Improve "find in files" UI
The "find in files" feature is very useful, but it's a bit hidden and the workflow could be improved.
Some of the issues I've found are
- It can only be triggered by right-clicking items in the sidebar
- The destructive red color for replace feels a bit odd
- There's no project-wide version of this (which is probably the main use case for this anyway)
- The UI for starting the search is a bit awkward in the popover on the side
- There's no way to change the search query after searching. This makes multiple successive project-wide search/replace operations quite awkward
- Searches keep piling up in the bottom panel, e.g.
Relevant Art
Atom
VS Code
Potential Solutions
Some ideas for making this better:
- Split out a global "find/replace in project" feature
- Have a single "find/replace in project" panel in the bottom area (instead of a separate one for each search)
- Have a global keyboard shortcut for opening it (e.g. CTRL + SHIFT + F), and include it in the keyboard shortcuts window
- Allow changing search term, case options, etc. after the first search
- The "find in folder" feature could be integrated in the global search/replace (e.g. by having it pre-populate a field where you can choose which folders to search in), or remain separate
Edited by Andre Klapper