Instant search

Zohar Levi

I believe a search capability is fundamental in an editor, and it needs to be as convenient as possible.

I’m used to editors such as visual studio. Instant search seems the basic, default behavior to me.

I tried to configure notepadpp to behave similarly:

ctrl+f for instant search
f3 for repeated instant search.
but it’s clunky:
It opens a small textbox at the bottom without features as the normal search.
It find the first occurrence fine. But if I look at the area more closely and change the cursor position, then then next search would be on the word under the cursor.
When I want to close it, I press ESC. But if the cursor isn’t on the textbox, then the whole editor quits (I programmed ESC to quickly quit). Instead, it should check first if there’s a search open and close it instead.

I’d like to suggest that this behavior would be improved.

Alan Kilborn

@Zohar-Levi

I believe you mean the Incremental Search feature as shown here at the bottom of the N++ main window, when activated:

Imgur

but it’s clunky: It opens a small textbox at the bottom without features as the normal search.

It isn’t supposed to be like the normal search.

But if I look at the area more closely and change the cursor position, then then next search would be on the word under the cursor.

I’m not sure what you mean here; can you describe it more?

When I want to close it, I press ESC. But if the cursor isn’t on the textbox

This is controlled by a Windows (not a Notepad++) feature called “input focus”. Input is sent to the window that has this.

then the whole editor quits (I programmed ESC to quickly quit)

Programming Esc that way is a BAD idea.

Zohar Levi

I’ll note first that I didn’t receive email notification about your post even though it’s set to ‘watching’ on the bottom.

It isn’t supposed to be like the normal search.

Hence, clunky.

I’m not sure what you mean here; can you describe it more?

The next search would be whatever word the cursor is under. If I move somewhere, then I can’t perform next search. Clunky.

This is controlled by a Windows (not a Notepad++) feature called “input focus”.

The app receives notifications for both textbox and main window and can sort it out.

Programming Esc that way is a BAD idea.

Sometimes, I want to use it as a quick viewer. You may suggest a better way to achieve quick quit by esc.

Terry R

@Zohar-Levi said in Instant search:

I’ll note first that I didn’t receive email notification about your post even though it’s set to ‘watching’ on the bottom.

Although the website appears to offer up email notification it hasn’t been activated. So you need to return often to see what’s new on the forum including any replies to your posts.

Terry

Alan Kilborn

@Zohar-Levi said in Instant search:

The next search would be whatever word the cursor is under. If I move somewhere, then I can’t perform next search. Clunky.

It would be nice if there were keycombos that would activate the > and < button functionality, while input focus is in the main editing window. This has been discussed here BEFORE.

When I want to close it, I press ESC. But if the cursor isn’t on the textbox

This is controlled by a Windows (not a Notepad++) feature called “input focus”. Input is sent to the window that has this.

The app receives notifications for both textbox and main window and can sort it out.

Sure, but Esc by itself is already used in many ways by many of N++'s controls. There would have to be some sort of dedicated keycombo for this functionality.

I programmed ESC to quickly quit

Programming Esc that way is a BAD idea.

Sometimes, I want to use it as a quick viewer. You may suggest a better way to achieve quick quit by esc.

Well, the default keycombo for quitting N++ is Alt+F4.

Zohar Levi

Maybe should say somewhere that there are no website notifications.
A dedicated escape button would make it cumbersome. It should be: if there’s a dialog (pop up window) open, then close it. Otherwise, quit.
The link you provided seems to discuss the same issue.

Alan Kilborn

@Zohar-Levi said in Instant search:

Maybe should say somewhere that there are no website notifications.

The website software isn’t owned by Notepad++.
Thus, not sure if such configuration is possible.

It should be: if there’s a dialog (pop up window) open, then close it. Otherwise, quit.

You may certainly have your own opinion about it, but I wouldn’t wait for such a feature to appear in Notepad++.

The link you provided seems to discuss the same issue.

That was my reason for posting it.
It also provides a workaround, if you choose to go that way with your own setup.