Efficient Replace Style needed

Question

Last April I asked if anyone knew how simply to replace a graphic style in AI. Up to now I have no real answer except that which Scott Falkner kindly suggested (below). I take it that there is not easy way to do this, perhaps for technical reasons but maybe because it's an oversight. Thanks for trying to provide a simple way to do this rather than making the user use a round about way.
Scott Falkner - 12:23pm Apr 12, 08 PST (#4 of 4)
Unlock and show all layers and objects. Create a new global colour swatch, then redefine the style to use that swatch as a fill or stoke. Select an instance of the stye then use Select > Same > Fill Color or > Stroke Color to select all uses of that colour. You should now have all instances of the style selected. Apply the style you want. Sun the action Delete unused palette items and the now unused style should go away.
Untested.

Answer 1

This may be posted in the wrong thread by perhaps this answer will help, yanwell. It appears you are editing the bounding box and not the object within it. Here is what I suggest.
Illustrator has a marvelous Layer/Object window. It's simply called 'Layer,' but as someone kindly pointed out to me some time ago, 'objects' are stored either under a Layer or Sublayer. This is crucial for understanding Illustrator since this allows you to easily choose a layer or an object in order to edit it or even apply a style. Styles can become very confusing here so watch out. This is covered elsewhere on the forum.
I believe you should bring up your Layer window and find the layer on which the object you want to edit is (you can open all main layers by Option and clicking a closed layer to open all layers). *However* this will not open layers and objects under this main layer. You must expand the main layer and sublayers to get to the objects. Once there then use the little 'selection circle' on the right (the 'target' circle is the correct name I believe). If grouped then you have to open that group manually (all of this 'opening' is very tedious sometimes; I wish Adobe would make this easier). You will note that there the object and its bounding box are under this group. If you choose the object (rather than the bounding box) you should be able to proceed with your editing. Remember, once you get used to using the 'target' option in the Layer window you will greatly improve your efficiency in editing complex docs.
What I don't understand is why Adobe doesn't make all of this clear somewhere (like in Help) but leaves it up to us poor users to figure it out. It caused me great frustration when I moved from Freehand to Illustrator. It may be buried in some tutorial.