• The 'Find' Bar
• The 'Find' Dialog
  • General search options
  • Top window (single file) searches
  • Multiple Files searches
  • Search patterns and actions
• The 'Hyper Search' Dialog
• Supersearch Preferences
• Additional Search Packages
• Known problems
• License and Disclaimer

The 'Find' Bar

The 'Find' Dialog

General search options

Ignore Case

Whether the search should match case ('a' and 'A' are different) or not ('a' and 'A' are the same).

Regexp

The search and replace text are interpreted as regular expressions. See the Regular Expressions help for more information or documentation for the Tcl command [regexp].
Note that for searching purposes "\r" and "\n" are treated the same, i.e. as a line ending character. Substitution strings are allowed, i.e. for instance "(some regexp) and (other regexp)" in the search string and "\1\2" in the replacement string where "\1" and "\2" designate the matches corresponding to the regexp patterns inside the parentheses.
Pressing the Regexp Help button will open a help::regexpHelpDialog that provides a quick cheat sheet with regexp syntax notes -- if you need more details on any of these topics, press the More Info button to suspend the current search, and open the Regular Expressions help file.

Batch

When making a batch search, a list of all matches in the fileset or current window are displayed in a new browser window. A particular match can be displayed by moving the cursor to a line in the file of matches and hitting return.
In the Search menu there is also a very useful command Next Match. Regardless which window is frontmost, it brings the browser window to the front, navigate down one line, and goes to the match of that line. Thus, this gives you a quick way to jump to all matches without having to manually bring the browser window to the front.
See the Browser Mode help window for more information about browser windows.

Word Match

Whether the search should match only complete words or not.

Keep Capitals

When performing Replace operations, whether the search should check the case of the leading character of the string matched, and attempt to ensure the replacement has the same case. This allows you to replace hello by goodbye and Hello by Goodbye with just one search operation.

Ignore Spaces

Ignore any differences in whitespace (spaces, tabs, newlines) between the search string and the attempted match.

Line Anchors

If this flag is set, ^ and $ in regexp patterns match the start and end of lines. This checkbox is enabled only if the Regexp checkbox is selected.

Dot Matches All

If this flag is set, dots in regexp patterns match any character, including line separators. This checkbox is enabled only if the Regexp checkbox is selected.

Top window (single file) searches

From current pos

If set (the default) the search will start at the current insertion point. Otherwise the search will always start from the beginning of the window. This option has no effect when doing multi-file searches.

Circular

Once the search reaches the end of the window (or the end of the selected range, for In Selection searches), whether to continue from the beginning (or, when doing backwards searches, when the search reaches the beginning whether to continue searching from the end). This option has no effect when doing multi-file searches.

Not In Comments

Don't match anything in commented out text. This option has no effect when doing multi-file searches.

In Selection

Only search within the current selection. This option has no effect when doing multi-file searches. The checkbox is displayed only if there is a selection in the current window.

Multiple Files searches

Exclude Matches

This option to multiple file searches reverses the interpretation of the search -- every file which doesn't match the given pattern is flagged (and every file which does match is ignored). This useful feature is only meaningful during Find operations and so is ignored for Replace operations.

Search patterns and actions

Patterns

Alpha allows a library of useful search and replace texts to be defined. This library is used and edited in the popup menu Patterns. Selecting a pattern from the menu inserts the search and replace strings in the dialog. The popup menu also remembers your 10 most recent search patterns from this editing session.

Actions

The Actions popup menu contains a variety of actions to manipulate the search and replace fields, e.g. switching the content of the two fields, or quoting search strings for regexp searches. The Action popup also provides control over the patterns library and the content of the patterns popup. For example, Save This Pattern creates a new item in the menu from the current search and replace strings, prompting you for a name to use in the popup.

The 'Hyper Search' Dialog

Supersearch Preferences

Beep On Failed Search

To beep on a failed search, turn this item on. To remain silent on failed searches, turn this item off.

Flash matches

Enable or disable the flashing visual feedback when a match is found.

Box Heights

Enter the number of rows of text to make room for in the Search For and Replace With boxes in the search dialog

Separate Search And Current Fileset:

To remember the current search fileset separately to Alpha's current fileset, turn this item on. To synchronise the search fileset with Alpha's current fileset each time you open the search dialog, turn this item off.

Smart In Selection Flag:

To set the in selection flag automatically if there's a selection of at least 80 more characters than the length of the current search string, turn this item on. To leave the in selection flag in its original state, turn this item off.

Side By Side Search And Replace:

Present the Search and Replace fields side by side, rather than vertically.

Unlock Files During Batch Replacements:

Unlock locked files when necessary to perform batch replacements.

Additional Search Packages

• The global Filters Menu allows for even more complicated search and replace functions. It allows you to perform successive Search And Replace operations. All the operations are gathered in files called filters which you can apply in one single command to any text file opened in Alpha, or to an entire directory or a fileset.
• Incremental searching is also available: the Incremental Search Help page provides more information.

Known problems

License and Disclaimer

• Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
• Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
• Neither the name of Vince Darley nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.