Find-As-You-Type

The options on this page affect the Find-As-You-Type field, a multi-purpose field that appears at the bottom of the file display when you type.

The Find-As-You-Type Modes section lets you configure the various modes of the FAYT field. For each of the modes you can configure a different text and background color, which can provide an important visual cue as to which mode the field is in. For most modes you can also configure the activation key - the key that you press in the file display to show the bar in that mode. For example, the default key for Command mode is > so pressing > in a file display would open the FAYT in Command mode.

The Close timeout option lets you specify how long the FAYT field remains displayed for once you have stopped typing. Not all modes auto-timeout; for example, in Command mode the field will remain open until you press Enter or Escape or click out of the field.

The Find Mode Options section contains options pertaining to Find mode:

• Enable all cursor keys: By default, the Left/Right cursor keys as well as Home and End are passed through to the file display, which lets you move the selection around in modes like List or Thumbnails using these keys. If you turn this option off those keys will instead be used to move the caret in the FAYT field.
• Highlight matches: Turns on the highlighting of text within filenames that matches the entered string. You can configure the highlight color on the Colors and Fonts Preferences page.
• Minimize scroll to make item visible: This option changes the way the file list is scrolled when jumping to files that are currently out of view. The normal behavior is to scroll the list as little as possible, which often results in the matching file being positioned at the bottom of the window. If this option is turned off then the list will be scrolled (if possible) far enough that the matching file is positioned in the middle of the window.
• Search anywhere in the filename: This option enables partial matching when searching filenames. When turned off the entered text must match the beginning of the filename; when turned on, the entered text can match anywhere within the filename (although priority is still given to filenames that match at the beginning).
• Require activation key: This option interacts with the similar Activation key option on the Filter Bar page. These options let you choose which of the two fields is to be the "default" one that appears when you start typing in a file display. Normally the FAYT field is the default - typing any character that hasn't been specifically assigned will cause the FAYT field to open in Find mode. If you turn on the Require activation key option, then Find mode is no longer the default - an activation key is necessary to open the FAYT in that mode. You can then turn off the Activation key option on the Filter Bar page to make the Filter Bar the default field when typing into a file display.

See the Find-As-You-Type documentation for more detail on the FAYT field including a description of its various modes.