Is there a way to assign a keyboard shortcut to start the find dialog in UltraCompare?
It is extremely inefficient to have to click several buttons to get to the find dialog.
Thanks.
Ctrl+F or Alt+F3 opens first the Quick Find window and pressing the same key a second time opens the regular Find window in UltraCompare Professional 2024.1.0.5. There can be pressed and hold Ctrl and now twice the key F to open the regular Find window. Or there is pressed and hold left Alt and next twice the key F3 for opening the regular Find window.
In ribbon mode can be clicked on ribbon tab Home in last group Configure on the second command Settings.
In toolbar/menu mode can be clicked in menu Options on the first menu item Configuration.
In the opened Configuration dialog window click in tree on left side on Key Mapping. Scroll down in the Commands list on right side to the command Find. The Existing Keys area displays the current key assignments Ctrl+F and Alt+F3 which can be removed with a single click on them and clicking on button Remove. A different key mapping can be made with clicking once into the edit area below Press New Key, pressing the key combination and clicking on button Assign.
There is no command in the Commands list for opening directly with just two instead of three key presses the regular Find window.
There can be seen at top right corner of the left text window pane the Quick Find window with the entered search string copyentir on your screen capture. The right window pane has the input focus as it can be seen on text cursor | at line 630 column 4.
I have this time attached also screenshots of UltraCompare Professional 2024.1.0.5 64-bit.
UltraCompare_Quick_Find_left_pane.webp shows the Quick Find window opened after pressing once Ctrl+F or Alt+F3 with left text window pane having currently the input focus. The Quick Find window with entered search string syntax is opened in this case at top right corner of the left text window pane. The text cursor | after the search string syntax indicates that the Quick Find window has the input focus.
UltraCompare_Quick_Find_right_pane.webp shows the Quick Find window opened after pressing once Ctrl+F or Alt+F3 with right text window pane having currently the input focus. The Quick Find window with entered search string syntax is opened in this case at top right corner of the right text window pane. The text cursor | after the search string syntax indicates that the Quick Find window has the input focus.
The Quick Find searches for the entered string just in the text file with the Quick Find window at top right corner. If Quick Find is displayed on left text pane, the search is done only in left displayed text file. If the Quick Find window has the input focus, pressing key ESC closes the Quick Find window. If a click was made in the text window pane below to Quick Find window to switch the input focus from the Quick Find to the text window pane on which the Quick Find is currently executed, pressing key ESC first discards the current selection of the found string or does nothing if nothing is selected and pressing a second time ESC closed the Quick Find window. Setting the input focus to the other text pane on which Quick Find is not executed, pressing key ESC once or twice has no effect on the display of the Quick Find window above the other text pane. It is possible to have a Quick Find running on left and also on right text file at the same time with identical or different search strings.
The regular Find is executed like the Quick Find on the text file having had the input focus on opening it. But there can be unchecked the advanced Find option Close after find to have the window opened until manually closed with a click on button X or pressing key ESC on Find window having currently the input focus. It is possible with a permanently opened Find window and using the buttons Next and Previous to click with left mouse button into the left or the right text window pane to search for the next or previous occurrence of the search string in the just selected text window pane. In other words with the Find window opened with left text window pane having the input focus, the Find for next/previous occurrence is executed on left text file, but clicking once into the right text window pane, and then again on the buttons Next and Previous in Find window switches the search to the right text file.
There is no possibility to run Quick Find or Find on both text window panes simultaneously as far as I know.
UltraCompare_Regular_Find.webp shows what happens on pressing once again Ctrl+F or Alt+F3 and Quick Find window has the input focus and not another window like one of the two text file panes or a docked view, or on clicking on the button … in the Quick Find window. There is opened the regular Find dialog window with the already entered search string syntax (captured as blinking text cursor was currently not visible). There was made in a previous session before by me a click on the gearwheel button to extend the regular Find window and display also the four additional options supported by this type of Find. It is possible to open quickly the regular Find window by pressing Ctrl+F+F or Alt+F3+F3 as written by me in my first post.
UltraCompare_Key_Mapping_Configuration.webp shows the command Find in the Key Mapping configuration window in the Commands list.
I do not know why you cannot see the command Find in the Commands list. I suggest clicking on the button Defaults to delete all key mapping customizations done perhaps with a former version of UltraCompare after a confirmation with a click on button Yes in the next opened warning message box window. That results in the recreation of the user configuration file %APPDATA%\IDMComp\UltraCompare\ucomp32.kbd which stores all key mappings.
Quick Find window on left pane of a text file comparison
Quick Find window on right pane of a text file comparison
Regular Find window of a text file comparison with the options visible