Please allow to use arrow keys to complete search after cmd + f search in iTerm

• iTerm2 version: 3.0.12
• OS version: 10.11.6

Detailed steps to reproduce the problem:

1. I cmd + f search in iTerm window to search for some text
2. Text is found
3. I press return to complete my search
4. I wish to press right arrow key (→) to select text further (like you can do in Safari and many other macOS apps)

What happened: As you press right arrow or left arrow, the selected searched text just dismisses.

What should have happened: If I have found the text for example I searched for Library here :

I then press escape to dismiss search and the text is still highlighted :

I wish I can then press right arrow to further select text quickly. I can't do this right now, it will just reset everything. :(

Reason I want this is since my workflow is very keyboard centric, I don't want to type in the entire text just to select it, nor do I want to use the mouse to do this. If I had this feature, it would solve my problem. I hope it would be possible to implement.

Thank you so much for such an incredible application.

You have a couple of options:

1. If you press tab while the find bar is open that will extend the selection forward to the end of a word or to the next word. Shift-tab does the same but moves the beginning of the selection back.
2. You can define keyboard shortcuts to adjust the selection in many different ways in Prefs > Keys:

Option 2 is more like what you described (you could configure shift-right arrow to move the end of the selection forward by 1 character, and similarly for shift-left arrow).

Thank you. This works for me.

Another issue I have is that cmd + f searches the entire session it seems. Is it possible to search only for text in current screen only? This would be amazing. Thank you.

To restrict what text is searched: Select all the text on the screen, choose View > Zoom In on Selection, and then perform your search. You can press esc to exit the zoomed view.

closed

Thank you.

Is it possible to quickly choose 'all the text on th screen' from keyboard hotkey? Right now if I press cmd + a to select all text, it will select text from entire session (beyond current screen). I don't want to use the trackpad to select the text.

Hey @gnachman, is it also possible to instead of 'Move Start of Selection Right By Word' to have something like 'Highlight Next Word From Selection'.

Identical to what opt + shift + right arrow does. I want to select some text in iTerm, press a hotkey and it would increase highlighted text to include the next word.

mentioned in issue #5484

Is it possible to quickly choose 'all the text on th screen' from keyboard hotkey

No, there is no special support for the visible portion of the screen.

it also possible to instead of 'Move Start of Selection Right By Word' to have something like 'Highlight Next Word From Selection'.

Interesting idea, but no. There's still quite some work done left to make selections completely free of the mouse. I think what it really needs is its own mode so the keyboard shortcuts don't step all over each other. I've opened #5484 to track this idea.