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Find terms that are similar to the Find text. Select this checkbox, and then click the Similarities button to define the similarity options.
or For example, a similarity search can find words that differ from the Find text by two characters.
ααα αααα’α ααα
Define the criteria for determining if a word is similar to the search term.
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.
ααααα‘αααα α α‘αααααα
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.
Combine
Searches for a term that matches any combination of the similarity search settings.
Using Combine better meets a user's expectations from looking at the settings, but may return false positives. Not using Combine may match less than expected, but does not return false positives.
A Weighted Levenshtein Distance (WLD) algorithm is used. If Combine is not checked, then settings are treated as an exclusive-OR (strict WLD).If Combine is checked, then settings are treated as an inclusive-OR (relaxed WLD).
Be careful when using Replace All with Similarity Search. Best to be certain first about what will be found.