I may be missing something, but I've recently started digging in using the Find and Replace docker in my workflow. I am usually using it to find all objects of one fill color in a selection (usually an RGB or CMYK fill) and wanting to change all of those objects in the selection to a spot color. Most of the time this is within a design that I have items grouped together overall, or certain sections of the design grouped. When I select the design and run 'Find and Replace', I get the 'no objects found' error message. But when I hit the 'ungroup all' button and break everything apart and try again, it works. This breaks my grouping which I can sometimes get around, but from that point in a complex design, but I don't have a reasonable way to get the groupings back the way they were in the design at that point. I've run in to this with fairly complex designs with multiple groupings, but I have also tested simple scenarios with 3-4 simple vector shapes and get the same results. So in the end, the fact I have to ungroup everything leaves me with a design that has the right color, but the entire design is now totally ungrouped and I lose all of my object groupings if that makes sense.
In past versions, I used the GDG ColorClick Extreme macro for this and it was incredibly efficient for making selections within a design by fill color so they could be modified or variations set up quickly and it worked with items whether they were grouped or not. Since this macro's no longer offered, I'm trying to replace it with the built in Find and Replace tool, but was having a hard time with it.
Should Find and Replace work on grouped objects, or am I missing something?
Also, I need to put in a feature request that the "Search Range" in Find and Replace stay with whatever your last selection was rather than always defaulting back to "Current Page" since I always am working within a selection and have to re-check that each time I go to use it.
I just performed a relatively simple test, and Find and Replace was able to find objects within groups (searching based on uniform fill color).
Another tool you might consider trying is Jeff’s Select Same 3 at Macromonster.
I find that to be quick and convenient for a lot of tasks.
I only have Version 2018. But my experience has been that sometimes it works sometimes it does not. I was using a color palette with spot colors, and I was just wanting to change from one spot color to another, to create different variants of the layout. This is when it was hit or miss. Recently we switched to RGB profile on our printer, and since using that palette, it seems to function better.Also, Powerclips have an effect on this as well.
Eskimo said:Another tool you might consider trying is Jeff’s Select Same 3 at Macromonster.
A lot better, faster and easier to use for basic finds compared to the built in Find and Replace feature.Use it all the time.
Oberon Color Replacer is great for replacing colors the way you describe, and as far as I know it also works with PowerClips and fountain fills.Hasn't been updated in years but the latest version (29.3.8) works fine with most versions of Draw, at least up to version 2020 and probably also the latest ones.Can be downloaded here.
Ronny and Eskimo, Thank you for those recommendations! I've downloaded this one as well as the Oberon version. I always heard of the Oberon Color Replacer as a pretty comparable tool to the GDG ColorClick macro I've always used from John over at GDG. He was updating it with every new version of CDR, but it looks like he stopped updating a few versions back. Hopefully one of these that you've recommended will work with this new 2022 CDR. Having that quick and easy ability to select all objects in a design with the same fill color with a few clicks is CRITICAL to my workflow, and every time I have to go to Find and Replace now... my heart just sinks, haha! I'll definitely give these a try. Thank you again for the recommendations!