Search and Replace Plugin (CMSR) - Free Version Guide

Free Version Guide

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The Search and Replace plugin comes in two versions: the free and the Pro. This user guide focuses on the free version.

Table of Contents

• How to Use the Plugin
• Initial Plugin Installation
• Interface Overview
• How to Create Replacement Rules
• Differences between Free and Pro

How to Use the Plugin

The Search and Replace plugin allows you to easily replace text in all types of posts and pages, including theme and plugins generated content. 

It works via rules: you tell it "x" should become "y". Then, every time a visitor visits a page with "x", he/she will see "y". 

Note that the content will only change to the visitor. The change will not be applied to your database.

Initial Plugin Installation

1. To manually install the free version of plugin, download it from Wordpress.org to your computer. Then go to the Plugin tab on the WordPress Admin Plugin to install the plugin.
2. Hover over the Plugin tab and click Add New Plugin.
3. Click the button Upload Plugin and select the downloaded file.

4. Install the plugin.
5. Once the plugin is downloaded it will appear in the Plugin tab for you to activate and use.

Interface Overview

To reach the plugin settings, navigate to Admin Dashboard → CM On Demand Search and Replace → Settings.

There you can find a few tabs:

• Installation Guide - Provides a quick installation guide, documentation and video tutorial for additional information and tips.
• Replacement Rules - Allows creating replacement rules and setting up the search and replace rules for the content of your site. Please note the plugin allows changing the content without making changes to the database. We will consider this tab more detailed below.
• Settings - This tab showcases the options that are available in the Pro version only. Learn more about these options: Search and Replace Plugin (CMSR) - Settings
• Extensions - This tab showcases the options that are available in the Pro version only. Learn more about these options: Search and Replace Plugin (CMSR) - Extensions (ACF, Yoast, BBPress, WooCommerce, Tooltips)
• Replacement Widget - This tab showcases the options that are available in the Pro version only. Learn more about these options: Search and Replace Plugin (CMSR) - Replacement Widget
• Upgrade - Shows a video tutorial on how to use the plugin and allows updating the plugin to the Pro version.

How to Create Replacement Rules

Head to the Replacement Rules tab.

Clicking the button Add New S&R Rule will show the form for creating a new rule. The form has the following basic settings:

• Search For and Replace By - These 2 options allow creating restriction rules. For example, you can easily replace WordPress Blog by WordPress News by entering the values into the fields. You can also edit links, replace HTML, and more.

There are also additional settings. You can expand or collapse them by clicking the button Expand / Collapse Additional Settings:

Most of the additional settings are available only in the Pro version of the Search and Replace plugin. The only additional option available in the free version is:

• Case-sensitive - Enable it if you want values in the field Search For to be case-sensitive. This feature allows you to distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters. For example, if you enter Home into the Search For field, the plugin will replace this word with the uppercase letter H only.

TIP

To hide the Pro options, click the button Show/hide Pro options at the top right:

To create the rule, click the button Add Rule.

Once the rule is created, it is available for editing. There're available 2 options:

• Update Rule - Click this button after making some changes in the rule.
• Delete Rule - Click it to remove the rule.

At the bottom you can find the button Update All Rules. If you make changes to multiple rules, you can save the changes at once by clicking this button.

And one more option can be found at the top - Cleanup database. Clicking this button will completely remove all created rules. Have a note that this action can not be reverted.

Rules Order

When you create a new rule, it always appears at the top of the list of rules, where you can see it after the creation. After you refresh the page, the newly created rule goes to the bottom of the list. So the rules are ordered from oldest to newest.

Why Upgrade to Pro - Differences Between Free and Pro

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