ReplaceMagic Edition Comparison

After a SharePoint migration or server rename, broken links in Office documents are inevitable. The question is: which repair approach fits your project — manual, standard ReplaceMagic, or SmartMapper?

Every supported document that contains embedded paths — hyperlinks, OLE links, Excel external references, PowerQuery sources, Word field codes — will have broken links after a migration. The only variables are how many documents are affected, how complex your link types are, and how you choose to repair them. This page compares all three approaches across every relevant dimension.

Feature comparison

The maths

Manual repair assumes a trained person opens each document, runs Find & Replace in the main document body, checks headers and footers separately, reviews any linked objects, and saves. A realistic estimate is 3 minutes per document for a straightforward hyperlink-only case, rising to 10 minutes or more for documents with OLE links or VBA code.

What manual repair misses

Even with unlimited time, manual repair using Office's built-in Find & Replace dialog cannot reach all link types:

• VBA references — path strings hard-coded in macro modules are not surfaced by Find & Replace. They require opening the VBA editor for each document and searching through code manually
• OLE links — the source path of an embedded OLE object is accessible only through the Edit Links dialog, which must be opened for each object in each document. It cannot be changed by Find & Replace
• Headers and footers — Office's Find & Replace does not reliably reach hyperlinks or field codes in headers and footers unless you switch into header/footer editing mode first
• Link sources in Excel — external cell references use a different storage mechanism than standard hyperlinks and are not found by the standard Find & Replace dialog
• Field codes in Word — INCLUDETEXT, INCLUDEPICTURE and similar fields require the field code to be displayed and edited directly, which Find & Replace does not do automatically

The consequence is that even after a careful manual repair pass, a significant proportion of broken links remain in the document estate, invisible until a user encounters them.

When is ReplaceMagic the right choice?

Any migration involving more than approximately 50 documents makes automation the more practical choice. Below that threshold, manual repair may be acceptable if the documents are simple and contain only hyperlinks. Above 50 documents, the combination of time cost, risk of missed link types, and lack of an audit trail makes manual repair unsuitable for a professional migration project.

ReplaceMagic is appropriate for:

• Server renames or consolidations affecting any number of documents
• SharePoint migrations (on-premises to Online, or tenant-to-tenant)
• Folder restructuring affecting document cross-references
• NAS or SAN replacements where storage paths change
• Network infrastructure changes (platform migrations, domain renames)
• Any situation where you need a documented, auditable record of all link changes made

Which ReplaceMagic edition fits your project?

All ReplaceMagic editions share the same document processing core. The difference lies in how much the tool does for you before the replacement engine runs.