FreeCommander Forum

The search window "look and feel" is a little rough...

When I open the Search window the "Search in" field is highlighted, yet if I start typing (or do a "paste" ) the "file name" field is edited. This runs counter to any other program I've used.

1) Do NOT highlight the "Search in" field - it's clearly NOT the field that will be edited.
2) The default "paste" field is "file name" - IMO, that should be the "containing text" field.

Also, if the window is closed between uses (rather than minimized) the "file name" field gets cleared.

3) IMO, when the search window opens from scratch, the "file name" field should be pre-populated with whatever criteria was there when the window was last closed.

-Mike

Don't know what you did with your search window. My search always starts with cursor in filename field (Activation by file > search or Ctrl & F).

Which FC version do you use? Have you tried starting with a fresh (empty) freecommander.ini?

Here is my experience (FC.598, Win7-64):

(1) Search opens with the cursor in the File Name field, and paste will occur there; nothing is active in the Search In field.
(2) I think it is easier to start by default in the File Name field and TAB to the Containing Text field, if necessary, than to start in the latter and Shift+TAB back to the former.
(3) The last-entered name or text is easily recoverable by Down key from either text box (you don't even need to use the drop-down arrow at the right end). Successive Down keys move back through the history. My personal preference is to start with an empty text box because I rarely repeat searches.

Which FC version do you use?

I am using Version 2009.02b

Have you tried starting with a fresh (empty) freecommander.ini?

No

Don't know what you did with your search window. My search always starts with cursor in filename field (Activation by file > search or Ctrl & F).

I didn't "do" anything with my search window. It works like yours. I also almost always use CTRL-F (after re-mapping it).

Note I said that the "Search in" field was highlighted. I didn't say it was active. This fact is quite unintuitive to me. Is your "Search in" highlighted?

Search opens with the cursor in the File Name field, and paste will occur there; nothing is active in the Search In field.

Yes. That's what I said. Unless you minimize/re-maximize the window, in which case the "Search in" remains populated yet active.

I think it is easier to start by default in the File Name field and TAB to the Containing Text field, if necessary, than to start in the latter and Shift+TAB back to the former.

While I agree it's easier to Tab rather than Shift+Tab, I disagree with your premise. 99% of the time I want to search an entire folder (the folder which was open in FC when I opened the search window), and that same folder (which is the one holding my source code) over and over, and limit the search to .c and .h files. However, I want to change the text each time I search. So having the cursor in the text field makes much more sense.

The last-entered name or text is easily recoverable by Down key from either text box (you don't even need to use the drop-down arrow at the right end). Successive Down keys move back through the history.

Why not pre-populate the file name field with the last selected value?

My personal preference is to start with an empty text box because I rarely repeat searches.

That's sort of my point - I don't really WANT the last entered text - but I want to enter NEW text there. I'd prefer the text field to either be empty or its previous contents highlighted (so I can just start typing") but I definitely want that field ACTIVE.

My searches with FC generally consist of trying to find any and all files within a given folder that contain a given text string (perhaps a string that I don't have quite right). So with my source folder open, I perform a CTRL-F, and then want to enter that search string. And then, after running the search, edit that string because it's not quite the one I wanted. You can see that it's far easier for me if the active field is, and remains, the "Containing text" field.

As I understand ralfso, and certainly what I meant, is that FC-XE 598 works without the problem you report in point (1) -- no highlight. So you might try the updated version; 2009x is not being developed further.

FC-XE works exactly as you desire, except that you have to <Tab> once or click to move from the default File Name box to the Containing Text box. Because your goal is so predictable, I think it would be easy enough to always do Ctrl+F;Tab in immediate sequence instead of just Ctrl+F. Or you might try something like AutoHotkey to turn Ctrl+F into Ctrl+F;Tab for you.

Whether one or the other box is the "best" place to start depends on what a particular user wants to do. For you, obviously it's the Containing Text box. For other users it may be the File Name box 99% of the time; for me, it's about 50/50. Somebody's going to have to hit <Tab>, at least some of the time.

I'm curious... have you used a file manager program where Search defaults to Containing Text rather than File Name?

Like Scott_Y said the highlighted field "search in:" is not appearing in the new FCXE-version.
You can try it here: http://www.freecommander.com/fc_beta_en.htm

You say that in most cases you're not searching filenames but filecontent.
In this case it might be much faster to use a desktop search engine which generates an index of all filecontent in configurable folders.
This makes search very fast compared with the "search in" of FC because FC always does a new search in the files.
I use Copernic desktop search for this.