: Scrivener: Write character names once, update everywhere? I have a bit of an issue coming up with good names for my characters. So what I usually do is give each character an abbreviation or

This has come up for me with things like consistent spelling of made up names (Baelish, Balish) or placeholder ones (SoAndSo1, OrbThingy). I think everyone else has already covered options for text you've already written. For replacements as you type:

Did you forget what you named someone or something or how you spelled it?

Substitution text (across all projects) aka Auto-Correct

Options->Corrections->'Edit Substitutions'
This may work well in your case as you are using a tag it can't mistake for a normal word.

Hit the '+' button on the 'Substitutions' dialogue.
Enter '{char1}' in the 'Replace' field & 'Joe' in the 'With' field.
Or 'SoAndSo1'->'Fred'.

A simpler token like 'char/' works too. The backslash is so that 'chart' doesn't become 'Joet'.

You can do this for long or awkward phrases too ('dna/' -> 'deoxyribonucleic acid').

Again this will perform the substitution across all projects. You can change it for each story or try something like below.

Did you name someone something long or awkward to type?

Auto-Complete List (project specific)

Options->Corrections->'Suggest completions as you type' to enable it.

This is different from the Auto-correct feature. Think word completion. Because this is a complete not a replace you it won't work with random tags or variables.

Under the Project Menu (Windows shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+4) to add to
the word list.
As you write, any time you type the first few letters, it pops up a
list.
Hit enter to accept or else keep typing.

This works best for long words or phrases (deoxyribonucleic acid) or words with tricky spellings or diacrtics (Tenochtitlán) rather than a tag. Any text you don't want to type out, really (Paula, Frederick) or your tag ({char1}).

References
www.stevechatterton.com/working-faster-in-scrivener-with-auto-complete-list.html http://www.stevechatterton.com/working-faster-in-scrivener-with-additional-substitutions.html

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Scrivener provides a set of pre-defined placeholder tags (https://scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb/windows/placeholder-tags-list)
which are automatically rendered as text and numbers during compilation. Custom placeholder tags are not supported.

Why would you want to write in such an unnatural way, using code chunks instead of names? It looks jarring and will make it hard to read and edit, for it breaks the natural flow of the text.

How about just call him Joe, then do a Project Replace if you change your mind?

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