Yesterday I had done a search from the search box at the top right, and had selected “Whole Word” to search for a whole word. Today I wanted to search for any part of a word, and couldn’t find any options that were appropriate. After experimentation, I found that “Any word” is what I wanted.
Whole Word should be a check/uncheck item, not a radio button item.
I realize that you are trying to deal with options for multiple word searches here, but it’s messy.
None of the options other than “Whole Word” will force the match to be a complete word (excluding words within an Exact Phrase, but the outside edges of that are not forced to be complete words), so the exclusivity is correct. They’re not meant as opposites; the option you’d use in place of “Whole Word” differs according your needs. For part of a single word, all three would be the same, but for multiples they’ll have different matches.
The next major version will add a little more flexibility to this with RegEx and some other new options to refine the search parameters.
Here’s another way of thinking of it. When searching for either a single word, or a few letters, which is probably the most common type of search, there is no choice, other than whole word, that makes any sense.
For example, if I’m searching for “mary” then “Exact Phrase,” “All Words,” and “Any Word” make no sense. That’s why I had trouble undoing my selection of “Whole word.”
I accept that there may be some confusion given that Scrivener’s search is different from, say, Word’s, where “whole word” is a checkbox option because it isn’t searching on the same parameters as Scrivener through the project–there’s not an “any word” or “all words” option there because it doesn’t make sense in the context of a single document. But I don’t follow your example. If you’re not looking for “mary” as a whole word, why would that choice make sense? If you’re looking for that exact set of characters anywhere within a word, then “Exact Phrase” seems what you’re after.
Here’s the problem I have with “Exact Phrase.” Here’s the definition of phrase:
Phrase: a small group of words standing together as a conceptual unit, typically forming a component of a clause.
So, if I’m searching for “test” and I want it to match “test,” “testing,” and “tester,” then exact phrase makes no sense.
I realize this is a difficult thing, because you’ve added this great way to specify searches for multiple words. To be complete you’d have to have these options:
Single Word Searches
Whole Word
Any Part of a Word
Multiple Word Searches
Exact Phrase
Any Words
All Words