Find and Replace for Mac Users
To search for text in your script, first scroll to the top of the script and click at the beginning of the text or press Command + Home.
Then go to Edit > Find:
The Search dialogue appears, opened to the Find tab:
To find text in the script:
- Enter the text to search for in the Find field;
- Click Find Next.;
- If the searched text is found, searching stops and the found text is selected;
- If the text is not found, a message appears to indicate that;
- If Final Draft reaches the end of the script without finding the text, it asks if the search should continue from the beginning;
- To find the next occurrence of the same text, click Find Next again.
Click the down arrow next to the Find box to view a list of the last 10 words or phrases that were searched for since the current session of Final Draft was initiated. Select a word in the list to search for it again.
To replace found text:
- In the Replace field, enter the text to be used as a replacement for found text;
- Click Replace to replace a single instance of found text or Replace All to replace all instances of found text.
Match Case
The search will match upper and lower case type exactly.
Whole Words Only
The search will check for complete matches only.
Choose the direction to scan by clicking the Forward or Backward radio button. Forward will search from the cursor to the end of the document; Backward will search from the cursor to the beginning of the document.
Search in Elements
Limit the search to only the elements in this list that are checked.
To dismiss the Search window, press the Escape key on the keyboard or click the red exit button at the top left of the window.
Go To Feature for Mac Users
The Go To feature scrolls the script to another location, per the user’s instruction.
To access the Go To options:
- Choose Edit > Go To
- or -
- Press Command + G on the keyboard:
- Choose which item to go to from the Go To dropdown menu on the left:
If Page or Scene are chosen , enter the desired page or scene number (if the scenes have been numbered) into the text field and click Go; the script will be scrolled to that page number or scene; press the Escape key on the keyboard to dismiss the Go To window.
If Paragraph is chosen, a dropdown menu will be displayed that offers a selection of paragraph types; choose the desired paragraph type and (if appropriate) enter a search item in the text box; click Previous or Next to scroll the script to the previous or next paragraph of that type; press the Escape key on the keyboard to dismiss the Go To window. Examples are to find the previous or next occurrence of the word "paper" in Action paragraphs or the word "help" in Dialogue paragraphs.
If Bookmark is chosen, the script's bookmarks (if any have been created) will be displayed; double-click the desired bookmark (or single-click it and click Go); the script will scroll to that bookmark; press the Escape key on the keyboard to dismiss the Go To window.
If Revision is chosen, a list of the revision sets will be displayed; double-click the desired set and Previous or Next to scroll the script to the previous or next piece of text that was edited while the script was in the that revision set; press the Escape key on the keyboard to dismiss the Go To window.
If Header Label is chosen, a list of the Header labels will be displayed; double-click the desired Header label (or single-click it and click Go); the script will be scrolled to the previous or next page with that Header label; press the Escape key on the keyboard to dismiss the Go To window.
Find/Go To for Windows Users
To search for text in your script, first scroll to the top of the script and click the beginning of the text or press Control + Home.
Then go to Edit > Find (or Control + F) and the Find/Go to dialogue appears, open to the Find / Replace tab:
To find text in the script
- Enter the text to search for in the Find What text field;
- Click Find Next;
- If the searched text is found, searching stops and the found text is selected;
- If the text is not found, a message appears to indicate that;
- If Final Draft reaches the end of the script without finding the text, it asks if the search should continue from the beginning;
- To find the next occurrence of the same text, click Find Next again.
Click the down arrow next to the Find box to view a list of the last 10 words or phrases that were searched for since the current session of Final Draft was initiated. Select a word in the list to search for it again.
Choose the direction to scan by clicking the Up or Down radio button. Up will search from the cursor to the beginning of the document; Down will search from the cursor to the end of the document.
To replace found text:
- In the Replace field, enter the text to be used as a replacement for found text;
- Click Replace to replace a single instance of found text, or Replace All to replace all instances of found text.
To choose the elements to be included in the search, click More; to hide this list, click Less:
Match whole word only
The search will check for complete matches only.
Match case
The search will match upper- and lower-case type exactly.
Search in
To search through all paragraph types, click Include All; to conduct a limited search through selected paragraph types, click Exclude All. This will deselect all paragraph types. Once these check boxes are cleared, check the desired paragraph types and click Find Next, Replace or Replace All.
To hide the additional options, click Less. The Find / Go To window returns to its original smaller size.
To dismiss the Find window, press Escape on the keyboard or click the X in the upper right corner.
Find Selection (for Mac and Windows users)
The Find Selection feature searches for the next instance of highlighted text without having to use the Find / Replace dialogue.
To use this command, highlight a word or phrase on a script page and go to Edit > Find Selection:
The script will scroll to the next occurrence of the word or phrase. To scroll to the next occurrence of the word or phrase, go to Edit > Find Selection again or press Command + Shift + F (Mac) or Control + E (Windows) on the keyboard.