Find and replace changes a word or a phrase in the open note for another, one match at a time or every match at once. It works on desktop and on the phone, on every plan, signed in or not.
On desktop
Press Cmd Option F on a Mac, Ctrl H on Windows and Linux. Or open find in note, with Cmd F or Find in Note in the note menu, and click the small arrow at the far left of the find bar. Click it again to hide the replace row.
The find bar sits at the top right of the note, with the replace row under it. Type what you are looking for in the top field and the new words in Replace with, then:
- Replace, or Enter in the Replace with field, changes the current match and moves on to the next one
- Replace All, or Cmd Enter (Ctrl Enter on Windows and Linux), changes every match in the note
On mobile
Open the note's menu, the ... at the top right, and choose Find in Note. Then tap the magnifier with its small arrow at the left of the find bar. The replace row opens under the find bar, right above the keyboard, and the find bar moves up to make room. Tap the magnifier again to hide it.
Type what you are looking for in the find bar and the new words in Replace with. Tap Replace, or the return key, to change the current match, or All to change every match. Both stay grey until the search finds something.
Undo
Each replace is one step of the note's undo, so the old words come back with Cmd Z on a Mac, Ctrl Z on Windows and Linux, or undo at the top of the note on the phone. Replace All is a single step too: one undo brings every match back.
Matching and formatting
- Find ignores case and accents, so cafe also finds Café. The new words are written exactly as you typed them.
- The new words keep the formatting of what they replace: a word in a link stays in the link, a heading stays a heading, and bold stays bold.
- If the new words still contain the search, like plan replaced with planning, Grape moves past them and does not land on them again.
- Leave Replace with empty to delete the matches you replace.
What is found but not replaced
Words inside a PDF or a scan in the note are found, with a line by the find bar that shows where, but they are part of the file and are not replaced. Replace on one of those matches moves on to the next one, and Replace All leaves them as they are.
On the phone, words inside a table are found but not replaced either, and Replace moves past them the same way. On desktop they are replaced like any other text.
A note shared with you to view only has find in note, but no replace row.
Without replacing
To look for a word and step through the matches without changing them, use find in note. To find the note itself, use search.