Advanced Search
Use the Advanced Search to find content more easily. It provides a range of powerful search options that you can use to find specific content, including content that contains specific XML elements.
There are three ways to access the Advanced Search feature:
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Select the magnifier for the Quick Search and then select the funnel icon for Advanced Search.
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Select a folder in the Content Manager to display a filtered view of the folder and its contents. Then select the funnel icon in the top corner to display the Advanced Search settings. They are already filtered so that the search will only look in the selected folder.
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Select a taxonomy tag in the Content Manager to display a filtered view of the components that have that taxonomy tag (or any of its child tags). Then select the filter icon to display the Advanced Search settings. They are already filtered so that the search will only look in the components that have the selected taxonomy tag.
When you have displayed the Advanced Search features, you can use them to Perform an Advanced Search.
To perform an Advanced Search, display the Advanced Search settings and then enter the search criteria that you want to use. You can use a single search setting or a combination of search settings for more precision.
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Select Quick Search in the top menu.
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Select Advanced Search.
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Select the Search tab.
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Create the search criteria by using the search settings (as described in Define the Advanced Search Criteria).
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Select Search.
Paligo will find any matching results and display them in a list below the Advanced Search settings.
Note
To clear all of the search settings so that you can start again, select the Reset button.
Use the Advanced Search settings to define your search criteria. You can use one setting or a combination of settings, depending on your requirements.
Note
Some Advanced Search settings are only available if your Paligo instance has the appropriate module switched on. For information about using the modules, please contact customer support.
The Advanced Search settings are:
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Keyword - Enter a keyword or term to search for. The search will find components that contain text that matches the search term. Leave the keyword search empty if you do not want to use the keyword search.
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Enable Wildcard search - Use the checkbox to enable or disable wildcards for the keyword search field. A wildcard is a character that represents a sequence of characters or any single character. For example, if you enable wildcard search, you can search for "Top*" and the search will return all components that contain "Top" followed by any sequence of characters. The wildcard characters you can use are asterisk * for any sequence of characters and question mark ? for any single character.
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Types - Use Types to limit the search to a specific type of component, such as a publication or a topic. For example, if you search for "Introduction" in the Keyword Search and set Types to topic, Paligo will return all topics that are named "Introduction", but will ignore any other components that are called "Introduction".
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Contains - Use Contains to search for content that contains specific types of XML elements. Choose from:
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XPath Query
Use this to search for particular elements or structures in your content. When you select XPath Query, an additional field appears. Enter an XPath query to define the element or structure you want to search for in the field. If you are unfamiliar with XPath, you can learn about it at w3schools.com or you could use an AI search engine to create the XPath Query for you.
We have included some commonly used XPath Queries in Search for Elements, Search for Attributes, and Search for Topics that Contain Videos.
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- Select this option if you do not want to use the Contains filter.
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Variable set (only available if your Paligo instance has the Variables search module enabled)
Use to search for content that contains variables from a particular variable set. When you select the option, Paligo displays a dialog which you can use to select the variable set (see Search for Topics that use a Variable Set).
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Variable (only available if your Paligo instance has the Variables search module enabled)
Use to search for content that contains a particular variable. When you select the option, Paligo displays a dialog which you can use to select the variable (see Search for Topics that Contain Variables).
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Editors - Use to search for content that has been edited by specific users.
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Date - Search for content that was created or modified within a specific date range.
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Status - Use this field to only search documents that are in a certain workflow stage, such as "In Review".
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Permissions (only available if your Paligo instance has the Permissions module enabled)
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Check the Has restrictions box to limit the search to content that has permissions applied.
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Clear the Has restrictions box to search all content.
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Resource ID - Search for content by its ID. Normally, if you know the ID, you would enter it here and not include any other search criteria.
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Languages - Search for content in selected languages only.
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In taxonomies - Search for content that is marked up with a specific taxonomy tag.
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In folder - Search for content that is stored in a specific folder.
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Search in - Control where Paligo searches to find results. You can choose to search in the title of topics, branch label of branched content, in the actual body of the content, or in filenames (these are the names of the components, for example, topic names).
Note
If you search for a branch label, make sure the Enable Wildcard Search option is enabled.
You can use Advanced Search to find a topic or publication and open it in the Editor. Narrow down the search by using search options, see Define the Advanced Search Criteria.
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Select Quick Search in the top menu.
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Select Advanced Search.
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Select the Search tab.
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Enter the keywords to search for.
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Select Search.
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Select the Dotted menu (...) to the right of the search result.
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Select Edit and choose Open in Editor.
To rename topics and publications, you can use the Search tab to locate it in Content Manager. Narrow down the search by using search options, see Advanced Search.
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Select Quick Search in the top menu.
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Select Advanced Search.
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Select the Search tab.
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Enter the keywords to search for.
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Select Search.
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Select the Dotted menu (...) to the right of the topic or publication.
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Select Edit and choose Open in Editor.
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Double-click outside the actual name in the Content Manager.
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Update the name and press Enter (or the checkmark) to confirm the change.
UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier) is used to identify information. It can be used to find or replace information. There are different ways to find the UUID depending on the type of content.
The UUID of a topic or publication is shown in the Metadata Section in the Structure View.
Tip
You can also find the UUID of a reused topic by hovering over it in the Preview Section of a publication.
To find the UUID of a topic or publication:
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Select the Dotted menu (...) to the right of the topic or publication in the Content Manager.
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Select Edit and choose Open structure.
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The Metadata Section shows the UUID.
The image UUID is found in the Image Detail View reached from the Media folder in the Content Manager.
You can also find it in the Element Attributes Panel when reused in a topic or a component, see Find Element XML ID.
To find the image UUID from the Media folder:
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Select the image in the Content Manager.
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The Image Detail view shows the UUID.
You can use the advanced search feature to search for components that contain specific elements (or structures). For example, you might want to search for all topics that contain the remark
element.
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Select Quick Search in the top menu.
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Select Advanced Search.
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Select the Search tab.
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Leave the Search field empty.
It is important to have no content in the search field. If there is content here, the search will not work as expected.
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In the Contains field, select XPath query.
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Enter the XPath syntax for searching for the element or structure.
To search for a single element, use this syntax:
//<element name>
For example:
//remark
To search for parent and child elements, use this syntax:
//<parent element name>/<child element name>
For example:
//listitem/remark
You can also use XPath to search for more complicated structures.
Tip
There are many websites that you can use to learn about using XPath syntax, for example, www.w3schools.com. Alternatively, you could use an AI search engine to find the appropriate syntax.
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Select Search.
Paligo finds any components that contain the element(s) you defined in the XPath Query. The results are listed below the search settings.
You can use the advanced search feature to search for components that contain specific attributes and values. For example, you might want to search for all topics that contain the xinfo:product
attribute with a value set to one of your product names.
To search for attributes, use the advanced search and perform a contains search.
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Select Quick Search in the top menu.
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Select Advanced Search.
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Select the Search tab.
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Leave the Search field empty.
It is important to clear the search field. If there is content here, the attribute search will not work as expected.
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In the Contains field, select XPath query.
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Enter the XPath syntax for searching for the element or structure.
Here is an example search for the
xinfo:product
attribute with theprofiling value
of ACME 1000.//*[contains(@xinfo:product, 'ACME 1000')]
Tip
There are many websites that you can use to learn about using XPath syntax, for example, www.w3schools.com. Alternatively, you could use an AI search engine to find the appropriate syntax.
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Select Search.
Paligo finds any components that contain the attribute and value you specified. The results are listed below the search settings.
You can use the advanced search feature to search for components that contain specific elements (or structures). For example, you might want to search for all topics that contain the remark
element.
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Select Quick Search in the top menu.
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Select Advanced Search.
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Select the Search tab.
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Leave the Search field empty.
It is important to have no content in the search field. If there is content here, the search will not work as expected.
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In the Contains field, select XPath query.
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Enter the XPath syntax for searching for the element or structure.
To search for a single element, use this syntax:
//<element name>
For example:
//remark
To search for parent and child elements, use this syntax:
//<parent element name>/<child element name>
For example:
//listitem/remark
You can also use XPath to search for more complicated structures.
Tip
There are many websites that you can use to learn about using XPath syntax, for example, www.w3schools.com. Alternatively, you could use an AI search engine to find the appropriate syntax.
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Select Search.
Paligo finds any components that contain the element(s) you defined in the XPath Query. The results are listed below the search settings.
With Paligo's Advanced Search, you can search for topics that contain a video. Depending on your needs, you can search for topics with any video or only topics that contain a specific video. This can be useful if you need to update the URLs of video links, for example, if you have moved the video file to a different system.
To search for topics that contain videos:
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Select the search icon, just below your profile avatar in the top-right of the editor.
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Select the funnel icon on the Quick Search bar to display the advanced settings.
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In the Contains section, choose XPath query and then enter one of the following (in the field below XPath query):
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To search for any video, enter:
//videodata
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To search for a specific video, enter:
//videodata[@fileref='https://source url of video']
Where "source url of video" is the address of the video you want to find, for example:
//videodata[@fileref='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_ZapWXrSiQ']
Note
The source video URL has to match the URL that exists in your topics. For some video services, this may have a different format to the URL of the video once published.
For example, you could have a topic that contains:
https://player.vimeo.com/video/339536229
But the video, when published to a video hosting service, has a URL like this:
https://vimeo.com/339536229?embedded=true&source=video_title&owner=65873982
So you may need to adapt the search to match the URL format in your topics. Typically, the published URL contains an ID that you can copy and use in your search. In the example shown, 339536229 is the ID.
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Select Search.
Paligo searches for content that matches the search criteria. Any matching results are shown in a list.
To search for topics or other components that use variables from a particular variable set, use the Advanced Search feature. With this type of search, the results will include components that use any of the variables in a chosen variable set.
Note
If you want to search for a particular variable, see Search for Topics that Contain Variables.
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Select Quick Search in the top menu.
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Select Advanced Search.
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Select the Search tab.
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Leave the Search field empty.
It is important to have no content in the search field. If there is content here, the search will not work as expected.
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In the Contains field, select Variable Set.
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Select the field that appears below the Contains field to display a Choose Variable Set dialog.
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Select the variable set that you want to search for.
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Select Search.
Paligo finds any components that use variables from the variable set you selected. The results are listed below the search settings.
You can use the Advanced Search feature to search for topics that contain a particular variable from a particular variable set. For example, you could search for topics that contain a Product Name variable from a variable set named "Acme 100 Range".
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Select Quick Search in the top menu.
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Select Advanced Search.
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Select the Search tab.
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Leave the Search field empty.
It is important to have no content in the search field. If there is content here, the search will not work as expected.
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In the Contains field, select Variable.
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Select the field that appears below the Contains field to display a Choose a variable dialog.
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Select the variable set that contains the variable you want to search for. Paligo displays another dialog that shows the selected variable set at the top and all of its variables below.
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Choose the variable you want to search for and then select OK.
Note
If you have chosen the incorrect variable set, select the back icon to return to the list of variable sets.
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If you want to search for topics that contain any of a selection of variables, click in the field that shows the name of the variable you have already selected. Paligo displays the Choose a Variable dialog again and you can select another variable. Repeat this until you have added all of the variables you want for your search.
Note
If you choose multiple variables, the search will find content that contains any of the variables (it is an OR search, not an AND search).
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Select Search.
Paligo finds any components that contain the variable you selected. The results are listed below the search settings.
To update content in topics and publications, you can use the Replace tab in the Advanced Search.
Warning
This is a very powerful feature and you should carefully check all search results before replacing the content.
Tip
Learn more, see Search and Open in Editor and Search and Rename.
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Select Quick Search in the top menu.
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Select Advanced Search.
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Select the Replace tab.
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Enter the text string you want to search for in Find what.
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In the Replace with field, enter the replacement for the search text string. Either:
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Enter the replacement text
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Enter an XML inline element
For example, you could replace a search text string of "ACME X3000" in regular text with the same text in bold. For that, you would enter the following XML:
<emphasis role="bold">ACME X3000</emphasis>
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Select the arrow icon and then Select variable. Choose the variable set that contains the replacement variable and then select the variable.
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Select any other search options to narrow down your search:
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Ignore case to make the search case insensitive.
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Match only whole word to avoid getting matches that are only part of other words.
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Contains also to specify other text fragments included in the phrase.
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Language to replace text in another language than the source language.
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Select Search.
Note
Check the results carefully, to make sure you are not replacing terms you did not intend to.
Use the buttons Include all or Exclude all to check or uncheck all results. Make sure only the ones you want to replace are checked before continuing.
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If any topics are:
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In a status other than Work in progress, the checkbox Auto-change workflow status appears above the search results. Use this to change the status to Work in progress for those topics.
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Checked out, the checkbox Automatic check-in appears above the search results. Use this to check in those topics.
Caution
If you are working in a large team and reusing content across different product owners, you should not check these boxes, but instead leave them and first find out if these can be checked in or have the workflow status changed.
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Select Replace.
Paligo replaces the matching content in your topics. You can see the effect of the replacement by looking in any of the topics (that previously contained the search term) in the editor. You will need to re-publish your documentation to see the effects of the replacement in your published outputs.
With Paligo's find and replace feature, you can replace a commonly used term with a variable. This is useful if you know a term has been used many times in your content, but it was not created as a variable. For example, if you import content from another format, you might want to replace all instances of a business name with a variable for the business name. Once the variable is in place, you can edit all of the instances at once by making the change to the variable.
Note
In the following procedure, you will need to create a Variable Set and add a variable and variant to it. If you are unfamiliar with setting up Variable Sets and variables, you can find more information in Create a Variable Set.
To do a global search for text and replace it with a variable:
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Create a new Variable Set.
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Add a variable to the set, for example, a text variable for a business name. When you add the variable, give it a name that describes what the variable is, for example, "business name", "slogan", "product name".
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Enter a variant for the variable. This is where you define the text that will appear in your topics, where the variable is used. For example, if you had a business name variable, you could have "Acme industries" as a variant.
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Open a topic that contains the text that you want to replace.
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Add a variable to the topic.
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Select Insert and then Variable.
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Choose your Variable Set and then select the variable you want to use.
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Select the Edit menu and then select the Edit Source Code icon.
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In the Source Code, find the variable code. It is a
phrase
element and should look similar to this:<phrase xinfo:varset="210686" xinfo:variable="36"></phrase>
The XML also shows a reference to the Variable Set and a reference to the variable in that set.
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Copy the entire
phrase
element code to your computer's clipboard. -
Select the search icon in the top-corner, near your avatar.
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Select the advanced search icon.
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Select the Replace tab.
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In the Find what field, enter the term that you want to replace with a variable.
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In the Replace with field, paste the phrase code for your variable.
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Select Search.
Paligo presents a list of all the instances of the term.
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Check the box in the left column for each term that you want to replace.
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Select Replace.
Paligo replaces all of the selected terms with the variable.