No no no no no no, I hate this preview window. I don't want the preview window, I literally always want the find window. This has messed with my workflow for months. How do I get the preview window to go away and die forever?
Ermahgerd after digging through Andriy's link I eventually found this:
Help > Edit Custom Properties
Create the file if it doesn't exist, then add this line:
ide.find.as.popup=false
Solves all your problems, baby.
UPDATE 2019.2: This no longer works in the latest updates. Very disappointing, breaks my workflows and ultimately makes me want to quit my subscription.
The closest thing we have remaining is to switch the CTRL+Enter or CMD+Enter key combos with a simple Enter key press:
ide.find.enter.as.ok=true
UPDATE 2020.1:
This just plain doesn't work anymore. The only work around is to hold CTRL or Command on your keyboard and press enter while searching.
I very rarely search to find a single item so the results list closing (and resetting the list scrollbar when re-opened...) is just not a convenient way of working. And for the second or so that the popup is open before I hit enter (to get a real list) it doesn't seem worthwhile wasting CPU cycles formatting a list of results.
My colleague came to me the other day and asked why I am still using an 2018 version .... Well that's why. We are paying for this, why do you guys keep making it worse instead of better? One of THE most used functions and so many people who don't like the way you changed it. Why can't we get at least a switch to get the old behaviour back?
That it is unneccessary.The old window worked very well without any additional action. Why change it up and add an additional Mouseclick or Combokey to it?
We work all day to make code more efficient on an IDE that is making itself less efficient.
And as I have seen, I am not the only one bothered by this.
I very rarely want to search for a single location. I want to find all the places in my code that I've done something. I find the initial results window, *and* the live search extremely jarring and annoying. Why would I want PhpStorm to change what's on the screen multiple times as I type. It's like having someone shouting multiple, irrelevant (and wrong) answers to a question before you've finished asking it.
I *always* want to go to the old search results window and I don't see why you can't provide a way to make that the default via a system setting.
In addition, there often appears to be no way to close the initial search window when there are no useful search results. At least on my Windows machine, there is to standard "X" at the upper right that would allow me to close it.
Just weighing in there that the fact that it's impossible to disable this popup abomination despite users clearly indicating that they hate it is a sad indication of what the "Intelli" brains think of their user base. The fact that this popup doesn't disappear when you press escape is inexcusable and has frustrated me on a daily basis for literally years. "Develop with pleasure" - yeah right.
it just hit me - I reckon the problem is that some [very misguided person] has come to the conclusion that search is about looking for stuff - so a popup search window makes sense - it presents the results and lets you walk through them.
However, programmers (almost) _never_ want to search for stuff - it just doesn't happen. In 99.9% of searches the intent is _navigation_ - you are looking for a piece of code, and just want to... go there. This is why the tool window worked well - it allowed you to just bounce around the code. Because sometimes you search for something that's indicative of what you want, or sometimes, you just aren't sure, or sometimes there are lots of results, and you need to step through to find the correct one.
The fundamental point, is, we couldn't give a **** about the actual search results, it's all about the place in the code that the search takes us to. Which is why the popup window makes no sense at all - because it's all about presenting the results of the search (not what we want) rather than taking me to the code found (what we want).
Have to say that popup is just not compatible with how I use find.
I use find constantly as I'm often working with other people's code. Generally I am looking for something which may be in any number of files, and I need to see the context of the lines around it. Having the the find window is great, I just click on each result, it brings up the file, and I can close it and click on the next.
So definitely would prefer to be able to use that by default.
Can we just have a normal search with find in window??? making this is super complicated when I just want to search for text. why can't it be have an advanced option if needed???
* Before it was a static dialog and only began to search when you pressed enter. There was another tab for live searching but not the default
* Now it searches and refines as you type which is distracting and unnecessary when I am always going to open it in the results windows anyway
Also the change of keys is a clear demotion of what the primary function of the search dialog was - to get a find a list of search results. If you know that you need a single result and can recognize it quickly then the new dialog is great. For all other purposes it is (subjectively) useless and having the list opened and pinned to the UI to explore is both more useful and what I expect from search results.
I love Android Studio, but seriously... This popup search window is horrible and has been annoying me ever since it was changed. Really disappointed to read there are no plans to actually fix it or add a setting for it.
very very happy to see this thread - this window has been one of my two biggest intellij pain points - and now that it's gone with a simple "registry" change, my life is much better. Thank you!!
Another dissatisfied customer here after upgrading to WebStorm 2019.2. I hate the Find popup, and you have seriously messed with my productivity by removing ide.find.as.popup=false. Additional demerits for silently removing features. My annual WebStorm subscription comes due on August 17. I will be investigating alternatives to WebStorm between now and then.
Also dissatisfied, enough so that I am going to see what else is out there. Maybe something that doesn't cost as much and decides that I am not allowed to dock a window by default.
Looks like the "ide.find.enter.as.ok=true" workaround has been removed in 2019.3
roll on June 91th so I can cancel my subscription and keep my perpetual license for the last version (2019.1.3) where the search wasn't the crappy one. This sucks
Exactly! And it just gets more confusing when alt+f7 (to show all references) does the right thing and puts the results automatically below so you can go through them conveniently.
With the stupid find popup you end up double clicking the first interesting result, then when you want to check the next on in the list you remember its gone (because it doesnt go to the find window automatically anymore) so you need to do a new find, again and again...
And yes, of course we can "relearn" to use the popup one, try to remember to do ctrl + enter every single time, but it just doesnt feel intuitive the same way "show all references" does, and find used to. Which is really a pity (and a nuisance) in an IDE which generally is so great simply because it IS so intuitive, and often kind of knows what you want before you even know it yourself.
No no no no no no, I hate this preview window. I don't want the preview window, I literally always want the find window. This has messed with my workflow for months. How do I get the preview window to go away and die forever?
The preview window has terrible performance.
Ermahgerd after digging through Andriy's link I eventually found this:
Help > Edit Custom Properties
Create the file if it doesn't exist, then add this line:
Solves all your problems, baby.
UPDATE 2019.2:
This no longer works in the latest updates. Very disappointing, breaks my workflows and ultimately makes me want to quit my subscription.
The closest thing we have remaining is to switch the CTRL+Enter or CMD+Enter key combos with a simple Enter key press:
UPDATE 2020.1:
This just plain doesn't work anymore. The only work around is to hold CTRL or Command on your keyboard and press enter while searching.
I've reverted to 2019.1.
I very rarely search to find a single item so the results list closing (and resetting the list scrollbar when re-opened...) is just not a convenient way of working. And for the second or so that the popup is open before I hit enter (to get a real list) it doesn't seem worthwhile wasting CPU cycles formatting a list of results.
Seriously?
Again you robbed us of the cool search window?
My colleague came to me the other day and asked why I am still using an 2018 version .... Well that's why. We are paying for this, why do you guys keep making it worse instead of better? One of THE most used functions and so many people who don't like the way you changed it. Why can't we get at least a switch to get the old behaviour back?
https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115000173884/comments/115000209170
In the latest version of php storm (2019.2) this does not work anymore.
This does replicate the search on enter behavior, but he modal looks like the new version (not the old)
This behavior is however annoying. The search function in phpstorm was what kept me using it anyway since it's kinda slow lately.
I'm officially not using php storm anymore. Thanks phpstorm team. I stopped using an editor I've been using for 6 years because of this.
That it is unneccessary.The old window worked very well without any additional action. Why change it up and add an additional Mouseclick or Combokey to it?
We work all day to make code more efficient on an IDE that is making itself less efficient.
And as I have seen, I am not the only one bothered by this.
I very rarely want to search for a single location. I want to find all the places in my code that I've done something. I find the initial results window, *and* the live search extremely jarring and annoying. Why would I want PhpStorm to change what's on the screen multiple times as I type. It's like having someone shouting multiple, irrelevant (and wrong) answers to a question before you've finished asking it.
I *always* want to go to the old search results window and I don't see why you can't provide a way to make that the default via a system setting.
In addition, there often appears to be no way to close the initial search window when there are no useful search results. At least on my Windows machine, there is to standard "X" at the upper right that would allow me to close it.
Just weighing in there that the fact that it's impossible to disable this popup abomination despite users clearly indicating that they hate it is a sad indication of what the "Intelli" brains think of their user base. The fact that this popup doesn't disappear when you press escape is inexcusable and has frustrated me on a daily basis for literally years. "Develop with pleasure" - yeah right.
it just hit me - I reckon the problem is that some [very misguided person] has come to the conclusion that search is about looking for stuff - so a popup search window makes sense - it presents the results and lets you walk through them.
However, programmers (almost) _never_ want to search for stuff - it just doesn't happen. In 99.9% of searches the intent is _navigation_ - you are looking for a piece of code, and just want to... go there. This is why the tool window worked well - it allowed you to just bounce around the code. Because sometimes you search for something that's indicative of what you want, or sometimes, you just aren't sure, or sometimes there are lots of results, and you need to step through to find the correct one.
The fundamental point, is, we couldn't give a **** about the actual search results, it's all about the place in the code that the search takes us to. Which is why the popup window makes no sense at all - because it's all about presenting the results of the search (not what we want) rather than taking me to the code found (what we want).
Any chance to make this a real option?
It feels like being hidden away means that it might be removed at some point and the popup search is a very poor substitute
I *really* hate the popup and I use the search constantly. I can't seem to make it go away in 2019.2.
This no longer works:
Have to say that popup is just not compatible with how I use find.
I use find constantly as I'm often working with other people's code. Generally I am looking for something which may be in any number of files, and I need to see the context of the lines around it. Having the the find window is great, I just click on each result, it brings up the file, and I can close it and click on the next.
So definitely would prefer to be able to use that by default.
Can we just have a normal search with find in window??? making this is super complicated when I just want to search for text. why can't it be have an advanced option if needed???
Dan: "ide.find.enter.as.ok=true" is still working for me in 2019.3 (build #WS-193-5233.80 on maOS 10.14.6).
But I still hate the fact that I can't skip this ridiculous, *HEAVY* Find UX, when *I DECIDE* that I need a hammer, not a sledgehammer.
Can someone from JetBrains please explain:
(1) Why was "ide.find.as.popup" removed in the first place?
(2) Why can it not be restored, given the number of people who found it useful?
This is broken again. The setting in idea.properties no longer works for me, at least in 2019.3.
I'm on a Mac. This is the content of $HOME/Library/Preferences/IntelliJIdea2019.3/idea.properties
Like everybody else, I hate the preview window. Can you please expose a way to disable it in the UI?
* Before it was a static dialog and only began to search when you pressed enter. There was another tab for live searching but not the default
* Now it searches and refines as you type which is distracting and unnecessary when I am always going to open it in the results windows anyway
Also the change of keys is a clear demotion of what the primary function of the search dialog was - to get a find a list of search results. If you know that you need a single result and can recognize it quickly then the new dialog is great. For all other purposes it is (subjectively) useless and having the list opened and pinned to the UI to explore is both more useful and what I expect from search results.
I love Android Studio, but seriously... This popup search window is horrible and has been annoying me ever since it was changed. Really disappointed to read there are no plans to actually fix it or add a setting for it.
very very happy to see this thread - this window has been one of my two biggest intellij pain points - and now that it's gone with a simple "registry" change, my life is much better. Thank you!!
Ian Cervantez, you are my hero! That stupid preview window was making me insane. Thank you!!
Another dissatisfied customer here after upgrading to WebStorm 2019.2. I hate the Find popup, and you have seriously messed with my productivity by removing ide.find.as.popup=false. Additional demerits for silently removing features. My annual WebStorm subscription comes due on August 17. I will be investigating alternatives to WebStorm between now and then.
Also dissatisfied, enough so that I am going to see what else is out there. Maybe something that doesn't cost as much and decides that I am not allowed to dock a window by default.
Looks like the "ide.find.enter.as.ok=true" workaround has been removed in 2019.3
roll on June 91th so I can cancel my subscription and keep my perpetual license for the last version (2019.1.3) where the search wasn't the crappy one. This sucks
I can't believe *anyone* likes the new find window. I find it both useless and annoying. Please, please, please, revert this change!
I see, you don't want to get it. That's fine by me, won't argue against that.
There are people like me who don't like the change of behaviour. And there are people like you who don't mind.
I think a good IDE should be able to serve both well.
Exactly! And it just gets more confusing when alt+f7 (to show all references) does the right thing and puts the results automatically below so you can go through them conveniently.
With the stupid find popup you end up double clicking the first interesting result, then when you want to check the next on in the list you remember its gone (because it doesnt go to the find window automatically anymore) so you need to do a new find, again and again...
And yes, of course we can "relearn" to use the popup one, try to remember to do ctrl + enter every single time, but it just doesnt feel intuitive the same way "show all references" does, and find used to. Which is really a pity (and a nuisance) in an IDE which generally is so great simply because it IS so intuitive, and often kind of knows what you want before you even know it yourself.
let's submit one ticket a day until this feature is back
Thanks :)
Thank you Ian Cervantez - did the trick!
Remember to restart your IDE..