Make "Find Next" / "Find Prev" buttons an option

Chris Trigg

Came to this forum just to let know that I LOVED << Find | Find >>, I will revert to 7.4.2 and will wait until it is restored.

Totally agree, I just updated some of my older installs on various workstation to get the << Find Find >> buttons, and they are gone already. - Damn! Make it an option!
Don’t tempt us with goodness then take it away. how silly.

Roumen Mollov

@Bas-van-der-Veeken said:

Came to this forum just to let know that I LOVED << Find | Find >>, I will revert to 7.4.2 and will wait until it is restored.

Same here, gone back to 7.4.2 until << Find and Find >> appear again.

Noam Shanny

@Bas-van-der-Veeken said:

Came to this forum just to let know that I LOVED << Find | Find >>, I will revert to 7.4.2 and will wait until it is restored.

Same here! Please restore this great feature!

Robert Kinard

Just adding my voice to those asking for this feature to be added back in some way. Thanks.

Edward Myers

This post is deleted!

AZJIO AZJIO

I suggest leaving the checkbox. But the buttons “Find >>” and “<< Find” must switch the checkbox.

Daniel Earle

I hated the << Find | Find >> buttons, JUST ALWAYS USE FIND ALL OCCURRENCES!! ONLY EVER!!

Matt Smith

I rolled back to v7.4.2

the two buttons are just too useful

Matt Smith

I think the best solution would be to add an option in the settings to choose between the current setup and the double buttons setup

when the option is enabled,
<< Find and Find >>
will always show

<< Count and Count >>
<< Replace and Replace >>
<< ReplaceAll and ReplaceAll>>

should only be visible if the “wrap around” checkbox is not selected

it seems to me that this would be the solution to make everybody happy

AZJIO AZJIO

you have not all buttons. Your option will have to be returned again.

Scott Sumner

@Matt-Smith

add an option in the settings to choose between the current setup and the double buttons setup

Software developers are resistant to making everything super-configurable, for a number of reasons. I understand this, and agree with the philosophy. It is better to decide that a change is worthwhile and then plow ahead with it. @donho seemed to make this decision by creating the <<Find and Find>> buttons in 7.4.2. However, it seems the feature wasn’t thought fully through and had to be “backed out”, although that introduced yet another new way of doing things (a direction checkbox instead of 2 radio buttons).

<< Count and Count >>

Your idea for <<Count and Count>> buttons is intriguing, although it doesn’t take into account the existing functionality, meaning what if you want the total count–do you press the <<Count button, see the result (e.g. 5), then press the Count>> button and see that result (e.g. 7), and do the mental math to come up with the total document count (12). Seems burdensome…

Marc Cawood

Every decent editor has Find Next and Find Previous so there is impossibility here. It’s one of the most glaring flaws with NPP.

I’ll be leaving NPP (after years of use) for VS Code until the Find Previous button re-surfaces.

Kathryn Nelson

I was okay with either the two button or the toggle - but the latest version 64-bit, doesn’t seem to have either!. The tool tip on Find Next tells you to do shift enter to search up and I’m sort of getting used to it, but a lot less obvious than having something on the box. (enough to keep me from updating my other machine.)

Scott Sumner

@Kathryn-Nelson

The toggle – if what you mean by that is the Direction group box with the Up and Down radiobuttons (present pre-7.4.2)-- was not restored in 7.5 and later (when the <<Find button design of 7.4.2 was backed out), but rather was replaced with a single control called Backward direction (a checkbox). It’s with the other checkboxes on the left side of the Find window.

Instead of toggling between two radio buttons, you just either check or uncheck the checkbox. Equivalent but different…

If this (or ANY posting on the Notepad++ Community site) is useful, don’t reply with a “thanks”, simply up-vote ( click the ^ in the ^ 0 v area on the right ).

Richard Troo

Please, bring the “find prev” option back, I mean, why do I have to do 2 clicks (backward edition > next) instead of 1, this is not comfortable. Why ever removing this button? Really disappointing.

Scott Sumner

@Richard-Troo

Well, if you want to do just one operation, forget the Backward direction checkbox and the Find Next button, and simply press Shift+Enter to “find previous”, as the popup hint for the Find Next button shows :

Imgur

It may be little known, but Enter by itself performs the “find next” functionality; as the *Find Next" button is the “default” button in the Find window.

Scott Sumner

Clarification on that last bit of advice:

It should have said:

…forget the Backward direction checkbox (leave it UNTICKED) and the Find Next button…

The reason for this is that using the Shift+Enter and Enter keyboard controls respects the state of the Backward direction checkbox. To me, this is bad design: I’d rather be able to count on a specific keypress here always moving the search in the same direction.

Of course, once you’ve found the first match, moving back to the document tab window and using the Find Next and Find Previous keycombos (which always work to search downward and upward, respectively…NICE!) is probably the better option anyway.

David Fox

Really missing this feature & have regressed to v7.4.2. Hope it gets fully fixed for future releases.

If the only problem is with Replace could it be added to just Find?

Scott Sumner

@David-Fox

could it be added to just Find?

THAT was exactly the problem. Here’s a summary of what happened:

change UI in a manner that affects Find, Replace, and Replace All features
complete the change for Find, even giving it two keyboard options for direction (Shift+Enter added; Enter (alone) was there already)–REALLY NICE <<Find and >>Find buttons!
leave Replace with an inconsistent UI (which direction is it going??..dunno…)
leave Replace All with an inconsistent UI (which direction is it going??..dunno…unless Wrap around is checked–then we know–it’s the whole doc so direction doesn’t matter)
realize what happened…OH, GOSH !!
back out the addition of the <<Find button…but do it so that the UI is yet another change for the user (one checkbox vs. 2 radio buttons to specify direction)

But @David-Fox, I understand what you’re asking for. :-D

guy038

Hello, @Scott-Sumner and All,

I read carefully, all the posts of that discussion and I tried to analyse the different categories of buttons, in the four S/R windows ( Find, Replace, Find in Files and Mark ). All this was done with the last v7.5.1 version !

To my mind, after some tests, a mouse click on the buttons, below, always scan of multiple files ( except for the Find All in Current Document option ), from theirs very beginning to theirs very end and perform the appropriate replacements, if asked for

It’s important to notice that these global searches, and replacements, are totally INDEPENDANT of :

The status of the Backward direction option
The status of the Wrap around option

    •---------------------------------------•   |
    |    Find All in All Opened Documents   |   |
    •---------------------------------------•   |
                                                |  in FIND dialog
    •---------------------------------------•   |
    |     Find All in Current Document      |   |
    •---------------------------------------•   |


    •---------------------------------------•   |
    |  Replace All in All Opened Documents  |   |  in REPLACE dialog
    •---------------------------------------•   |


    •---------------------------------------•   |
    |               Find All                |   |
    •---------------------------------------•   |
                                                |  in FILES in FILES dialog
	•---------------------------------------•   |
    |           Replace in Files            |   |
	•---------------------------------------•   |

Similarly, when the In selection option is ticked, a mouse click on the two buttons, below, scan any normal and single selection, doing the appropriate replacements, if any, from its very beginning to its very end, INDEPENDENTLY of :

The status of the Backward direction option
The status of the Wrap around option

	•---------------------------------------•   |
    |              Replace All              |   |  in REPLACE dialog
	•---------------------------------------•   |
                                                        ( 'In selection' option TICKED )
	•---------------------------------------•   |
    |                Mark All               |   |  in MARK dialog
	•---------------------------------------•   |

So, this first category of buttons, above, does not really concern our discussion, about backward/forward direction, in searches/replacements. Their way of working is rather clear and I don’t think that we miss important information about them :-))

Now, of course, all the other buttons, which remain to study, act on a single file, only. For all of them, the key option is the Wrap around option. Indeed, depending on the status ( Ticked / UNticked ) of the Wrap around option, I think that the look and description of these buttons, sensitive to direction, should change, as below :

With the Wrap Around option UNticked :

                                     •------------•    •------------•   |
                              Find   |  <<  Prev  |    |  Next  >>  |   |
                                     •------------•    •------------•   |
                                                                        |  in FIND dialog
                                     •------------•    •------------•   |
                          Count All  |  <<  Prev  |    |  Next  >>  |   |
                                     •------------•    •------------•   |


                                     •------------•    •------------•   |
                            Replace  |  <<  Prev  |    |  Next  >>  |   |
                                     •------------•    •------------•   |
                                                                        |  in REPLACE dialog
                                     •------------•    •------------•   |
                        Replace All  |  <<  Prev  |    |  Next  >>  |   |
                                     •------------•    •------------•   |


                                     •------------•    •------------•   |
                           Mark All  |  <<  Prev  |    |  Next  >>  |   | in MARK dialog
                                     •------------•    •------------•   |

With the Wrap Around option Ticked :

                                     •------------•    •------------•   |
                               Find  |  <<  Prev  |    |  Next  >>  |   |
                                     •------------•    •------------•   |
                                                                        |  in FIND dialog
                                     •------------------------------•   |
                                     |          Count All           |   |
                                     •------------------------------•   |


                                     •------------•    •------------•   |
                            Replace  |  <<  Prev  |    |  Next  >>  |   |
                                     •------------•    •------------•   |
                                                                        |  in REPLACE dialog
                                 |   •------------------------------•   |
                                 |   |         Replace All          |   |
                                 |   •------------------------------•   |
 'In selection' option UNticked  |
                                 |
                   	             |   •------------------------------•   |
                                 |   |           Mark All           |   |  in MARK dialog
                 	             |   •------------------------------•   |

Notes :

Due to the co-existence of the << Prev and Next >> buttons, the old Shift + Find Next functionality, from now on useless, would be suppressed !
As a remainder, when the Wrap Around option Ticked, the direction of searches, and replacements, is :
- From the cursor location till the very beginning, then, from the very end to the cursor location ( case << Prev )
- From the cursor location till the very end, then, from the very beginning to the cursor location ( case Next >> )

Remarks :

When the Wrap Around option is UNticked:
- Find and Replace actions could be performed, one AT A TIME, from the cursor location, in the backward or forward direction, with the << Prev and Next >> buttons
- Count All, Replace All and Mark All actions would be performed, in ONE go :
  - From cursor location till the very beginning, with the << Prev button
  - From cursor location till the very end, with the Next >> button
When the Wrap Around option is Ticked :
- Find and Replace actions could be performed, one AT A TIME, from the cursor location, in the backward or forward direction, with the << Prev and Next >> buttons, then looping, respectively, to the end / beginning of file, till the cursor location
- Count All, Replace All and Mark All actions would be performed, in ONE go :
  - In the backward direction, after a previous mouse click on the Find or Replace << Prev buttons, then looping to the end of file, till the cursor location
  - In the forward direction, after a previous mouse click on the Find or Replace Next >> buttons, then looping to the beginning of file, till the cursor location
  - May be, if the regular expression search mode is ticked, it would be sensible to return to the first line of the current file, before running a Count All, Replace All or Mark All action

BTW, searching backwards, in regular expression mode, is quite possible :-)) For instance :

Open the usual license.txt file
Move to line 81 ( Ctrl + G )
Open the *Find dialog
Type (?-si)the.*?are, in the Find what: zone
Choose the Regular expression search mode
Hold down the Shift button and, at the same time, click on the Find Next button, twice
Now, hit the Esc key to close the Find dialog
Go on, searching backwards, by using the Shift + F3 button !

Et voilà !

I agree that, for complicated or long regexes, this could lead, very often, to odd things ! But, although I totally understand this restriction, about regex backward searching, we could use this less restrictive rule :

If any << Prev button would be pressed, a short message, about possible unpredictable results could pop up, with, of course, the possibility to suppress any further displaying !

BTW, this regex looks for the shortest range of characters, located in a unique line, between the two strings the and are, whatever their case

Now, @Scott-Sumner, the differences between my suggestions and your beta Find/Replace/Mark dialog, are :

When the Wrap around option is UNticked :
- I added the two Count All << Prev and Count All Next >> buttons, instead of your unique Count button
- I added the two Mark All << Prev and Mark All Next >> buttons, instead of your unique Mark All button
When the Wrap around option is Ticked :
- I just display a Replace All button, instead of your two << Repl All and Repl All >> buttons
- I changed your Count button for a Count All button
On the other hand, you, strictly, apply the “no backward regex search / replacement” rule, included the Shift + Find >> action, which is inactive, when the Regular expression mode is set. However, remember that, when the S/R dialog is closed, any Shift + F3 action, still, searches in the backward direction :-))

To sum up, as far as I know, this set of buttons seem coherent and could be implemented. Probably, these new S/R panels would satisfy the great majority of users !

Best Regards,

guy038