Hi Donald, It's fine with me if you post TextPal questions on this list, since responses might benefit others as well. TextPal can do what you want but it does require use of "regular expressions." You would define a massage operation containing the search and replace tasks to transform your files as desired. You would then list the files to be processed in an editing window, one per line. The Path List command, Control+Shift+P, can help you generate the list from a folder, or you can type it manually. You would then issue the Massage Operation command, Control+Shift+M, and choose the definition you saved. TextPal announces the name of each file as it processes it. Please note that the files are changed, themselves, rather than copies made, so you may wish to back them up first. I created and tested a definition file called NoQuotes.txt that removes email quoting consisting of either the space or > symbol at the beginning of lines. The content of this file is as follows: remove email quoting (^|\n)( |>)* \\1 The TextPal documentation discusses the format of this file. Regular expressions ar more than I can summarize even in the TextPal documentation, but it does provide URLS for tutorials I thought were good. Hope this helps, Jamal On Sat, 16 Dec 2006, Donald L. Roberts wrote: > Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 15:59:15 -0800 > From: Donald L. Roberts <donald_roberts_99@xxxxxxxxx> > Reply-To: guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > To: guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: [guispeak] Textpal questions > > Hello, > > As I do not have Jamal's address, I post these questions here. > > I am wondering whether one can search and replace text across > multiple files in Textpal. > > Specifically, I have a directory containing approximately fifty > .eml files from which I wish to remove the combination > (that > is, greater than space) which occurs at the first of most of the > lines in each file. If so, please tell me how, as I would love > to automate this rather tedious process. > > Don Roberts > > ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- > ** [mailto:guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] > ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: > ** guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > ** and in the Subject line type > ** unsubscribe > ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the > ** immediately-following link:- > ** [mailto:guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] > ** or send a message, to > ** guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq > ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq