I could build a Pack for this, but with Coda’s current setup, it would have some downsides with security.
Would you be interested in a Pack like this?
First, it would require you to add your coda doc API key. You API key would then be sent to a Google Cloud Function that uses a script to extract all the text from you doc via the a Coda API. It would then use regex to find/replace text, then return all the text back in its original place.
The security issue is that all your doc’s text and API key would be sent to the google cloud function. It would be possible to encrypt it in transit.
If there is a text string in your doc that you know might change in the future (e.g. your company’s mission statement), save this text string as a control in your doc somewhere, and wherever you’d use the text string, use the control variable name instead. This way, whenever you edit the control, the edit will be made document-wide.
Use Case: Brought over a very old spreadsheet into Coda. Previous spreadsheet used several versions of the same thing (yes, Yes, y, Y) in a text column that’s about to become a select list. I need to get all those versions into one option so I’m having to bring it back out to a spreadsheet, update all the text, then go back and cross my fingers that my copy/paste is correct. This is the case for numerous columns. In numerous spreadsheets.
You can accomplish this cleanup in coda directly using formulas and buttons, since the data exists in a table, FYI.
Find and replace isn’t available for text that just lives on the page.
Max, that’s right, but because it’s across multiple spreadsheets I imagine the process of setting up columns with formulas in each one would be far more painstaking than a global find/replace tool or pack.
(or at least look at figuring out if existing browser extensions can perform this? No luck on Firefox.)
I tried a few Firefox extensions to find+replace in a code doc, and it looked like was going to work, for an instant the text was replaced but revert back to the original.
For now, I have to rely on native Firefox search CTRL+F / CTRL+G and then CTRL+V pasting replacements.
FWIW, this extension [find+] looked very promising but it suffers from the issue mentioned above. If you try the extension, you must press CTRL+ALT+R when the find dialog is open to toggle the replace dialog. Its covered in the extensions usage guide.
It’s 2025—do we have this feature yet? Let me know. If I need to find and replace text in my document, how should I do it, considering I have multiple paragraphs? Any help would be appreciated!
there are many ways, but you likely don’t want to resort to Regex, so maybe the substituteAll() can come in handy when your text is living in a canvas column.
I applied a different pattern recently you can read here. instead of splitting on letters, you can split on a white space. When your text is messy, you need regex, but maybe try this first.
The assumption is that the text lives in a table, not freely on a page like in google doc.