Find Next (F3) not working with last quick find search string in UltraEdit for Windows v21.00

RobS · Feb 17, 2014#12014-02-17T18:36+00:00

After upgrading UltraEdit Professional for Windows to 21.0.00.1030, when I hit Ctrl-F to find a string, the Find Next command (F3) searches for something different than the original search string. If I hit Ctrl-R for Replace instead of Find then I can get F3 to work as expected.

Added by Mofi:

Before you read further here, read Quick Find versus Find and how to customize the usage of both (Ctrl+F behavior)

danruehle · Feb 17, 2014#22014-02-17T20:04+00:00

This appears to be an issue with the quick find functionality added. The F3 key executes that last "non-quick-find" search that was executed. An executed quick find should become the new find for the F3 key. I am going to email their support and reference this post.

RobS · Feb 17, 2014#32014-02-17T22:38+00:00

Sounds good. Thanks for verifying it.

Mofi · Feb 18, 2014#42014-02-18T06:07+00:00

Please do not mix the Quick Find command with the regular Find command. That are two separate Find commands each with its own find history. The Quick Find command is always a not case-sensitive, non regular expression find without additional features like match whole word only or search in column.

The Quick Find command is what its name declares - a quick find, nothing else. If you want to run real finds with some options, and later with Find Next, Find Previous, Find Next + Select, Find Previous + Select, you need to use the Find command. The last used search string of the quick find command can be forwarded to the regular find command by pressing Ctrl+F with focus in Quick Find window or using the button "...".

If you want a Find Next, Find Previous with the search string in the Quick Find window, press the UP and DOWN arrow buttons in the Quick Find window or hit RETURN or Ctrl+RETURN while the Quick Find window has the input focus.

See also Quick Find versus Find and how to customize the usage of both for more details.

peterpenney · Feb 19, 2014#52014-02-19T11:59+00:00

Please do not replace basic core functionality such as Keyboard shortcuts for Find/Find Next with a "new feature" such as quickfind.

Why not use an unsused keyboard shortcut for the new feature instead or replacing a commonly used keyboard shortcut? and why have a separate buffer for Find and QuickFind? - that is confusing, unintuitive and frustrating to a keyboard shortcut user.

Mofi · Feb 20, 2014#62014-02-20T07:14+00:00

Different find histories are needed because the regular Find command can have regular expression strings and multi-line strings in its history which the quick find command simply does not support.

It is possible to execute a find next and find previous with quick find string, but not after closing the quick find window and using the Find Next and Find Previous command of regular Find commad. Like in some browsers the find next/previous commands work only as long as the quick find window is opened.

Well, browsers have only a quick find and no advanced find as nobody really needs a regular expression search in a browser or can edit something in displayed file on found string. Therefore some browsers support also a find next/previous after closing the quick find window/bar with the last used search string.

In UltraEdit there are simply now two Find engines, a quick find engine to quickly find a string and get all occurrences highlighted, and the regular find command with all the powerful features I like. Therefore I still use mainly the regular Find and only rarely the Quick Find as I have done prior UE v21.00. It can be configured that Ctrl+F opens directly the dialog of the regular Find dialog and it is still possible to use the search box in a toolbar for quickly find a string with the regular Find command, see the referenced topic in my previous post.

So there should be no problem that both Find engines coexist as long as user are not expecting that all the commands of regular Find work also with Quick Find. Use the regular Find if those commands are used and not the Quick Find.

Chewbacca · Mar 08, 2014#72014-03-08T11:19+00:00

Mofi wrote:Please do not mix the Quick Find command with the regular Find command.
...
See also Quick Find versus Find and how to customize the usage of both for more details.

Thanks for this!
I joined the forums to complain about this feature, for some reason it never occurred to me to change the keyboard assignment.
This new feature has been seriously impacting my workflow.

TXWizard · Mar 17, 2014#82014-03-17T05:36+00:00

It has had a severe adverse effect on my workflow, too.

IMO, a better approach would be to have the option (ON by default) that Repeat Find would inherit the last Quick Find string. As designed, this "improvement" had severely downgraded my searching ability, which is most unfortunate, since I have long considered the Find and Replace feature to be a key strength of UltraEdit. Indeed, it has become something upon which I depend daily to find things fast.

Mofi · Mar 18, 2014#92014-03-18T07:09+00:00

I prefer also the regular Find with Find Previous and Find Next, all executed by key. I repeat briefly what I have written already at Quick Find versus Find and how to customize the usage of both (Ctrl+F behavior) in detail.

Remove the assignment of Ctrl+F from command Quick Find and instead assign Ctrl+F to regular Find command and all "workflow" problems are solved.

It is nevertheless possible to start a Quick Find session with the other key assignment (customizable, default: Ctrl+Shift+I). After pressing ESC to close the Quick Find window, it can be re-opened again at any time with Ctrl+Shift+I. And if nothing is selected on re-opening the Quick Find window, the last used quick find search string is already preselected and just RETURN must be pressed to re-run a Quick Find with last used quick search string.

DCHooHa · Mar 20, 2014#102014-03-20T15:41+00:00

peterpenney wrote:Please do not replace basic core functionality such as Keyboard shortcuts for Find/Find Next with a "new feature" such as quickfind.

Why not use an unsused keyboard shortcut for the new feature instead or replacing a commonly used keyboard shortcut? And why have a separate buffer for Find and QuickFind? - that is confusing, unintuitive and frustrating to a keyboard shortcut user.

I agree with this. This quick find is causing me days of frustration. How do you turn this off? I don't need it.

Never mind, I found it in the list of keys.

Why it's referrred to as 'SearchFind' and 'SearchQuickFind' in the list of commands, but elsewhere (like on the forum) as 'Find' and 'QuickFind', is beyond me.

Ok, done venting here, everything's fine now, thanks.

AntX · Apr 05, 2014#112014-04-05T16:34+00:00

Yeah, quick find has really screwed up my world. It's driving me crazy. Now I get an uneasy feeling every time I hit ctrl-f in any application. I will turn off quick find as soon as I get to work today.

I am sure the developer who wrote quick find likes it and did an excellent job at implementing it. But, for me this change has a more deleterious impact on my life than switching from windows 7 to windows 8.

dhempy · Apr 11, 2014#122014-04-11T18:03+00:00

The new quick find feature has some nice tricks, but PLEASE don't mess with Ctrl-F! We've been using it for 30 years and like it just fine. The following sequence of keystrokes has GOT to work, regardless of what new features come out:

Hit Ctrl-F.
Type search_text <enter> (possibly followed with ESC if the search dialog is persistent)
Hit F3 repeatedly, as needed.
Hit Ctrl-F again, and if *anything* is defaulted in the search box, it is the previous search. (Or maybe currently hightlighed text or word under cursor, depending on settings.)

That's the base case, and 95% of all searches, I'm sure. Whatever features you implement, they have to support the above sequence, out of the box, without customization.

Having two different search text buffers will always be confusing. They need to share the same buffer. If the quick search can't handle some of the advanced features of a full search, so be it -- we'll learn to use the full search in those cases.

I recommend IDM goes back to the drawing board on the new quick search feature and develop/test ways to integrate it tightly with the standard search feature. It's got good merits, but it can't mess with the base case.

I mapped Quick Find to a different keystroke (Ctrl-Shift-F maybe? I already forgot) and will very likely never think to use it again. This customization was a small pain, and I'll be upset if I have to do it again for each UE upgrade. (I've been upgrading since v7, and learned a long time ago that it's not worth trying to keep UE's settings the way they used to be. Any more, I just accept whatever the new defaults are and adapt to them. Losing Ctrl-F is not an adaptation I'm willing to make.)

Perhaps Ctrl-F could default to the regular Find dialog, and hitting Ctrl-F again would switch to the quick version. Or maybe hitting Enter on the Find dialog executes the search and enters Quick mode, but don't make me hit ESC to get out of that mode in that case.

HTH, and I hope you find a way to keep the new features while leaving what needs to stay put in place.

FWIW, you're in good company. I'm still mad at Microsoft for doing the same thing (worse, actually) in Outlook. Ctrl-F has become "Forward Email" in Outlook.

Really?

-dave

Mofi · Apr 12, 2014#132014-04-12T08:07+00:00

dhempy, it looks like parts of your post are addressed to IDM, but this is a user-to-user forum. Let IDM know about your opinion on Quick Find via email, see top of this page.

You do not have to fear that you have to reassign Ctrl+F again to regular Find command in future on an update/upgrade. Moving Ctrl+F assignment from command SearchFind to command SearchQuickFind is done only once on first start after an upgrade from UE < v21.00 to UE v21.00 or any later version. After making this modification, UltraEdit writes UEv21.00 First Run=0 into uedit32.ini and therefore will not do this modification anymore in future. I can confirm this as I have already updated to v21.10 and nothing changed on my key assignments.

BTW: Shortcuts in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook can be also customized, and yes, I have Ctrl+F assigned to the Find command I want to use by default in both Microsoft applications, too.

dsunde · Apr 22, 2014#142014-04-22T22:01+00:00

Thanks for fixing this in the latest patch, see UltraEdit hotfix information

Issue Fixed in 21.10.0.1026 (released 2014-04-18)

F3 now works with last used Quick Find search string

Mofi · Apr 23, 2014#152014-04-23T05:54+00:00

Yes, with UE v21.10.0.1026 the commands Find Next and Find Previous use the last used Quick Find search string if the last executed find was a Quick Find.

But take into account that the options of regular Find command are not changed even on using last quick find search string. That can easily result on Find Next and Find Previous that less strings are found or even other strings are found than with Quick Find command.

For example a Quick Find was executed for a simple word. Quick Find is always a not case-sensitive, non regular expression search. But currently the option Match case is enabled for regular Find command. Therefore the commands Find Next and Find Previous do a case-sensitive search with last quick find search string which of course can result in less words found.

Or the last quick find search string contains characters having a special meaning in a regular expression search. The Quick Find command interprets all characters of a search string as literal characters. But if the option Regular expressions is currently enabled for the regular Find command, the commands Find Next and Find Previous do a regular expression find with the last used quick find search string which finds now completely different strings, or even nothing for example on last used quick find search string is an invalid regular expression search string.