Select the Instant Incremental Search item in the Search menu or press its keyboard shortcut to enter a search term without using the Search panel. Turning on this command has no immediate effect. When you enter text into the file, the text is not inserted into the file. Instead it is searched for. Words or single-line phrases that you paste are also searched for.
While you enter the search term in instant incremental search mode, EditPad Pro remembers previous search matches as you type. If you type “Test”, EditPad Pro searches for “T” starting from the position of the text cursor. As you type, it searches for “Te” beginning at the start of the match for “T”, then for “Tes” at the start of the match for “Te”, and finally for “Test”. If there is no search match, nothing happens.
When you press Backspace, EditPad Pro goes back to the previously highlighted match for “Tes”. If you continue pressing Backspace, it goes back to the match for “Te”, “T”, and finally goes back to where the search started. So while entering the search term, you can easily change your mind about the search term you’re looking for by backing up with the Backspace key, and typing in the new search term. Backing up does not cause EditPad Pro to forget match positions. If you type in “Joe” after erasing “Test”, EditPad Pro searches for “J” until “Joe” beginning from the original starting position. If you then back up again and retype “Test”, the match previously found for “Test” is highlighted.
You can find other occurrences of the most recently found search term by pressing the arrow keys on the keyboard. The Up and Left keys find the previous match. The Down and Right keys find the next match. While an instant incremental search is in progress, the Instant Find Next and Instant Find Previous commands also use the incremental search term.
If you take any other action in the file besides scrolling then the instant incremental search mode is automatically disabled. You can also select the menu item or press the keyboard shortcut or toolbar button again to turn off instant incremental search.
This command is intended to be used without the Search toolbar. By default, it has a button on the main toolbar. This button has a drop-down menu with instant search options that affect instant searches. This command ignores all settings on the search toolbar.
Use Search|Incremental Search instead if you want to perform an incremental search by entering your search term into the Search box.
Search menu
Search|Instant Highlight
Search|Instant Search Options
Search|Incremental Search