Hi, is there a way to skip to the next result when doing a Search simply by clicking Enter? The default seems to be: Cmd-F, add Search Text, results appears in binder, click on a result, then a dialogue box comes up with “Next” highlighted. That’s fine if you’re looking for just one or two instances, but if I have numerous instances in different contexts in a lengthy document what I’d like to do is press Enter to skip to the next one that appears in the Editor. The situation now is that I have to mouse over and click on Next, which becomes onerous if you’re trying to find the one particular instance out of 35 where you’d like to insert/edit text, etc. Basically, the same fast process in Word or Pages: Enter . . . Enter . . . Enter . . . Enter . . . Great, that’s the one, done. But in Scrivener when I press Enter (muscle memory) it shuts the dialogue box and I have to redo Cmd-F to open it again. Is there something obvious here I’m missing?
(BTW, Quick Search can’t do it as I can’t see much of the context of the search word.)
Cmd-g is the standard MacOS shortcut for ‘next result’ and it works in Scrivener in the same way. Cmd-shift-g is for ‘Previous result’.
So the ‘Mac’ way of searching is `cmd-f``, enter the search text, then:
Enter to go to the first result (or click the Next button) and close the find dialogue OR
cmd-g to go to the first result and keep the find dialogue open
Either way, after that first find, open or closed, cmd-g / cmd-shift-g will move forwards and back through the results.
Another useful command (in Scrivener and some other apps) is cmd-e with text selected, then cmd-f will bring up Find with the selected text already in the search field.
I’m not sure if Scrivener has added extra features to the standard Find dialogue or not, but the above works on most properly programmed Mac apps.
You are a certified genius! I never knew that, about Cmd-G, but now that I do it pretty much solved a problem that’s been bugging me for many years (and which I only just got around to asking about). Many thanks.
In the “Find” box, when I type the text I’m looking for and click ENTER, the box disappears, leaving me with only the first instance of the text.
In most apps, when you hit ENTER, the box remains and you can cycle through all the instances. I realize you can accomplish this by clicking the “Next” button instead, but that involves grabbing the mouse so it’s a minor annoyance.
If it’s not clear what I mean, just pull up a web page on a Mac and click CMD+F, type “the” and hit enter a bunch of times. You’ll see it cycle between all the “the”s on the page.
Scrivener’s search features are the best of any app I’ve ever used. I’ve been trying to persuade the Obsidian folk to copy just half of what Scrivener can do, without success.
I couldn’t work the way I do without Scrivener’s unique search capabilities.
Maybe I have been spoiled by code editors like VSCode, where searching is a double-tap of a single key (Shift-Shift) and type (the field is already focused), and it highlights the match inside the current document/multiple documents… to the next match and so on. This is far easier (with fewer clicks). VSCode’s search also handles 1000s of documents and partial matches instantly.
I like Scriveners’ search because it can be very precise, but it feels a bit legacy UI/UX to me?
@Softy Many people feel the need to “customize” their writing app to suit their preferences. This almost always works with apps like BetterTouchTool (BTT).
If I understand correctly what you want to change, here’s how it would work in your specific case. Cmd + G acts as Enter. You could then use Enter to jump to the next instance. But only if the selected field is named “AXTable”, that’s the binder.
However, Enter remains Enter when you’re typing in a normal text field.
Scrivener’s find tool is modelled more after those that are intended to be in part navigation tools as well. Since you pointed out the downside of reaching for the mouse, you’ll perhaps appreciate the concept of how this works: that it lets you quickly jump to a word, let’s say ‘discovered’, that you see four paragraphs down, using nothing but the keyboard. ⌘F + discov + Enter, and there you are. If there is one in the way, in between where you want to go and where the cursor was, then ⌘G picks up.
The dialogue thus gives you two modes of operation: navigation and extended search sessions where one might be changing settings a bit as they go, which is the main reason I can think of to leave it open (outside of mouse users wanting buttons to click on, but then all of this is moot anyway).
Changing it would probably not even solve an overall frustration level, because we’d then be frustrating a different group of people: those that are used to invoke+type+enact/dismiss style find tools. As one of those myself, I can assure you I find it very frustrating when programs leave find interface on the screen (particularly on top of the text ) after I’ve started using it. To me this is not a “legacy” vs “modern” thing, more a matter of familiarity and modality.
See also: §11.2.2, Searching with the Keyboard, in the user manual PDF.
) after I’ve started using it. To me this is not a “legacy” vs “modern” thing, more a matter of familiarity and modality.