Double Ctrl+F won't bring the find dialog to the front of the primary window.

Ahu Lee

Starting from v.8.1.3 this feature is not working on my Windows 10 (x64) machine.

That is, 8.1.2 is the last version that is working for me. All the versions have been tried in both 32 and 64 bit variants.

Can anyone confirm this or am I the only one having this problem?
In the latter case, any ideas on why I am having this problem?

Thank you very much.

PeterJones

@Ahu-Lee ,

As far as I know, you are the only one having this problem. I have used most versions up to 8.1.5 from the day they came out until the day I replaced it with the newest version (including 8.1.2 and 8.1.3), and I’ve never had a problem with Ctrl+F not bringing up the dialog.

That said, it may very well be that you have brought the dialog to the front, and that it’s just off your visible screen right now. To see if that’s the case:

do Ctrl+F twice to bring it to the front
hit Alt+Spacebar which will bring up the Windows default menu for the Find dialog box, even if you cannot see it
Type M to select the Move entry from that menu
Type one of the arrow keys, which will start to move the Find dialog
At this point, if you move your mouse, the Find dialog should snap to your mouse cursor, and you can place the Find dialog in a more reasonable location.

Ahu Lee

@PeterJones ,

No, the dialog is not off the screen. It is visible. Ii just won’t move when I do Ctrl+F the second time.

It is very frustrating. And as I said the problem starts precisely from 8.1.2. I have just rechecked it all several times once again.

How could it be that all the 8.1.2+ versions work for everybody but me? This just doesn’t make sense, does it?

But still is there anything I should check on my machine?

PeterJones

@Ahu-Lee ,

Sorry, because of your phrasing, I didn’t understand. To me, “bring to the front” means take from behind and bring forward. I didn’t realize you meant “it no longer re-centers the find window in the center of the Notepad++ window”.

This was an intentional design decision in v8.1.3, because many users were wanting the ability to use the find/replace/mark/find-in-file keystrokes (Ctrl+F / Ctrl+H / Ctrl+M / Ctrl+Shift+F) to toggle between those tabs in that multi-purpose dialog (see #6 on the release notes for v8.1.3). In order to implement “Ctrl+F with this dialog open means switch to the find tab of the dialog”, the developer had to necessarily stop the meaning of “Ctrl+F with this dialog open means recenter the dialog to the Notepad++ window”. The two features are mutually exclusive.

As always, any UI/design decision in an application like this has the probability of making one set of users extremely happy by giving them a feature they want while simultaneously making another set of users extremely annoyed because it changed a feature they want. There is no way to please all users all the time. Unfortunately for you, you happen to be in the set of annoyed users for that design decision; sorry for your loss.

Ahu Lee

@PeterJones ,

I’m sorry for my poor phrasing and your confusion as a result of it, but I’m glad that despite it all you finally were able to understand my issue. And also thank you for showing me how it should have been phrased.

I’d read the change.log before coming and asking here but I just didn’t realize that line 6 meant this kind of change.

I understand that compromise is not always possible, especially when it comes to GUIs, but here are some things that I still don’t quite understand about this case (I hope you don’t mind me asking):

Single Ctrl+F was already selecting the Find tab (or am I wrong?). Why wasn’t that enough for the users to toggle between the tabs? In other words, why do we as users need this double Ctrl-F binding if we can do the same with a single one?
Why the two features are mutually exclusive? Are you saying that the devs had to remove the command that re-centered the find window in the center of the Notepad++ window itself to implement some new ability for the users? Why? Or is the command still there and can be called somehow using Python Script or something else?

Thank you.

Also, I made a mistake in my previous post. Of course, what I meant was 8.1.3 (not 8.1.2). And since I’m not allowed to edit my posts for much longer than a couple of minutes, I hope someone will correct it for me.

PeterJones

@Ahu-Lee ,

Single Ctrl+F brought up the Find dialog with the Find tab selected if the Find dialog was not open. However, if the Find dialog was open on any of the tabs, before, you had to actually click on the find or replace tabs to change tabs; now, you can just use the same shortcut. You can try this for yourself: in v8.1.2, open up the Replace dialog, and hit Ctrl+F while the Replace dialog is in the foreground/active: you will see that it does not change you to the Find tab. In v8.1.3 and newer, it will.
Yes, I am saying that the devs had to remove the re-center command. The essential nature of the code used to be in v8.1.2 and earlier: “If Find/Replace/Mark/… dialog is open and Ctrl+F is pressed, then re-center dialog”. The essential nature of the code in v8.1.3 and newer is now: “If Find/Replace/Mark/… dialog is open and Ctrl+F is pressed, then activate the Find tab of the Find/Replace/Mark/… dialog”. And, as far as I am aware, the “re-center the dialog” is not accessible from any Notepad++ Message (which is what PythonScript uses to control Notepad++).

Why

Because that’s the feature that the developers decided would take precedence.

It is possible to make feature requests, as explained in the “Please Read Before Posting” that you may or may not have read before posting, which pointed you to the entry in the FAQ section of the Forum; but we in this Forum cannot implement such feature requests. The devs don’t often undo changes unless the change had catastrophic consequences (and I doubt they’d consider “I now have to click-and-drag the Find dialog rather than having it re-center at the touch of a key” to be catastrophic), and the people who want the tab-changing feature would complain if it went away; however, if you asked for the devs “since v8.1.3 got rid of the recenter-the-Find/Replace/Mark/… dialog feature when it changed what Ctrl+F did, could you please re-add a re-center the Find/Replace/Mark/…-dialog command which could be accessed by a shortcut of my choice to the Shortcut Mapper”, it wouldn’t interfere with anyone else’s usage, but would still allow you to choose to assign a key to that feature. However, I cannot guarantee that the devs will implement it.

Alan Kilborn

My 2c is that centering isn’t that useful anyway.
Why would you want this huge Find dialog obscuring a lot of your text in the main editing window.
Blech!
Position the Find window somewhere convenient, and leave it there.
I like mine on a second monitor, obscuring none of the maximized N++ on the first monitor.
Or, when I’m running single-monitor, I put it over the right-hand side of the Search results panel at the bottom.

Ahu Lee

@Alan-Kilborn ,

I understand your reasoning and I partially agree, but I guess, it’s just a matter of habit (and probably a style). Some people are just better organized than others.

As for the size of the dialog, I usually don’t leave it open for more than a couple of seconds. E.g., if I need to come up with some regular expression I do it elsewhere and then just paste it back to Npp.

Thank you for the tips about the Find window positioning. It’s always good to know how other people work and do things.

@PeterJones ,

Yes, I was wrong. later I checked the older version and it’s true, if the Find dialog is already open you cannot change the tabs using the keyboard. The funny thing is that I hadn’t realized it before this discussion. Now the devs decision makes so much more sense to me, though I still believe they should have left the command accessible to users.

Thank you for the request suggestion, especially for the ready-to-use phrase you so kindly provide. I’m sure this one won’t be confusing to other people :) I’ll gladly use it if I decide to make a request.

Thanks, everybody. Thank you Peter for the great help!

Ahu Lee

If anyone’s interested in the old feature and also uses AutoHotkey, here’s a little script. Please let me know if there’s something that can be improved.

#IfWinActive, ahk_class Notepad++
$^f::
#IfWinActive, ahk_class #32770
$^f::

if ctrlf_presses > 0
{
    ctrlf_presses += 1
    return
}

ctrlf_presses = 1
SetTimer, CtrlF, 400
return

CtrlF:
SetTimer, CtrlF, off
if ctrlf_presses = 1
{
    Send, ^f
}
else if ctrlf_presses = 2
{
    Send, ^f

    vWinCriteria := "Find ahk_class #32770"
    WinWaitActive, % vWinCriteria

    WinGetPos, X, Y, W, H, ahk_class Notepad++
    npX := X
    npY := Y
    npW := W
    npH := H

    WinGetPos, X, Y, W, H, ahk_class #32770
    fdW := W
    fdH := H

    left := npX + (npW - fdW)//2
    top := npY + (npH - fdH)//2

    WinMove, %left%, %top%
}

ctrlf_presses = 0
return

Double Ctrl+F centers the dialog window (similar to what the old feature did) and single Ctrl+F does just that – the single Ctrl+F only with a tiny delay which some people may not like, but that’s the price for having multiple actions bind to the same key. To me, it’s not a problem because I usually always press double Ctrl+F anyway.

PeterJones

@Ahu-Lee ,

I very much appreciate that, although you may have disagreed with the design decision, you are willing to admit that it makes a certain sense, and instead of railing against us (for being the bearers of bad news) or the developers (for not doing things in exactly the way you want), you instead found a workaround that works to your liking – and shared it with others, in case someone else might be able to benefit as well. I wish more visitors to this site took your approach.

Alan Kilborn

Not that I care, but what about “restoring” the old behavior if Ctrl+f is pressed when the Find window already has the Find tab active?

Ahu Lee

I’m not sure I understood. Did you mean that, if the Find window itself is not active but its selected/active tab is “Find”? And in such a case make the old feature available?

Also, what do you all think about the idea of making the old feature only available when the Find window is not active?

That is, if the Find window is not active, everything works just like it used to be. But when the window is active, then double Ctrl+F is not distinguished from a single one (just like it works right now)?

PeterJones

@Ahu-Lee ,

“double Ctrl+F” carried no special meaning under the older revisions of Notepad++. It was two distinct Ctrl+F sequences that carried two different meanings, depending on context: the first Ctrl+F brought the Find dialog to the front, and once the dialog was in from, the next Ctrl+F it heard told it to re-center. It just didn’t require any extra delay between the two Ctrl+F’s, so in your mind, you stored it as double-Ctrl+F … but it was two distinct keystrokes in the logic of Notepad++.

The current v8.1.3-and-later behavior is that the first Ctrl+F brings the Find dialog to the forefront, and any subsequent Ctrl+F in that dialog activate the Find tab in that dialog.

Alan’s suggestion is that the first Ctrl+F should bring the Find dialog to the forefront, and any subsequent Ctrl+F in that dialog should “check if the Find tab is active; if not active, then activate the Find tab in the Find dialog; if it is already active, then re-center the dialog”.

Scott Livingston

@peterjones That’s a good summation of the issue and a great solution. I’ll have to look into AutoHotkey that Ahu detailed above while I wait and hope for the triumphant return of the Re-Centering. I was only able to capture 3 of my 4 displays and since I have to blur contents other than the Notepad++ Find dialog it has an unfair advantage, but sometimes I really have to look to find it’s secret pop-up location! I put two red arrows in the image - the one on the left points up at Notepad++ and the one pointing down on the right points to the Find Dialog’s stealthy appearance. Add another monitor and a 14 hour day and it’s enough to send my pupils into an irrecoverable spin.

Though I really miss the old behavior, if <Ctrl-F> could at least open the dialog on the same monitor I think it would take away some of the sting out of the loss for those who used double-C+F. Sometimes it’s two monitors away.

Sorry I started a new thread and thanks to Ahu and other who have brought this up.

Notepad++HiddenFindDialog.jpg

Alan Kilborn

@scott-livingston

sometimes I really have to look to find it’s secret pop-up location!

points to the Find Dialog’s stealthy appearance

I use 4 monitors as well most of the time, and I have no such problems. There are no secrets/stealth operations here – the Find dialog will remain where YOU last put it. There should be no need to go hunting for it, just don’t put it in a different location at different times – and if you do, remember where that was.

if <Ctrl-F> could at least open the dialog on the same monitor

Think of how many users that would not want that; I’m one of them. I’ll go out on a limb and say that most users of 2+ monitors have N++ full-screen on one of them, and a Find window appearing on that, right in the way of the text they are editing, would be terribly annoying as they now have to grab that Find window and move it somewhere else, to see their text behind it.