PDF XChange Forum

Could you please make Advanced Search into a toggle
* The toolbar item Edit --> View --> Search should toggle the panel on and off.
* Similarly, the shortcut key Ctrl+Alt+F (I changed this from Ctrl+Shift+F) should toggle the panel.

The only way to turn off the Advanced Search panel, once it is opened by Edit --> View --> Search, is to pick the wretched mouse, which hurts my wrist.

I notice that the Properties pane is toggled by Ctrl+`.and also by View --> Other Panes --> Properties Pane. Why hasn't the same toggle script been applied to the Advanced search?

. . . or am i missing something?

Hello ParzivalRM,

Thanks for the post and request.
I believe it is done on purpose as it is now - and consecutive presses of Ctrl+Shift+F will get the focus back to the search field, but will not toggle the visibility of the whole pane.
I will bring this one for discussion!

Regards,
Stefan

Thanks, Stefan. That makes sense, but it doesn't solve the problem of how to dismiss the Search Panel. Here are some possible solutions:

* Close the Search Panel with Escape, in the same way that the little Find box is closed with Escape.

* Make yet another menu button that closes the Search panel.

* Make yet another menu button that closes the right panel, whatever it is displaying.

* Turn the 'Close properties' button into a 'Close right panel' button.

* {Best solution] When the Search Panel is open and the user presses the hotkey:
--- If the focus is not in the Search Panel, put it there.
--- If the focus is already in the Search Panel, throw up a dialogue asking the user to confirm that he wants to close the Search Panel.

My issue is that 95% of the time I am only using PDF-XChange as a Viewer of PDF files that I generate using TeX or other software, or download form the Web. When viewing, really all I need except occasionally are Search, Select Text, Zoom and Print. If it's all going to be too clumsy viewing documents with PDF-XChange, I will drift off to Sumatra for viewing and only open PDF-XChange when I am editing, which is a pity, because there is all this other wonderful power just under the hood. And besides, I've paid for it.

Thanks Parzival,

Indeed those are valid points and I will make sure they are taken into account when we discuss this!

Cheers,
Stefan

Hi Parzival.

Actually there is two different commands with different shortcuts:

1. Search (Ctrl+Shift+F) - it opens the Search pane, it doesn't toggle the pane, just show.
2. Search Pane (Ctrl+Alt+F) - it toggles the Search pane
So you already have a good options to use..

HTH.

Hi all,

This is a very good discussion with lots of valid points.

I'd like to add only two thoughts. First, I agree that it makes sense that Ctrl+F does not toggle the little Find box off when it is already open, but rather, sets the focus into the Find box again.

However, at the same time (i.e. when pressing Ctrl+F), I think that all text in the Find box should be automatically selected (same when clicking into the Find box, or into the Advanced Search box). I always find myself having to press Ctrl+A before I can enter my (new) search term into the Find box, or into the Advanced Search box. This is btw. how Ctrl+F also behaves in all major browsers. OTOH, the "Advanced Criteria" fields of the Advanced Search pane should not behave like this because there, very often you keep the existing text and only modify it by adding or removing certain search terms. Long story short, make the Find box and the topmost Advanced Search box auto-select all ts text content when entering focus, but keep the behaviour of the "Advanced Criteria" fields of the Advanced Search pane as is

Second, I feel that the toolbar buttons for "Find" and for "Advanced Search" actually should toggle the respective functions (i.e. Find box, and Advanced Search pane) on, and also off again.

Best regards
David.P

Hello everyone,
In light of Vasyl pointing out that these features are working as intended, I have gone ahead and created two feature requests about some improvements that could be made to these functions.
#4348: FR: Find and Search UI buttons toggle pane appearance.
#4349: FR: Find field highligh on focus
Note that these requests are not a guarantees these features will be implemented, simply a promise that they will be considered when we are next looking at new features.

Just allow the search pane to close upon ESC key once its active/highlighted. That's how the simple find popup works in Editor and about any other software.

Curiously the advanced search window of Adobe Reader closes via ALT-F4.

That does seem a bit... precarious... on their part, curious choice of hotkey indeed.

I will mention it. The find pane does work like this already, and while most people are using the search pane, one would expect they are navigating through multiple searches and wish to keep it open during that. So it seems like a good point for discussion.