ne's manual

4.5.3: Replace

expression, and then asks you which action to perform. You can choose among:

• replacing the string found with the given string and moving to the next match (`Yes');
• moving to the next match (`No');
• replacing the string found with the given string, and stop the search (`Last');
• stopping immediately the search (`Quit');
• replacing all occurrences of the find string with the given string (`All');
• reverting the search direction (`Backward' or `Forward'); this choice will also modify the value of the back search flag. See SearchBack.

This command is mainly useful for interactive editing. ReplaceOnce, ReplaceAll and RepeatLast are more suited to macros.

If no find string was ever specified, you can enter it on the input line. If the optional argument string is not specified, you can enter it on the input line, the default being the last string used. When the last search was a regular expression search (see FindRegExp), there are some special features you can use in the replace string (see Regular Expressions) .

Note that normally a search starts just one character after the cursor. However, when Replace is invoked, the search starts at the character just under the cursor, so that you can safely Find a pattern and Replace it without having to move back.

is no trace in the macro of your interaction with ne during the replacement process. When the macro is played, you will have again to choose which actions to perform. If you want to apply automatic replacement of strings for a certain number of times, you should look at ReplaceOnce, ReplaceAll and RepeatLast.