[Feature Request] ability to turn off highlights in searched text after search

mediapathic

I would like the ability to not have whatever text I have in my search bar highlighted in the note I'm currently working on. By way of visual example:

I am aware that the word "the" is in this file, and do not need to be reminded of that every time I stop typing

In vim terms, I basically want :noh, if that helps.

Will

This has been requested before. [Request] Expose "Highlight search terms in editor" as a hotkey. — Zettelkasten Forum.

In the interim, I've created a Keyboard Maestro macro that toggles the "Highlight search terms in the editor" setting. It is clunky. It's not my best work. It is pretty lousy because it requires a page reload, which is not easy in The Archive. It can be done and is worth it when the highlighting is like the contrived example below. I use a custom dark mode theme based on Bear's "Panic Mode" theme to make the two apps appear similar. When a search fills the editor with distracting highlights, the editor is unusable in the mode, and I stop and reset the "Highlight search terms in the editor" and search again.

ZettelDistraction

Try matching against a string that doesn't (usually) match anything, such as 0TK.

ctietze

@mediapathic To clarify: So you want the highlight at first, but then :noh clear it, or do you want to disable highlights altogether? (That can be toggled via the prefs: "Editing" pane, "Highlight search terms in the editor" at the bottom)

mediapathic

@ctietze said:
To clarify: So you want the highlight at first, but then :noh clear it, or do you want to disable highlights altogether?

The former. I want the highlight, but then be able to clear it.

My workaround at the moment is to hit esc to clear the search, then navigate back, which reloads whatever I was working on without the highlight.

rwrobinson

@mediapathic said:
My workaround at the moment is to hit esc to clear the search, then navigate back, which reloads whatever I was working on without the highlight.

I do the same thing and I don't love it.

@ctietze said:
(That can be toggled via the prefs: "Editing" pane, "Highlight search terms in the editor" at the bottom)

I didn't realize this was a preference. I'm going to try this out for now. But, I would prefer the highlight, then clear without esc.

ctietze

The ESC-trick is horrible Sorry folks.

I guess it would make sense to add a "clear highlights" menu item to the main menu (for shortcuts) and the context menu (for shorter mouse travel for mouse users). Since I don't have any GUI app in mind to look towards for inspiration to steal their shortcut, this will have to remain chiefly user-bindable, I think. (The command palette would also be nice to have, but it's not yet on the roadmap)

By the way: Highlights also go away as you type, so tab+space+⌘Z could be less jarring than the ESC trick. Even then, the occasional (annoying) re-highlighting stems from the file changing on disk, so The Archive displays the new content + applies highlights.