Find and replace text across WP pages
A free plugin adds a chat to your WP dashboard. Type “Change Mon–Fri to Tue–Sat everywhere.” See each page's change first, press its button, undo in one click.
Pages, posts, and block-theme header and footer. Not menus or widgets. Block theme or not?
- Nothing changes without your OK
- Undo in one click, or a warning first
- No account, no password to share
Needs WP 6.3 to 7.1, PHP 8.0 or newer, and an administrator login. One site per install.
The download is a plugin. Turning it on connects your site to cmshands.com and adds 3 small rescue files. Deleting the plugin removes them and everything it stored. What we send
We moved to Tue–Sat. Change “Mon–Fri” everywhere it appears.
Watch it do this on a real site
You ask once
You type the old words and the new ones in the chat, in your own words. You don't say which pages. That's its job.
We moved to Tue–Sat. Change “Mon–Fri” everywhere it appears.
It finds 3 places
It reads your pages and posts, and under a minute later shows 3 cards: Home, Contact and a blog post. This is the Home card. After shows the page as it will look, with Tue–Sat under Visit the studio. Nothing has changed yet.
Three cards are ready for you to review — Home, Contact, and the post "Studio open day this Saturday". Those are the only places on the site where "Mon–Fri" appears.
- 3 secondsReading one of your pages
- Reading one of your posts
- 5 secondsLooking something up in the database
- 12 secondsPreparing the change for your OK
- 13 secondsPreviewing your page
- 37 secondsPreviewing your post
Press Code for the words
Press Code on a card to see the exact words: the old line in red, the new one in green. The grey lines around them are how WP stores the page, and they stay as they are. The Contact and post cards work the same way.
You press each button
Only now does anything change. We pressed the green button on all 3 cards. Each time it updated that one place, read it back to check, and turned the card green with an Undo link. The last check was done 69 seconds after the request.
- 1 minute 6 secondsUpdating one of your pages
- Checking the change
- 1 minute 7 secondsUpdating one of your pages
- Checking the change
- 1 minute 8 secondsUpdating one of your posts
- 1 minute 9 secondsChecking the change
It's on the site
The Contact page on the test site right after, as a visitor sees it: open Tue–Sat. The home page and the post changed the same way, and nothing else on them moved.
Done. I checked afterwards, and it now says "Call us on 555-0142 or email hello@quillmoor.example. The studio shop is open Tue–Sat, 10am to 5pm.".
Undo, card by card
Each card has its own Undo. We pressed it on all 3. Each one put the old words back, checked again, and showed what it put back. This is the Home page's.
Undone. I checked afterwards, and it's back the way it was.
- 1 minute 21 secondsReverting the change
- Checking the change
A real run on our test site, Quillmoor Pottery (WP 7.1.3, Twenty Twenty-Four), Oct 11, 2026. From asking to done, it took 1 minute 9 seconds.
That's the whole job. The plugin is free: 3 changes to try it, no account. Nothing changes until you press the button.
Needs WP 6.3 to 7.1, PHP 8.0 or newer, and an administrator login. One site per install.
The download is a plugin. Turning it on connects your site to cmshands.com and adds 3 small rescue files. Deleting the plugin removes them and everything it stored. What we send
How to find and replace text in WordPress yourself
Checked on WP 7.1, Oct 11, 2026
1. Go to Pages › All Pages. Type the words you want to change in the search box and press Search Pages.
2. The list now shows only the pages with those words. On our test site, that's Home and Contact. Hover over one and click Edit.
3. In the editor, find the words and select them. On a long page, your browser's find helps: Ctrl+F, or Cmd+F on a Mac.
4. Type the new words over them. Everything else in the paragraph stays as it was.
5. Press Save at the top right. Then go back to the search results and do the same on the next page.
6. Search Posts › All Posts the same way, with Search Posts. On our test site, one blog post had the words.
7. On a block theme, check your header and footer in Appearance › Editor › Patterns. The search boxes in Pages and Posts don't look there.
On an older (classic) theme there's no Appearance › Editor. The header and footer usually live in Appearance › Customize or the theme's own settings, so check those by hand. With the Classic Editor plugin, a page opens as one text box: change the words there and press Update.
WP's search matches the exact characters you type. Our test site writes Mon–Fri with a long dash. Typed with the short dash on a keyboard, Mon-Fri found no pages at all. Copy the words from the page in the editor and paste them into the search box. To change the footer by hand, see how to edit your footer.
What it won't do here
One card for each page or post
The whole database, or your site's address after a move
Menus, widgets and theme settings
Header and footer on older themes
Page-builder pages
Why it won't wreck your site
Nothing changes until you press the button.
You see it first.
One click undoes it.
Free to start
| No account | With your email | Paid plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Changes | 3 to try it | 10 every month | Coming. Nothing costs money until you choose it. |
| Questions | 30 a day | 100 a day | |
| If it breaks | Daily check and crash rescue | The same, plus email alerts |
Undo a change within 24 hours and it doesn't count. If you haven't added an email after 30 days, only crash rescue stays on until you add one. A change is one card you approve. A job that touches several pages or plugins is several changes.
Questions
Does WordPress have a search and replace tool?
Not one that changes your whole site at once. The search boxes in Pages › All Pages and Posts › All Posts show which ones contain the words. Then you change each one in the editor, as in the steps above. CMSHands does the finding for you: one card per page or post, each with its own button and Undo.
Why does the search find nothing when the words are on my page?
Often it's the dash. On our test site, the pages say Mon–Fri with a long dash, and searching Mon-Fri with the short dash on a keyboard found nothing. Copy the words from the page in the editor and paste them into the search box. The search also skips your header, footer, menus and widgets.
Is there a plugin to search and replace in the database?
Yes, several. Search for one in Plugins › Add Plugin (Add New Plugin on older WP); they're free, from wordpress.org. They're the right tool for your site's address after a move. They change the text straight in your database, so back it up first. CMSHands doesn't replace across the database. It changes pages, posts and a block theme's header and footer, one card per place.
Can I undo a find and replace?
Yes, one place at a time. Each card has its own Undo. In our test run we pressed it on all 3 cards, and each page went back the way it was. Without CMSHands, WP keeps a revision each time you save: open the page, then Revisions in the Page panel, and bring back the older one.
Is it free?
To start, yes: 3 changes with no account, then 10 a month once you add your email. Each page or post it changes is one change, so words on 3 pages use 3. Undo one within 24 hours and it doesn't count. Questions are free, up to 30 a day.
Written by CMSHands team.
Try it on your own pages and posts
Needs WP 6.3 to 7.1, PHP 8.0 or newer, and an administrator login. One site per install.
The download is a plugin. Turning it on connects your site to cmshands.com and adds 3 small rescue files. Deleting the plugin removes them and everything it stored. What we send
Download the plugin.
It's free: 3 changes to try it. No account, no card.
Upload and activate it.
In your dashboard: Plugins › Add Plugin › Upload Plugin (Add New Plugin on older WP). Choose the file, press Install Now, then Activate Plugin.
Press Turn on.
Press Turn on CMSHands. No account, no key, no password.