Find & Change (Format pane)
Find & Change is the third tab of the Format pane — a rule-based find & replace for shapes. Instead of single buttons you define one or more rules following the pattern FIND → DO: you describe what to find and what should happen to it. Several rules can be saved as a named profile and applied to the whole presentation with one click.
Open it via the Format button on the PPPTools ribbon (Tools group) → Find & Change tab.
Licence
Find & Change is a Pro tool. Below Pro (or without a licence) the tab is visible, but applying prompts for a Pro licence. The trial includes Pro.
The rule model at a glance
Each rule has three parts:
- Find — a search criterion (text, shape name, shape type, "Everything", or a QA finder).
- Do — one or more actions applied to every match.
- Target — a switch per action: only the found text or the whole shape.
Rules can be named, copied with one click, individually enabled/disabled and deleted. A profile bundles any number of rules (e.g. "Client Acme" = replace logo + insert company name + remove highlights).
Scope
The Scope combo controls what is affected:
| Scope | Effect |
|---|---|
| Selection | Only the currently selected shapes. |
| Current slide | All shapes on the active slide. |
| Slide range | A range, e.g. slides 3–8. |
| Whole presentation | All slides. |
Master & layouts protected
The slide master and layouts are never changed — Find & Change works only on content slides.
Find — search criteria
| Criterion | Description |
|---|---|
| Everything | No filter — every shape (or text run) is a match. Ideal to e.g. set the same font everywhere. |
| Text | Finds shapes/text by content: contains / exact / starts with / ends with. Plus match case and whole word (matches only at word boundaries). |
| Shape name | Finds shapes by their name (the technical name in PowerPoint's selection pane). |
| Shape type | Finds by kind: picture, table, chart, SmartArt, text box, AutoShape, group, freeform, media or OLE object. |
| Slide: too many fonts/sizes | QA / consistency finder. Returns one match row per slide whose content uses more than a chosen number of distinct fonts or font sizes. |
QA finder "too many fonts/sizes"
- Check for: fonts, font sizes or both.
- More than: threshold 1–5.
- Count title / footer & header / notes: three switches (off by default, i.e. body text only). Footer/header includes slide number and date.
Useful to spot typographically overloaded slides — either just count via Preview, or combine with the Insert snippet action to mark each affected slide, e.g. with a warning stamp.
Target for slide-based finders
The QA finder returns slide matches without a specific target shape. Shape-based actions (format font/object) then don't apply — it pairs best with Insert snippet or serves for counting only.
Do — actions
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Format font | Opens the Windows font dialog: font, size and bold/italic/underline/strikethrough in one step. The font colour is chosen right next to it via the full colour picker. Empty fields stay unchanged. |
| Format object | Fill (unchanged / fill colour / no fill) and border (unchanged / set / no border) incl. border colour, width and style. Default is "unchanged" — only what you explicitly set is touched. |
| Replace text | Replaces the found text with new text (format-preserving, position-safe). |
| Change case | UPPER, lower, First letter capital, Sentence case. |
| Add/clean text | Insert text before/after (prefix/suffix), trim edge whitespace, collapse multiple spaces. |
| Highlight text | Highlights the found text with a background colour. |
| Insert snippet (once per slide) | Inserts a snippet exactly once per affected slide — ideal for a watermark, logo or notice stamp. See below. |
| Replace shape (picture/snippet) | Replaces a found shape with a picture or snippet. See below. |
| Delete shape | Removes the found shape. |
Insert snippet (once per slide)
If a rule matches several shapes on the same slide, it still inserts only once. You can choose:
- Snippet — picture and fragment snippets only (code snippets need the script path with parameter input and aren't available here).
- Corner of the slide (top/bottom left/right or centred) and margin to the slide edge.
The position deliberately refers to the slide, not the match location.
Replace shape (picture/snippet)
A found object (e.g. matched by shape name or type) is replaced by a picture or snippet.
| Setting | Options |
|---|---|
| Source | Library snippet (picture/fragment only) or a picture file from disk. |
| Size | Fit (keep aspect) · Fill + crop · Stretch (exact) · Original (native size). |
| Align | 9 points (centre, corners, edges) — sets the position within the box. |
The original's position and space are kept, as are its name and z-order (arrangement front/back). The original is then removed — undo via Ctrl+Z.
Fill + crop
Cropping in Fill mode applies to pictures. For fragment snippets it fits instead.
Multiple Do steps per rule
A rule can run several actions in sequence — e.g. recolour a found text, set a different font and highlight it in one go. Each step has its own target switch and can be added, duplicated or removed individually.
Save & load profiles
A profile is a named rule set. Via the profile bar at the top:
- Save — store the current rule set under a name. For a copy, simply save under a new name.
- Load — bring a saved profile into the editor.
- Delete — remove a profile.
Preview, Apply & Undo
- Preview counts, before applying, how many matches each rule has — without changing anything.
- Apply runs all active rules. The feedback counts the actually changed objects (several Do steps on the same shape count as one object).
- Undo: the result can be reverted via PowerPoint's undo (Ctrl+Z).
See also: Format pane (watermark & footer) · Overview