February 8, 2009

We’ve added a few new features to AD Find and Replace, the first is called ‘Replace within N characters’, this allows you to perform a replace only with the first N number of characters or the last N number of characters. This is especially useful for replacing numbers within telephone numbers, as the screen shot below shows. For example if we want to replace the area code 044 with 043 for each user in a selected OU or Group then we can check ‘Replace within N characters’ and set the ‘Replace within the First’ value to 3, this will tell the program to only replace 044 with 043 when a match is found within the first 3 characters. Now without this feature we run the risk of changing a telephone number that contains 044 anywhere in the number, for example 043 12044044 would be updated to 043 12044044 which is not what we want. We can now replace 044 only if it is within the first 3 characters if a match is not found then it will be left alone. We can also replace in the last N characters. I’m sure you’ll agree a worth while addition.

The second new feature is the ability to Active Directory as a different user, this has been available in our other programs for some time but was need in AD Find and Replace.

The final update is the ability to insert wild cards (variables) into the ‘Replace with’ text box. The wild cards read the value of another attribute and insert that value into the attribute you are working with. Wild cards aren’t new and have been included with the program since version 1 but unless you read the help file you may not know they existed so we’ve added the the wild card list to the GUI so you can easily see the wild cards available.