Does the "in selection" checkbox in the replace dialog actually do anything?

[Adam]

I would expect the "Replace All" button to do a global replace within the file when "In selection" is unchecked. However, it seems that replace all only ever replaces within the selection, regardless of the value of the checkbox. Since the word under the cursor is selected automatically when I press ctrl-f or ctrl-h, I can't do a simple global replace on the current file without clicking back to the editor window to un-select the highlighted text, unless I remember to select all text before opening the search/replace dialog. When no text is selected, "Replace All" works as expected, replacing all instances of the string within the file.

"Replace All in All Opened Documents" does a global replace, but obviously there are time when I have multiple files open, and don't want to perform the same action across all of them. Does this happen for others? Do I just have some weird configuration setting somewhere?

I'm using version 6.6.9.

[Andreas Jonsson]

Seems to work as expected for me:

"Replace all", "In selection" unchecked => performs replace all in entire file.
"Replace all", "In selection" checked => performs replace all in selection.

I note that you say that when you open the Find dialog, the current word is selected. This is note the case; the word is simply highlighted (green). There is no need to go back to the editor etc. Maybe that's what the problem is? If not, have you tried disabling all plugins to see if one of them is interfering (temporarily rename C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\plugins to something else and restart N++)?

[Thomas]

Hi Adam,

As for Andreas my installation works as described above (for versions 6.6.8 and 6.6.9). To make sure that no plugin causes the issue you should start npp without plugins (command line paramter -noPlugin).

If you want to replace string in some open files but not all you have to choices:

1. you can close the files which should stay unchanged
2. you only search "in all open documents" and then manually apply the replace strings (you can navigte accross all open document by using the F4 and Shift-F4 keys)

Regards,
Thomas

[Adam]

I feel kind of silly. I had the "Match whole word only" and "Direction: Up" options selected. I unselected the first and changed the direction to Down, and it works as expected. Sometimes you just need to step away from it for a while and come back with fresh eyes.

Thanks for the suggestions, though! I love the program, and it's good to know it's well supported.