I hate the find panel

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JBL
Posts: 170
Joined: 2003-04-25 14:33:59

I hate the find panel

Post by JBL »

Okay, I think I gave some feedback to beta one saying that I didn't see why the find panel should operate like the other pallettes. I am sure you have your reasons but I really must say that the more I use the current version the more I hate nearly everything about it. First, I hate the little preview screen. I often used find to select (for example) every paragraph with the phrase "Human Factors" in it, so that I could copy them and paste into another document. Now find just selects stuff in this stupid little pane and I can't see any way to copy it (etc). This preview window is also too narrow to really see the text properly formatted. That fact is made worse by the fact that (apparently) it doesn't respect line breaks. Even more wackoness is created by the fact that you can only see what you searched because it appears in bold. Today I did a search for \s\s+ which got me back a bunch of randomly formatted text with absolutely no indication of where the multiple spaces were.

Second, it appears that you have to click Find All before you can click replace all, at least if I click on find all then change the find string and then click on replace all it replaces what I found the first time not what I told it to find the second time. Argh!

Third, try making the document shorter. Suddenly the find text field disappears. (Note this would not be a problem if find were just a pallette because you could drag it out of the pallette drawer.)

Fourth, when at some point in the future you get find to work across multiple documents again, won't it make more sense for it not to be attached to a single document the way it is now?

Okay, I think I am done ranting for now.
melg
Posts: 2
Joined: 2003-01-24 09:27:30

Re: I hate the find panel

Post by melg »

JBL wrote:First, I hate the little preview screen. I often used find to select (for example) every paragraph with the phrase "Human Factors" in it, so that I could copy them and paste into another document. Now find just selects stuff in this stupid little pane and I can't see any way to copy it (etc). This preview window is also too narrow to really see the text properly formatted.
Hey JBL. I'm not sure I understand. When I do a "find", the preview window will show all occurrences of the phrase, and when I click on the instance in the preview, the section appears in the main window highlighted. Is this not happening?
JBL
Posts: 170
Joined: 2003-04-25 14:33:59

Re: I hate the find panel

Post by JBL »

melg wrote:
JBL wrote:First, I hate the little preview screen. I often used find to select (for example) every paragraph with the phrase "Human Factors" in it, so that I could copy them and paste into another document. Now find just selects stuff in this stupid little pane and I can't see any way to copy it (etc). This preview window is also too narrow to really see the text properly formatted.
Hey JBL. I'm not sure I understand. When I do a "find", the preview window will show all occurrences of the phrase, and when I click on the instance in the preview, the section appears in the main window highlighted. Is this not happening?
That is what is happening. But in the old Nisus, I could click "Find All" and (with the magic of non-contiguous selection) every instance would be found in the text. I found this useful for a number of things. First, I could copy everything I found at once. Second, when you are searching for a longer phrase, it is easier to see the context scrolling through the document than scrolling through the little preview in the current implementation. Third, I found this a simpler way to (say) italicize every instance of the word "attention" I just click on "find all" and then select italics. Maybe as NisusX develops there will be other ways to do these things but the current version seems to require clicking on each item in the preview and copying or whatever. I find that irritating.
melg
Posts: 2
Joined: 2003-01-24 09:27:30

Re: I hate the find panel

Post by melg »

That is what is happening. But in the old Nisus, I could click "Find All" and (with the magic of non-contiguous selection) every instance would be found in the text. I found this useful for a number of things.
Oh. I don't have the long experience you do with Nisus. I can understand how this can create problems for you. Maybe some changes can still be made... it's still beta. :?
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