IntelliJ 11.1 does not remember the Case sensitive setting in the Find dialog

I think the subject says it all: but to test, uncheck the Case sensitive checkbox in the "Find Text" dialog, then restart IntelliJ. You'll find it to be checked again (unless there is some issue specific to my system).

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For me, IDEA 11.1.3 (on Windows 7) does retain the case sensitive setting for both Find (CTRL+F) and Find in Path (Ctrl+Shift+F) between starts. However, neither of those dialogs is labeled as "Find Text". But the old deprecated modal Find dialog is labeled "Find Text". So I suspect you are referencing that dialog. That dialog does not retain its settings, and that is unlikely to change since it is, as I mentioned, a deprecated feature.  I'll explain...

The early versions of IntelliJ IDEA (through version 6) used a modal find dialog (the one you are referring to) when doing a find (CTRL+F) in the current editor.  During the development of IntelliJ IDEA 7 in 2007, the modal dialog was replaced with the current Find Bar that opens (by default) via CTRL+F. There was, to put it mildly, a firestorm in the EAP forum when this was done. For a good two or three months it was the primary topic of discussions in the EAP forum. Some felt there was a loss in functionality in the new find bar. (Keep in mind, the original find bar had a few less features than it does now, especially in the early EAP releases.)  Some felt it duplicated the Incremental Search action (Alt+F3).  You can view two of the more prominent threads on the subject if desired: http://devnet.jetbrains.net/message/5195533 and http://devnet.jetbrains.net/message/5198762 A lot of users were very insistent that the modal find dialog be returned. A lot of users also liked the new Find Bar. JetBrains did not want to have to maintan to find features. In a compromise, JetBrains put the old modal dialog back. But it was not directly available in the menu or via hot keys. Users that wanted to use it would be required to go into the key map settings and map a hot key combination to it. Additionally, JetBrains stated that it would be considered a deprecated feature and would not be maintained or altered (i.e. improved) in future versions.


So in the end, if you want to use that feature, you are likely stuck with having to reset that setting between startups. Or write a plug-in that returns the setting to its last setting upon start.

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Mark, thanks very much for all the useful information. I've been an IntelliJ user for so many years - I must have remapped the keyboard shorcut for Find to the old Find Dialog when the Find Bar first came out. I'll just remap back it to the Find Bar. Thanks again.

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The find bar could really use some improvement too.

When using vertical split documents, a very useful feature, part of the checkboxes of the find bar are simply clipped (especially when doing replace). There is no attempt whatsoever to make all its content visible if it doesn't have enough space. It should show the content on multiple lines if it doesn't fit.

It is simply not possible to use the "Preserve case" setting when doing replace without annoying dragging, while in a dialog there is no problem whatsoever with that. I really do not understand what problem this "bar" was trying to solve, especially for replace. The dialogs were simply better.

I'm happy to learn from this post that the old find and replace dialogs can still be accessed, but I still can't find the setting. Where is it (especially for Replace!)?

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Aardwolf wrote:

It is simply not possible to use the "Preserve case" setting when doing replace without annoying dragging

This has been improved in IDEA 12 (currently in EAP). Preserve case has been broken out.
screenshot.png

Aardwolf wrote:

When using vertical split documents, a very useful feature, part of the checkboxes of the find bar are simply clipped (especially when doing replace). There is no attempt whatsoever to make all its content visible if it doesn't have enough space. It should show the content on multiple lines if it doesn't fit

Even a small monitor can be an issue with the bar not wrapping. I recommend you open a report (http://youtrack.jetbrains.com) for that. Post the number here so people can vote for it.

Aardwolf wrote:
I really do not understand what problem this "bar" was trying to solve, especially for replace. The dialogs were simply better.

I suggest you look at the threads I linked to above for an answer to that. That very question was discussed ad nauseum in them.  Also take a look at other threads from the same time frame. If I recall, the basic problem that was being addressed was the high number of modal dialog windows. Using the bar allowed them to reduce the number of modal dialog boxes. With the find bar, you can go back and forth between your search and your code. The debate over which is better was beaten to death five time over back in 2007. It's not worth starting up again IMHO. (Personally, I like the find bar. Even as a replace bar. I can actively see a preview in my code of what is going to be replaced when using regular expressions. The replace dialog did not offer that.)

Aardwolf wrote:

I'm happy to learn from this post that the old find and replace dialogs can still be accessed, but I still can't find the setting. Where is it (especially for Replace!)?

You can map a hot key to the Find dialog in the Key map settings (File > Settings > IDE Settings > Key Map). It is under the "Other" node as "Find...".. You can do a search on 'find' to narrow things down. To the best of my knowledge, the old Replace dialog is not available. The Find Bar was at first just a find bar.  (And as I mentioned, it was a little rough in its initial beta implementation.) When it was introduced, the replace dialog still remained. It was at that point in time that the "debate" surfaced in the forums and the old modal find dialog was returned. (I think it was intended to be a stop gap measure during the EAP program while the find bar was worked on. But it just never got fully removed.) Later when the find bar was changed to be a find and replace bar, the replace dialog was removed. There was no push back (as had happened when Find was removed) in the forums when that happened. At that point the find bar had matured and people got use to it. So the replace dialog was not "retained" as a "hidden" option.

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