Do you temporary want to change some text in your WordPress website and then rollback the changes without affecting the entire database? If yes it is 100% possible with a free WordPress plugin.
I already wrote a post how to change any text in WordPress database permanently and you can read it here. That helps change website root URL and affiliate links and whatever that you want to change permanently. But sometime changes are required for a short time and for those changes you will not want to affect the database. For instance, you have mentioned your store opening hours on several pages and only for a few days opening hours need to be changed. In this case, changes will be temporary and you should not use mySQL query or a plugin to update opening hours in the database. Instead, use FR plugin that doesn’t affect database and replace the text only in internet browser. “FR Plugin” has a nice option panel where you can add as many “find and replaces” as you wish and disable them any time.
Official Download Link for the plugin
[sociallocker id=5255]https://wordpress.org/plugins/real-time-find-and-replace/[/sociallocker]
FR plugin works only for frontend pages and it doesn’t affect admin backend text.
So let’s get started how to use FR plugin
- Install the plugin free from WordPress plugin repository
- In admin panel go to “tools” plugin settings
- In plugin panel you can see two boxes “find” and “replace”
- In “find” box enter the text that want to be changed and in “replace” box enter the desired text
- update the settings
- clear WordPress cache
- Frontend pages get this updated text until this rule exist in plugin panel or the plugin remains activated
- Whenever you want to rollback changes, you can delete the rule in plugin options
How to smartly use the plugin
Usage 1- If you update any plain text (without html wrapper) it may be possible it will replace some undesirable text too. Better to add text with some html. For example I have a website where I have 17 posts containing text “Church” and 3 pages or any other post type containing word “Church” in regard to displaying church prayer timing.. I need to remove “Church” word from news but want to keep it in 3 places where it is used to display prayer timing. In this case you need to get the plugins pro version that support conditional replacing text/html based on post type.
Usage 2 – To add HTML wrapper to any text other than post/widget area or an area that is added dynamically by theme or plugin.
Generally we need to edit theme/plugin php files to make CSS changes or translation. Thanks to Realtime FR WordPress plugin we can add HTML wrapper/css class or even inline CSS styling to any theme/plugin generated frontend content without editing php. e.g. we can replace “Flying Cars” to <span class=”any-css-class”>Flying Cars</span>
Official Download Link for the plugin
[sociallocker id=5255]https://wordpress.org/plugins/real-time-find-and-replace/[/sociallocker]
There are more advanced usage of FR plugin that you can more about at their website
Hang on. Before installing and working with any new plugin make sure to take a full backup of your database or entire website. In case of any mishappening read here how to troubleshoot WordPress basic issues
