Warning: Jargon ahead!
We've recently switched to DITA, an XML specification. We use Windows XP SP3 boxes, but I spent my formative years with UNIX, so I'm more comfortable in a command line environment, and our PCMS doesn't yet have a search-and-replace tool.
Ungreat. Although we do topic-based writing, relatively little of my work is re-used so I can check it all out. As marketing changes its collective mind frequently, I sometimes have to change most topics in the document--and, depending on the project, it can be several hundred topics.
I would normally use the various UNIX-on-Windows tools, either MKS Toolkit or GNU tools compiled for Windows, except that our PCMS checks out files with multiple hash marks (#) in the directory name and the file name. Escaping them for UNIX is a real pain, and the free shells available are also less than optimal for scripting.
Does anyone know of a Windows tool that will work for search and, by extension, search-and-replace? (We might make one for our use, but the people responsible for that are so overloaded that it won't happen until after the PCMS supports search-and-replace, and that's going to be in a year or three.)
Understand that I don't have a choice about the PCMS or the XML editor we use. That's dictated by the department.
We've recently switched to DITA, an XML specification. We use Windows XP SP3 boxes, but I spent my formative years with UNIX, so I'm more comfortable in a command line environment, and our PCMS doesn't yet have a search-and-replace tool.
Ungreat. Although we do topic-based writing, relatively little of my work is re-used so I can check it all out. As marketing changes its collective mind frequently, I sometimes have to change most topics in the document--and, depending on the project, it can be several hundred topics.
I would normally use the various UNIX-on-Windows tools, either MKS Toolkit or GNU tools compiled for Windows, except that our PCMS checks out files with multiple hash marks (#) in the directory name and the file name. Escaping them for UNIX is a real pain, and the free shells available are also less than optimal for scripting.
Does anyone know of a Windows tool that will work for search and, by extension, search-and-replace? (We might make one for our use, but the people responsible for that are so overloaded that it won't happen until after the PCMS supports search-and-replace, and that's going to be in a year or three.)
Understand that I don't have a choice about the PCMS or the XML editor we use. That's dictated by the department.
- A GUI tool I can point at a parent directory is fine if it does search-and-replace.
- A CLI tool that just does search and spits to standard output is also okay--I can wrap things around it.
- Free or low-cost would be best, because I'm going to have to pay for the first installment myself.
