Search++ version 0.8 is available:
Fix failure to handle hidden lines markers correctly when executing Show commands with Always hide all lines… not checked and when executing the Show only lines with shown text command on the Tools menu.
Track and restore first line and last line hidden states across tab changes.
Add Spy (temporarily show hidden lines) toggle to the Tools menu. When spy mode is on all lines are visible even though the markers for hidden lines and collapsed folding groups remain; hidden lines can be restored by toggling spy mode off again.
Replace the Reset button in the Expand visible configuration dialog with a Tools button. Make Tools menu keyboard shortcuts work in that dialog.
General reassignment of shortcut keys for greater consistency. Quite a few things have changed, so it is important to check the help, the community thread and/or the Tools menu and the Find and Replace box context menus for the new assignments if you use keyboard shortcuts in Search++. I regret the disruption; hopefully this will be a one-time change, and keyboard shortcuts will stay the same after this.
There are two big changes in this release: the addition of “Spy mode” and some fairly extensive changes to the keyboard shortcuts to yield greater consistency between mnemonics (underlined letters) and shortcuts, some additional capabilities, and hopefully a generally more logical set of assignments. Those changes are detailed below.
There is now a Tools button on the Expand visible configuration dialog instead of the previous Reset button, and Tools command keyboard shortcuts work when focus is in the Expand visible dialog. My rationale for this is that Reset wasn’t very clear, it just did a command from the Tools menu anyway (Show only lines with shown text), and especially with the new Spy toggle available, I’m not at all convinced there’s a reason to give any one command special accessibility.
There is a small change in the way the keyboard shortcuts for Show selected/all text (now Ctrl+O / Ctrl+Shift+O) work. Previously, the unshifted version, like the menu item, would show all lines if all selected text, or the caret if no text was selected, was visible. The menu item still changes to Show all lines, not requiring a shift or a right-click, if none of the selection is hidden, but Ctrl+O will do nothing if none of the selection is hidden, so that Ctrl+Shift+O is required to show all lines. My rationale is that especially when spy mode is active, it might be easy to accidentally show all lines when that is not intended if Ctrl+O does both. When using the menu, you have the item text to clue you in.
As always, comments, critiques, suggestions, problem reports and experiences are most welcome, and thank you for giving this work-in-progress a try.
Spy mode lets you temporarily view all lines in the active document while keeping the markers that define what should be hidden intact. The idea is from this feature request and the subsequent discussion.
I expect this to be most useful after a Show command. If the caret or selection is visible on the screen when you toggle Spy to checked, that part of the text will remain in (approximately) the same place on the screen while all lines become visible. That lets you see additional context for the match. You can use Show selected lines from the Tools menu to change the markers so the selected lines are not marked as hidden; then when you toggle Spy to unchecked, those lines will remain visible.
The Spy setting is per tab and is preserved when you change tabs and change back again. (As of this release, hidden first and last lines are also preserved.) While you cannot have different hidden line markers or fold markers for the same document in different views (that’s a Notepad++/Scintilla limitation), you can have Spy checked in one view and unchecked in the other.
It is possible to use the Notepad++ Hide Lines command or the icon for collapsing a fold block while Spy is checked. In this circumstance some lines will be hidden, but there may be other lines that are marked as hidden or are part of a collapsed fold block that are not hidden. The Spy entry on the Tools menu will then show a bullet instead of a check mark to indicate an indeterminant state. Clicking once will return to full Spy checked state (all lines visible), and clicking a second time will return to normal display. An indeterminant state is not preserved when changing tabs: upon switching back to the tab it will have Spy checked and all lines visible.
Spy is new feature. Expect there to be some glitches. If you have the time and patience, reports of your experience will be much appreciated.
There were a few interconnected rationales for the keyboard shortcut changes, all centered around trying to make things as convenient and coherent as I can for users who prefer to use the keyboard whenever possible. I am sorry for the disruption to those who are already used to some of these shortcuts; hopefully I have it “right” this time, and I won’t have to make such extensive changes again.
I’ll try to list the main changes. They’re all in the help and on the menus, but I can’t guarantee I’ve caught every last one of them here.
General navigation — these work in the main Search++ dialog, the Search in Files dialog, the Search++ results window and the Expand visible configuration dialog:
Ctrl+F toggles keyboard focus between the Search in Files dialog and the main Search++ dialog. If the target dialog isn’t visible, it is opened. Ctrl+Shift+F closes the Search in Files dialog.
Ctrl+R toggles keyboard focus between the Search++ results window and the main Search++ dialog. If the target dialog or window isn’t visible, it is opened. Ctrl+Shift+R closes the Search++ results window.
Ctrl+N puts keyboard focus in the active Notepad++ document. Ctrl+Shift+N closes the main Search++ dialog.
Ctrl+Shift+Q closes all Search++ dialogs and windows and puts keyboard focus in the active Notepad++ document.
Note that all these except Ctrl+N have changed. Also, Ctrl+O and Ctrl+Shift+O, which used to be general navigation commands, are now the Tools commands Show selected lines and Show all lines.
Main Search++ dialog navigation:
Alt+O (the letter “o”) toggles between the Find box and the Replace box.
Alt+1 through Alt+5 (only on the main keyboard, not the numeric keypad) open the drop-down menus on the five search command buttons. These were previously difficult to access by keyboard alone.
The third (“Find All”) command button uses the mnemonic (underlined letter) A, S, K or H when the one-click command action is Find All, Select, Mark or Show. (Recall that you can set any command on the drop-down menu as the one-click command for a button by right clicking or Shift+clicking the command.) The Alt key plus that letter performs the one-click command (as it always did), while the Alt key plus one of the remaining letters performs the default command for the associated action.
Search in Files dialog navigation:
Alt+O (the letter “o”) toggles between the Find box and the Replace box.
Alt+T puts keyboard focus in the table of files at the bottom of the dialog.
Find and Replace box context menus (in the main Search++ dialog and the Search in Files dialog):
Ctrl+G is Exchange Find/Replace (formerly Ctrl+E). This swaps the Find and Replace fields in the dialog in which you are working.
Ctrl+Shift+H is Insert Find (formerly Ctrl+F and called Copy Find). This inserts the contents of the Find box in the main Search dialog at the location of the caret or in place of the selection. If you are working in the Find box in the main Search dialog, it replaces the contents of the Replace box with the contents of the Find box.
Ctrl+Shift+J is Insert Replace (formerly Ctrl+R and called Copy Replace). This inserts the contents of the Replace box in the main Search dialog at the location of the caret or in place of the selection. If you are working in the Replace box in the main Search dialog, it replaces the contents of the Find box with the contents of the Replace box.
Tools menu commands:
Show selected/all lines is now Ctrl+(Shift+)O.
Expand visible is now Ctrl+E, and configure is Ctrl+Shift+E.
Hide all lines is now Ctrl+H.
Remove marks from selected text is now Ctrl+Shift+V.
Select marked text is now Ctrl+Shift+S.
Copy marked text is now Ctrl+P with Ctrl+Shift+P for the configuration dialog.
Clear marks [and bookmarks] from active document (formerly Remove marks…) is now Ctrl+Shift+C.
Clear marks from multiple documents… (formerly Remove marks…) is now Ctrl+Shift+D.
Settings… is now Ctrl+Shift+G.
The mnemonic (underlined letter) for every item on the Tools menu which has a keyboard shortcut is now the same as the letter used in the keyboard shortcut. Keyboard shortcuts for Tools commands work when keyboard focus is in the main Search++ dialog or in the Expand visible configuration dialog. In the Expand visible configuration dialog, Ctrl+Shift+E opens or switches focus to the main Search++ dialog.
