I don’t know whether this was a serious post, or whether it was just an attempt to spam the Forum with a video game link because the previous post from 2021 had been a spam to some other site (but not deleted, because the moderators back then weren’t as aggressive at anti-spam as we are now; I have rectified that).

Just so you know, links irrelevant to Notepad++ and the on-topic discussion are not allowed in this forum (especially from brand-new users)

However, if you are serious in this reply nearly 4 years after the discussion ended: Picture this: you are editing your complex code, and instead of closing the Search Results panel, you just click back into your code’s text panel – the same way you would if you were going to be typing new text – and suddenly, F3 goes back to finding the next match, the way you expect it to. It’s almost like Notepad++ (like every other text/code editing app I’ve ever used) is designed to have the keyboard shortcuts apply to the tab or panel that currently has focus. When you think of it that way, Notepad++ is behaving quite sensibly.

Besides, if you are dealing with the Search Results from the Search Results window, then instead of doing an F3 (Find Next), which performs a new search from the current location, you should be using F4 (Next Search Result), which will move you to the next result in the active Search Results – and the F4 key, since it’s dealing with the Search Results, works whether your focus is currently in the Search Results panel or in the file-editing tab panel instead.

And if you, like the original poster, were talking about the Find dialog itself, then you can either move the focus from the dialog to the editing tab, or you can use ENTER (like @Alan-Kilborn suggested 4 years ago)

To sum up:

• If you want to deal with the recent results in the Search Results window, then F4 will move to the next result whether you have focus in the text-editing tab or in the Search Results window,
• If you want to deal with doing a fresh search with the most recent search expression (for example, if the contents of the file have changed recently), then F3 will work if the editing tab has the focus; and if the editing tab doesn’t have the focus (either because focus is in the Search Results or in the FIND dialog or in some other panel), then all you have to do is switch the focus back to the editing tab before hitting F3, and the focus will stay there through subsequent uses of F3.
• None of these options require closing the Search Results panel nor the FIND dialog box, despite the claims to the contrary.

-–
moderator removed link to the “Snow Rider” game

F3 is a ‘natural’ key for searching.

Not really. It’s not mnemonic. It’s just what you’ve become used to after years of being told by Microsoft that F3 is FindNext.

I actually had to run a fresh copy of N++ to discover what F3 is mapped to before commenting. Why? Because I remapped my FindNext an eon ago to something a lot more memorable (for me).

(Actually, I just could have read down into Peter’s reply to discover F3’s default mapping)

But it would not be an unreasonable Feature Request to ask that F3 also work as Find Next even when the Find dialog has focus.

It would be unreasonable, for those that have remapped the functionality. Unless the mapping was used to discover the correct keycombo.

However, it may be worth pointing out that the Enter key by design works to FindNext when the Find window has focus. Sure, it is a different key, but maybe the OP doesn’t know that this works? Shift+Enter works to FindPrevious in a similar way.

Of course, there’s an argument that all keys that work in editing mode should also work correspondingly in the searching dialog window. To that end I think an issue is already created that gets to this, maybe further comments on the topic should be posted there. Here’s the issue: CTRL+F should upgrade to CTRL+H when pressed.
So it isn’t exactly the same as OP’s request here, but it gets to the “where the same keys should work” topic.

Technically, F3 (the default shortcut for “Find Next”) keystroke works if the search dialog is open but not in focus – ie, after opening the Find window and doing the first Find, you can click back in the document, and the find window will go transparent (unless that’s been disabled) and F3 will work for Find Next after that.

As @Raanan-Barzel, I get used to F3 —though actually I replaced it with Numpad5—. I am also not satisfied with clicking on the document to use F3. So some time ago I modified F3 with AutoHotkey to do this: if the Find dialog is in focus, F3 clicks on the Find Next button and activates the editor. On the other hand, if the editor is the active window, F3 does its usual work.

The script is quite simple and could be used as a workaround:

~F3::
	if WinActive("Find") {
		ControlClick, button25, Find
		WinActivate, ahk_class Notepad++    ; Switch to editor
	}
return

BR

Technically, F3 (the default shortcut for “Find Next”) keystroke works if the search dialog is open but not in focus – ie, after opening the Find window and doing the first Find, you can click back in the document, and the find window will go transparent (unless that’s been disabled) and F3 will work for Find Next after that.

But it would not be an unreasonable Feature Request to ask that F3 also work as Find Next even when the Find dialog has focus.

If my workaround of clicking back in the document so that F3 works isn’t sufficient for you, and you wanted to pursue getting the F3 shortcut added, this Forum is not sufficient, as this is discussion between fellow Notepad++ users, and making a post at community.notepad-plus-plus.org does not get your idea tracked. But the FAQ section has an entry with instructions on how to make an official Feature request. As always, make sure you search the official issues location to see if someone else has already made the request, and whether it’s still open (where you can add your support to idea) or whether it’s been closed-as-rejected (where you can try to lobby for the feature to be added)