Quick Start Guide

ABCFind runs as an integrated part of the Visual Basic IDE. It completely replaces the default Find and Replace dialogs provided by the standard IDE.

ABCFind provides all of the functionality of the standard Find and Replace dialogs plus many more functions. For a summary of these features click here.

The following guide offers a brief introduction to using ABCFind to find and replace text from within the Visual Basic IDE. More detailed information on how to use the many features of ABCFind can be found by following the links provided in the Related Pages section at the bottom of this page.

Find Text

To use ABCFind in its simplest form click on the Find toolbar button (or press the Ctrl+F keys) to invoke the Find Dialog window.

Enter the text you wish to search for and select where you wish to search in the 'Where to search' drop-down list. You can refine your search criteria by clicking on 'Options' to display the options available.

Then press the Find All button. ABCFind will then begin searching and will present all of the found matches in the Search Results Window.

(You may need to resize the column widths to suit your personal preferences).

Double-click on a line in this search results list to open this code window and highlight the matching text. You can use the F12 and Shift+F12 function keys to navigate forward and backwards through this search results list.

Replace Text

To use ABCFind to replace text in your code, click on the Replace toolbar button (or press the Ctrl+H keys) to invoke the Replace Dialog window.

Enter the text you wish to search for, the text you wish to replace it with and select where you wish to search in the 'Where to search' drop-down list. You can refine your search criteria by clicking on 'Options' to display the options available.

Then press the Replace All button. ABCFind will then begin searching and replace all found matches with your specified text.

All replaced text will be listed in the Search Results Window. Double-click on a line in this search results list to open this code window and highlight the replaced text. You can use the F12 and Shift+F12 function keys to navigate forward and backwards through this search results list.

Find Text In SourceSafe

To search for text in files contained in a SourceSafe database, click on the Find In SourceSafe toolbar button (or press the Ctrl+Shift+S keys) to invoke to Find In SourceSafe dialog window.

Enter the text that you wish to search for.

To specify the project you wish to search within, enter the path of the project (beginning with '$/') or click the browse button .

You may need to change the SourceSafe database to search within, as specified under 'Database' on the dialog screen. To do this, click the browse button to select the location of the srcsafe.ini file that defines the database. You can refine your search criteria by clicking on 'Options' or 'Advanced Options' to display the options available.

Then press the Find All button. ABCFind will then begin searching and will present all of the found matches in the Search Results Window.

(You may need to resize the column widths to suit your personal preferences).

Double-click on a line in this search results list to open this code window in the ABCFind Code Viewer and highlight the matching text. You can use the F12 and Shift+F12 function keys to navigate forward and backwards through this search results list.

For further information about using ABCFind, click on one of the following links:

Finding Text In The Visual Basic IDE

Finding Text In Disk Files

Finding Text In SourceSafe

Replacing Text In The Visual Basic IDE

Replacing Text In Disk Files

Using The Search Results Window

Use the Contents panel on the left-hand side to chose a topic.

If you can't find the help that you are looking for in these help pages then please visit the ABCFind on-line support pages at http://www.atlantic-blue.com/abcfind/support/.