Google Drive update adds find and replace

Google Drive has finally added a feature to mobile document processing that users have been crying out for.

There are a few reasons why word processing on a tablet is a frustrating experience compared to a PC, but by far for years, the biggest one has been the absence of "find and replace" — the feature that lets you search a document for a word or phrase and, if you so desire, replace it with another.

It's not as if app publishers didn't know that users wanted it, either; there are, if you look back far enough, forum posts on official websites where users commiserate over the absence of the feature.

It's finally available in the free Google Drive apps for both iOS and Android, and it's pretty easy to use. At the top of each document, you'll see a magnifying glass icon; tap it to open the search text box and, on tablets, a replace text box (on smaller devices, you'll need to select replace options from a drop-down menu).

Interestingly, Apple also quietly added find and replace to Pages for mobile when it updated the app for iOS7 — but that app is only for Apple devices, and the feature is a little trickier to find (it's tucked away in the Tools menu).

At any rate, it's nice to see the "official" apps finally getting something users have been requesting for a long time.