How to use the Bulk Text Replace
Apply multiple replacements at once in four steps:
1
Paste your text
Paste the text to transform into the input area, or upload a file.
2
Add replacement rules
Click 'Add Rule' to add find/replace pairs. Each row has a Find field, a Replace field, Regex toggle, Case Sensitive toggle, and an enable/disable checkbox. Use the drag handle to reorder rules.
3
Configure and order
Rules are applied top to bottom in sequence — later rules can match text transformed by earlier rules. Toggle individual rules on or off without deleting them.
4
Apply and review hit counts
Click 'Apply Rules' to process all enabled rules. Per-rule hit count badges appear in each row showing how many replacements that rule made.
When to use this tool
Use for complex multi-step text transformations that need many substitutions at once:
- →Expanding a full set of abbreviations in a document in one pass — replacing 'w/' with 'with', 'b/c' with 'because', and so on
- →Migrating a code block by renaming multiple variables, functions, or constants simultaneously
- →Applying a style guide's word substitution list to a draft — replacing informal terms with their formal equivalents
- →Performing data normalisation with multiple lookup-and-replace rules on exported CSV or log data
- →Redacting multiple categories of sensitive data (names, emails, phone numbers, IDs) from a document in a single run
- →Batch-translating or localising recurring UI strings in a text file when switching between two language conventions
Frequently asked questions
Q:Are rules applied in sequence or all at once?
Rules are applied sequentially from top to bottom, one at a time. This means the output of rule 1 becomes the input for rule 2, and so on. As a consequence, a later rule can match text that was just introduced by an earlier rule. If you need rules to be independent of each other, order them carefully or run them on separate copies of the text.
Q:Can I enable or disable individual rules without deleting them?
Yes — each rule row has an enable/disable toggle that greys out the rule and skips it during processing without removing it from the list. This is useful for temporarily deactivating a rule to test its effect, or for keeping a library of rules where only a subset are active for a given run.
Q:Does each rule support regex or only plain text?
Each rule independently supports either plain text matching or JavaScript regex matching — toggle the 'Regex' checkbox per row. Rules without the regex toggle use literal string matching. Rules with the regex toggle enabled treat the find field as a JavaScript regular expression and support capture groups ($1, $2) in the replacement field.
Q:What do the hit count badges mean?
After clicking 'Apply Rules', a count badge appears in each rule row showing how many replacements that specific rule made during the last run. A green badge indicates one or more matches were found and replaced. A neutral badge shows zero — meaning the rule's search term was not found in the text at that point in the processing sequence. Zero-count rules are worth reviewing to check whether the search term is correct or whether an earlier rule already transformed the text.
Q:Can I save and reuse my rule sets?
Yes — click 'Export Rules JSON' to download a .json file containing all your current rules. Click 'Import Rules JSON' to load a previously saved rule set from a file. The JSON format stores the find string, replace string, regex flag, case sensitivity, and enabled state for each rule. This lets you build and maintain reusable transformation libraries for recurring tasks.
Q:How many rules can I add?
There is no enforced limit on the number of rules. You can add as many rules as needed. Because rules are applied sequentially, performance scales linearly with the number of rules multiplied by the length of the text — in practice, dozens or even hundreds of simple rules on a typical document run in milliseconds. All processing runs in your browser with no server involvement.