Before archiving, sharing, or sending out large numbers of TXT documents, it is often necessary to remove sensitive content such as brand names, personal names, and project codes. From the perspective of text anonymization and data cleanup, this article introduces how to use HeSoft Doc Batch Tool to batch replace specified words in multiple text files with empty strings. By selecting a text tool, importing files, setting precise search keywords, and leaving the replacement result blank, you can quickly complete batch deletions and reduce the risk of manual omission.
During enterprise data organization, project delivery, data anonymization, and content publishing, TXT text files often require unified cleanup. For instance, a batch of documents may repeatedly contain old brand names, product codes, customer names, employee names, or internal project names. Deleting these pieces of content one by one manually is not only inefficient but also risks omissions due to the large number of files.
Text files, in particular, usually have a simple structure, are numerous, and are distributed across different folders. Manual processing requires repeatedly opening files, searching for keywords, deleting content, and saving files. For office personnel, this kind of repetitive work consumes time without creating additional value. More importantly, if even a single file is missed during processing, it can affect data release, information compliance, or subsequent data usage.
This article introduces a processing method more suitable for batch office work: using the text tool in " HeSoft Doc Batch Tool " to batch replace specified keywords with empty strings. This enables the batch deletion of brand names, personal names, and sensitive words from TXT documents. The complete workflow will be explained below, combined with before-and-after effect diagrams and software operation screenshots.
Applicable Scenarios: What Problems Can Batch Deleting Keywords from TXT Documents Solve?
Batch cleaning text keywords is not only applicable to a single industry. As long as you are dealing with a large number of text files containing identical or similar fixed content, you can consider using batch processing tools. Common scenarios include:
- Sensitive data removal for external materials: Before sending text reports, project descriptions, or business records to external parties, delete sensitive information such as customer names, responsible person names, and project code names.
- Brand or product name updates: Old documents may still contain previous product names or brand names, which need to be batch deleted first and then re-edited according to new specifications.
- Test file cleanup: Development, testing, and operations teams often generate large numbers of TXT files, which might contain test accounts, test names, and temporary fields that need to be uniformly cleared.
- Standardization before archiving: Before storing or archiving historical text data, remove signatures, notes, identifiers, etc., that should not be retained.
- Preprocessing before batch editing: Before formal revision, clear out all fixed terms that should not appear in the files to reduce the subsequent editing workload.
This tutorial focuses on batch processing TXT text files. For Word documents like .doc and .docx, the processing idea is also find and replace, but you should select the appropriate function based on the corresponding Word tool in the software; do not directly mix different formats for processing, as this may affect the result judgment.
Effect Preview: A More Intuitive Before-and-After Deletion Comparison
The image below shows the text content before processing. As can be seen, "Product A" appears multiple times in the document, along with "Michael Anderson." These likely represent a product name and a person's name, respectively. The screenshot highlights the locations requiring deletion with red boxes, indicating that these keywords are not concentrated in one section but are dispersed within header-like statements, body paragraphs, and the signature area.
Such scattered content is ideal for batch find-and-replace processing. When deleting manually, an editor needs to locate each instance and repeat the same action for every file; with batch software processing, the execution can be performed uniformly across multiple text files once the keywords are set correctly.
The image below shows the result after processing. "Product A" and "Michael Anderson" have disappeared from the text, while the rest of the main body content remains. The person's name in the signature area has also been cleared, demonstrating that batch deletion is effective not only for body paragraphs but also for fixed fields at the end of the text.
From the comparison, it's clear that the goal of this processing is very specific: not to delete the entire line containing the keyword, but to delete only the keyword itself. If your requirement is to delete the entire line containing a specific keyword, you should choose a function related to whole-line processing; however, if you simply need to clear certain words, the find-and-replace-with-empty method introduced in this article is more suitable.
Operating Steps: Batch Replacing Specified Keywords with Empty Values
The following instructions proceed in the actual sequence of the software interface. To minimize the risk of operational errors, it is recommended to first prepare a test folder, copy a small number of TXT files into it for trial processing. After confirming the deletion results are correct, execute the batch process on the official folder.
Step 1: Open the Text Tool and Access the Find and Replace Function
After launching HeSoft Doc Batch Tool , locate "Text Tools" in the left navigation pane. This is a dedicated batch processing entry point for text-based files, suitable for handling TXT files, Notepad texts, etc.
After entering Text Tools, you will see multiple text-related function cards on the right. For batch deleting keywords, click "Find and Replace Keywords in Text." Although the function name includes "replace," leaving the replacement content empty achieves the effect of deleting keywords.
The purpose of choosing this function is to have the software execute the same set of search rules for multiple text files, eliminating the need for users to open and process files individually. For dozens of documents with similar content, this step significantly reduces repetitive operations.
Step 2: Import the Text Files That Need Cleaning
After entering the "Find and Replace Keywords in Text" page, you will first arrive at the "Select records to process" step. The upper right corner of the page provides two buttons: "Add Files" and "Import Files from Folder."
If the number of files to process is small and they are scattered in different locations, you can use "Add Files" to select them one by one; if all TXT files are already placed in the same folder, using "Import Files from Folder" is more efficient. The screenshot shows the import of multiple "Product A - Copy" type txt files, and the file list displays information such as name, path, extension, creation time, and modification time.
After importing, do not rush to the next step; it is advisable to check the list first. Focus on three items: first, whether the extension is txt; second, whether the path is the folder intended for this processing; third, whether any files that should not be cleaned have been inadvertently included in the list. If you find you have imported extra files, you can remove them using the delete button in the operation column to ensure the batch processing scope is accurate.
Step 3: Choose Exact Text Search and Enter the Words to Delete
After confirming the file list is correct, click "Next" at the bottom to go to "Set processing options." The screenshot shows "Exact Text Search" selected, which is suitable for deleting fixed text like specific brand names, personal names, numbers, and project codes.
In the "Keyword List to Find" on the left, enter one keyword per line that needs to be deleted. In the example, "Product A" and "Michael Anderson" were entered. The "Replacement Keyword List" on the right is for the content to replace with; since we want to delete content this time, the right side should remain blank. The interface also prompts "Leave blank to delete," indicating that an empty replacement means deletion.
Several details here can affect the processing results. First, the keywords must match the original text, including spaces. For example, "Michael Anderson" has a space in the middle, so the space must be preserved when entering it. Second, if there are case differences in the original text, decide whether to check "Ignore letter case" based on your needs. Third, if a keyword is very short and might appear inside other words, pay attention to the "Match the complete word rather than part of a word" option to avoid accidental deletion.
For text anonymization tasks, it is recommended to start the keyword list with a small number of highly certain terms, such as complete names or full product names, rather than overly short single letters or common words. This reduces the probability of accidentally deleting normal content.
Step 4: Set the Save Location and Execute Batch Processing
After completing the find and replace settings, continue by clicking "Next." As seen in the progress bar at the top of the page, the subsequent steps are "Set Save Location" and "Start Processing." The save location determines where the processed files are output, and starting the processing formally executes the batch deletion.
Before officially starting, it is recommended to follow a safety principle: do not process the sole original files without a backup. The advantage of batch office software is speed, but speed also means that incorrect settings can quickly affect many files. Therefore, it's best to first copy the original files to a backup directory, or save the processing results to a new output location, and replace the formal files only after confirming correctness.
After processing is complete, you can randomly open a few output TXT files for inspection. When checking, do not just look at the first keyword instance; also search the full text to confirm that all target words have been deleted. At the same time, observe whether the deletion of keywords caused obvious issues with spacing, punctuation, or semantics in the sentences.
Frequently Asked Questions and Notes
1. Does batch deleting keywords delete the entire line of content?
According to the settings in this article, the software deletes the matched keyword itself, not the whole line. For instance, if "Product A" appears in a sentence, these characters will disappear after processing, while the other words in the sentence remain. If your goal is to delete the entire line containing the keyword, you need to choose a tool related to whole-line deletion, not the find-and-replace-with-empty method described here.
2. Can multiple different words be deleted at once?
Yes. The key is to enter multiple words into the "Keyword List to Find," one per line. Leaving the replacement keyword list on the right empty signifies that all these words should be deleted. In the example, "Product A" and "Michael Anderson" are two keywords deleted simultaneously.
3. Why are blanks left in some positions after deletion?
This is because the keyword originally occupied a sequence of characters in the sentence, and the text before and after will not automatically rewrite the semantics after deletion. For example, "The Product A development" might become "The development" after deletion. For most cleanup tasks, this is acceptable; if you need publication-level expression quality, it is recommended to perform spot checks and necessary polishing after processing.
4. How should the keyword list be prepared?
It is recommended to first copy the exact text from the source file to avoid manual input errors. For English product names, personal names, and project names, pay special attention to case, spaces, hyphens, and punctuation. For Chinese keywords, note whether they contain full-width symbols or extra spaces. The more accurate the keywords, the more stable the batch deletion results.
5. Why test on a small scale before processing a large number of files?
Because batch processing acts on multiple files at once. A small-scale test helps you confirm three things: whether the files were imported correctly, whether the keywords can be matched, and whether the result after replacing with empty meets expectations. Processing all files only after a successful test significantly reduces the risk of rework.
Summary: Improving Text Cleanup Efficiency with Batch Processing Tools
Batch deleting brand names, personal names, and sensitive words from TXT documents is essentially a highly repetitive, low-creativity office task. Using HeSoft Doc Batch Tool , you can transform this type of repetitive work into a single rule setup and batch execution: import files, fill in the keywords to find, leave the replacement results empty, then set the save location and start processing.
Compared to opening text files one by one for manual deletion, batch processing not only saves time but also reduces the probability of omissions. For users who often organize text data, process project documents, perform data anonymization, or batch revise drafts, it is recommended to standardize this workflow as a daily office method: back up first, then test on a sample, and finally execute the batch process. This ensures safety while fully leveraging the value of office software in batch processing files, reducing repetitive work, and improving efficiency.