl.com/37hn2q

  • Anonymous
    March 10, 2008
    Hello. I find this very useful but with large notebooks, and maybe it's a Vista thing, but I can search for text but all that happens is that the Vista cursor changes to loading (spinning circle) and then the list name appears. After that the cursor still spins and the program state changes to 'Not responding' and I cannot do anything apart from quit the program or restart my PC. Any ideas? Many thanks. Ian

  • Anonymous
    April 02, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2008
    I have the same problem -- the icon greys out after I click it.  Then nothing happens.

  • Anonymous
    August 10, 2008
    This is a wonderful addition to onenote.  Used on several computers.  Absolutely no bugs and works well.

  • Anonymous
    September 04, 2008
    Why in the seven portals of the Gaia Goddess of the Lunar Palace of Antiqua did Microsoft NOT INCLUDE FIND & REPLACE IN ONENOTE?????? I thought it was supposed to be FUNCTIONAL software i.e. useful??? I was tearing my hair out trying to figure out where the function was - and to make matters worse, they don't even think to mention it in the Help files! Argh! Thanks very much for this PowerToy - I do appreciate your work - but Microsoft should be making a fully functional and supported version for OneNote! Plus, I don't want to install Windows Desktop Search so I suspect this isn't going to work for me anyway... I can't believe Microsoft - once again defying all logic and common sense.

  • Anonymous
    December 11, 2008
    I am a very sleep deprived 2nd year law student trying to organize my outlines for my two remaining finals.  I was just so frustrated at having to go through hundreds of pages of notes to format every "Rule:" that showed up individually.  If I could send hugs or cookies via the net,  you would have lots and lots (especially since that's pretty much all I can afford these days ;)).  I just wanted to comment here and say thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you... THANK YOU!  Stress meter slowly receding from red zone.... you saved me from having a real life BSOD. :)

  • Anonymous
    December 14, 2008
    I  installed  the  powertoys but  no  icon  in  the  tool  bar. Using  vista and  office  2007. please  show  me  the  way! thanks  

  • Anonymous
    January 29, 2009
    I had the same issue trying to use the Search and Replace add-in (grays out when clicked - nothing happens) I went back into my Office installtion setup and noticed that .NET Programmability Support was not installed.  Just for good measure I also installed Microsoft Forms 2.0 .NET Programmability Support. Worked like a charm! I launched OneNote and clicked the button; the form window popped right up.  I didn't even have to reboot or go dig out my Office 2007 installation media!

  • Anonymous
    March 07, 2009
    Great powertoy - thanks!   One suggestion: Could 'Selection' be added to the scope option so you can replace only within highlighted/selected text on a page? Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    March 16, 2009
    Daniel, Do you happen to have the source code? The search/replace doesn't seem to work well with a "complex" notebook of mine and I wouldn;t mind debugging it... Thanks, Milver

  • Anonymous
    May 08, 2009
    This is brilliant Daniel you are king of OneNote!!!

  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2009
    I am having the same problem as Julie above and I noticed no one responded to her. I have Windows desktop 4.0, I even tried to downgrade to 3.0 but that did not help. After I run the setup of search and replace, I am not seeing any new toolbar in One Note. If anyone could walk me through a suggestion, it would be very helpful

  • Anonymous
    June 24, 2009
    Ok I finally figured it out. I had to check windows for updates (which I had set for automatic but because I use Mozilla and not Internet Explorer were not working) and once my windows updates were installed, I re-installed find and replace and it worked. It is a lifesaver because I am studying for the NYS Bar and my outline had one huge error. Thanks

  • Anonymous
    July 09, 2009
    Downloaded and installed and this Powertoy works perfectly.  Thanks for the much needed replace feature!

  • Anonymous
    December 01, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 08, 2010
    It would be good if somebody could enhance this powertoy so it can search and replace the contents of links, etc. Right now, it only finds and replaces the text that you see on the screen.  That means if you have hyperlinks that you want to change, you still have to do that manually. Bill.

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2010
    Hello, Is there any possibility to get source code? I'd like to add several textboxes, so user can replace multiple items at the same time. Also I would like to replace labels. Thank You.

  • Anonymous
    May 03, 2010
    Hi Daniel, Any plans to make this available for OneNote 2010 64-bit? Thanks, Simon

  • Anonymous
    September 01, 2010
    How do I delete this add-in from Onenote. I'm running Windows 7 64-bit with Onenote 2010. The replace feature is simply not working and now I can't find the "uninstall" to get it off the add-in screen. ... and please ask someone at Microsoft to implement this feature properly asap. It's the single biggest missing feature that I've come across and a big issue when using Onenote to take notes during a meeting or lecture.

  • Anonymous
    December 26, 2010
    It appears I'm in the same boat as Mike Hoffmann above. In my case, the powertoy installs fine, and Search works fine, and when I click Replace, the results window empties out but the document isn't changed. I'm running Windows 7 Enterprise x64, with 32-bit Office 2010. While I'm able to use other OneNote 2007 powertoys in OneNote 2010, unfortunately this isn't one of them.

  • Anonymous
    January 02, 2011
    I find it AMAZING One Note 2010 doesn't have built it search and replace. Amazing!

  • Anonymous
    January 03, 2011
    Awesome job Jeffery works Perfect, and it was exactly what I was looking for, this is what the internet is all about!

  • Anonymous
    February 07, 2011
    Search and Replace allowed me to search for strings with numbers in them. Fantastic!

  • Anonymous
    February 07, 2011
    This does not find the words I search for, nor does it replace the random words that it finds, it just deletes them. Windows 7, Onenote 2007. If you can't have find and replace in the program, don't even put out onenote.  

  • Anonymous
    February 14, 2011
    I found that i can only search on about ~64 characters Any chance of expanding this

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2011
    How can an Office product not have search and replace?  I have to download and install a separate plug-in?  This should be a standard function, not a "powertoy".  Search and replace is neither a toy nor should it be considered powerful -- it's basic functionality like being able to type text into ON.

  • Anonymous
    March 29, 2011
    After installing Onenote Search and Replace, Onenote crashes every time I close it.

  • Anonymous
    March 29, 2011
    See my previous comment.  If I uninstall Onenote Search and Replace, this problem goes away.

  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2011
    I have windows7 onenote 2010 x64 i installed it but i could not see it, any new updates?

  • Anonymous
    May 23, 2011
    Could anyone pleas update this Add in to version 2010 ? This addon is not working with my OneNote 2010.

  • Anonymous
    June 01, 2011
    I'd love to see it for 2010 as well. It installs fine but I can't find the icon afterwards.

  • Anonymous
    July 16, 2011
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 20, 2011
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 09, 2011
    Thanks Daniel,  Wonder who was asleep at the wheel when microsoft let onenote out the door without this most basic feature!  Arrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!!

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2011
    how do i uninstall this add in?  It doesn't work.

  • Anonymous
    December 11, 2011
    Agree with comments - very strange not to include something as basic as S&R - I want it because when I paste in a long column of text from somewhere else I'd like to remove the paragraph breaks so I have 'normal' across the page text rather than one narrow column.

  • Anonymous
    January 06, 2012
    What regular expressions and something with a little more power for this power toy.

  • Anonymous
    February 13, 2012
    It finds everything, but then when I click Replace nothing actually happpens.

  • Anonymous
    April 08, 2012
    This toy dose not seem for OneNote 2010.  It does nothing. Uninstallation can be done by running setup.exe again. You should choose "Remove ..." instead of "Repairt ..." when executing setup.exe again. FYI: Win7 64bit, OneNote 2010 included in Office 2010 64bit BR

  • Anonymous
    August 06, 2012
    Would be great to have a 2010 version :-)

  • Anonymous
    February 06, 2013
    Before updating this PowerToy for OneNote 2010, how about rehosting it for 2007? The download link is dead and online searches/archives only point here.  If someone has an archived copy I'd appreciate it!

  • Anonymous
    April 02, 2013
    Even OneNote 2013 doesn't have it.  The help tells you to do a search, but then manually select each found instance and paste your replacement text.  Really?!! I can't believe they would even document that.  Sad. Time to move to Apple and use Evernote.

  • Anonymous
    October 21, 2014
    Hi, Sounds exactly what I need! (can't believe OneNote has no find and replace feature!!!) However there is a big issue - none of the download links in your article work! Neither the one to the zip file or the screenshot images :( Hope you can get this fixed soon. Matt

  • Anonymous
    October 16, 2015
    Because the link for the application provided in this post no longer works, I have made the file available via this link: onedrive.live.com/redir

  • Anonymous
    October 16, 2015
    And I also found a pdf file I made several years ago of the original content (including images) of the above post: onedrive.live.com/redir