Similarity search in Find and Replace dialog of LibreOffice Writer

Similarity search can find strings of text in the document that differ slightly from the string in the Find text box. The string in the Find box also will be included in the search.

The Similarity search dialog helps users find text that is close to what is typed in the Find text box. This can help finding words that are misspelled or technically spelled correctly but the wrong word for the context.
  1. Type the desired string in the Find text box.
  2. Click the Similarity search checkbox so it has a check in it.
  3. Click the Similarities button that is to the right of the checkbox. This opens a Similarity Search dialog.
  4. Enter the desired numbers in the three fields. (See explanation below)
  5. Click the OK button.
  6. Click one of the buttons to Find or Replace text in the documents. (See the Basic Find and Replace page to learn what the buttons do.)

The dialog has three text boxes, with arrow buttons, and a checkbox.

  • Exchange characters: Enter the number of characters in the search term that can be exchanged. For example, if you specify 2 exchanged characters, “sweep” and “creep” are considered similar.
  • Add characters: Enter the maximum number of characters by which a word can exceed the number of characters in the search term.
  • Remove characters: Enter the number of characters by which a word can be shorter than the search term.

Having numbers greater than “0” in more than one of these text boxes will find text with each individual setting.

For example, type the string “carb” is in the Find box and set the text boxes as follows:

  • Exchange characters: 2
  • Add characters: 6
  • Remove characters: 2

The following words would be found in addition to “carbs”:

  • car: This is highlighted because the search looks for strings with at least two characters removed.
  • card: This is highlighted because the search looks for strings with at least two characters that are exchanged.
  • carbs: This is highlighted because the search looks for strings with at least two characters are added.

The word “cardinal” would not be highlighted, even though it has more than one characteristic that fits into the above settings. Placing a check in the Combine checkbox and then performing the search would highlight “cardinal”.

This is because both the Add characters and Remove characters are combined. The “b” is excluded because strings with two less characters than what is in “carbs” will be searched for. In addition to this the search picked up the “dinal” because this was at least six more characters than “carbs”.

The Combo check box allows for two or more of the settings to be combined to find text.