Global Replace?

[Jim Johannsen]

I have a field in about 2000 custom forms Outlook records and I need to
replace the existing word with a different word. Is there a way to do this
all at once or do I have to do it record by record by copy and paste?

I am using Outlook 2003 but if it is different on Outlook 2000, I could do
it on that system.

Jim Johannsen, Santa Barbara, CA

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

And in what property does that word reside?

 

[Jim Johannsen]

Sue - I can only access properties from the folder and it gives me 7 tabs,
General, Home Page, Outlook Address Book, Activities, Administration, Forms.
I don't think that is what you are looking for.

If I go to the word itself, which is "Chair", it is part of the title "WCS
District Chair, 2004-05" and I want to replace Chair with Chairman. If I
highlight the word, I do not get a "properties" selection.

Jim Johannsen, Santa Barbara, CA

And in what property does that word reside?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I meant property as in property of the contact item -- name, address, etc. It sounds like this is the Job Title property. I presume you don't have 2000 records with "WCS District Chair, 2004-05", right? but instead have 2000 records each with some title that includes the word Chair, which you want to replace with Chairman?

Leaving aside the many aspects of whether that's a good thing to do, Outlook simply has no search and replace feature to accomplish this. One possible solution would be to export all the data to Excel, use Excel's replace feature, then import back into Outlook. ANother would be to write your own VBA code to perform the replacement.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[ProfDD]

How many distinct entries are there ? For example, "WCS Chair,
2004-05" is distinct from "WCS Chair, 2003-04" is distinct from "RAF
Chair, 2004-05".

If there are not TOO many, there is the old custom view trick,
involving grouping the data by the entries in the field in question,
changing one entry in a group from "...Chair..." to "...Chairman...",
and dragging the remainder of the "...Chair..." group into the newly
created, one-member "...Chairman..." group. You would have to do this
for each distinct entry that was being changed and you would have to be
careful with your mouse.

 

[Jim Johannsen]

There are approx. 2000 contacts with the "WCS District Chair" in the Job
Title field. There are about an equal number with each of 4 years for
additional information in the same field.

The Cointact record is a custom form and therefore cannot be exported to
Excel to make the change.

Jim Johannsen. Santa Barbara, CA

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

If there is just one name to change, that's relatively easy to handle. Use the grouping + drag/drop technique described at http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/searchreplacecompany.htm

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[ProfDD]

Then the technique that I mentioned in my earlier post and for which
Sue Mosher refers you to slipstick for a fuller explanation is just the
ticket. You just MIGHT need to have some other brief tasks to fill the
time while Outlook executes the changes invoked by the group
drag-and-drop.

Global search and replace might be nice if you had to do this for a
case where there were 500 or even 50 unique titles needing correction
among your 2,00o contacts, but Outlook has an adequate means to
accomplish the result in cases like yours.