Hello Roland White,
    Please attach a screenshot for clarity.

Created attachment 171411 [details]
Search + replace screenshots

It's quite clear from the original description that invoking the dialog a second time on the very same selection set by the replacement result it has not the "Current selection only" option checked, which it should.

"Current selection only" is not remembered the second time it is used.

Also in
Version: 7.5.2.1 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: e8bf3b441b8370f8440b0339fd9490765a8d57ca
CPU threads: 16; OS: Linux 5.19; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: ro-RO (ro_RO.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded

Please note that if the find and replace dialog is kept open, the checkbox is also kept ON (for a second search, on whichever area _seems_ selected at that moment). Only when closing the dialog and reopening, the problem is clearly noticed.

STR:
1. Select area including cells with content.
2. [CTRL]+[H]
3. Perform some search on selected area that results in some cells being selected.
4. Close all dialog windows. The same cells as _after_ step 3 _seem_ still selected.
5. [CTRL]+[H] > the "Current selection only" checkbox is not set ON by default.

Once the dialog is closed, some cells look highlighted (according to the result of the prior search). This is expected, and a helpful result. But only one cell is actually selected (as can be noticed by the "range" box at the left side of the formula bar). So it is understandable that the "Current selection only" checkbox won't be set ON.

(In reply to ady from comment #6)
> But only one cell is actually selected

Actually, that one cell is only in focus, not selected.

"Current selection" is checked if you have a selection, otherwise not (and it becomes disabled). So your use case is to select some cells but search everywhere- makes not much sense IMO. Just keep the dialog open, as Ady suggests in comment 6.

We could remember the off-state for selections and overwrite it accordingly. But I vote for resolving the request as NAB/WF.

(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #8)
> So your use case is to select some cells but search everywhere

@Heiko, I think that's not what Roland described. It is rather closer to the opposite.


@Roland,

After the initial search, some cells _seem_ selected:
* some cells are seemingly selected, 
* only _one_ cell actually has the focus, and,
* no cell is actually selected.


Without touching anything else but with the F&R dialog already closed once, Roland is attempting to reopen the dialog and search on those seemingly selected cells.

The workaround is simple (unless each search takes more than a couple of seconds at most): select the original area that is to be searched-for in the first search, perform the first search, and without closing the dialog you modify the search criteria field(s) and search for a second time. The second search is only limited to the cells that were already part of the results of the first search. The key is not to close the dialog and not to click on other cells meanwhile.

Heiko, try to imagine a scenario where hundreds of columns and rows are selected, and having to repeat the selection for every search.

(In reply to ady from comment #9)
> @Heiko, I think that's not what Roland described. It is rather closer to the
> opposite.
To limit the search to the current(?) column if there is no selection?

(In reply to BogdanB from comment #10)
> Heiko, try to imagine a scenario where hundreds of columns and rows are
> selected, and having to repeat the selection for every search.
Why do you deselect if F&R is the workflow?

I struggle with the request after having started with the implementation. The code works fine and is well elaborated. And I started to wonder what use case makes it necessary to complicate this nice piece of code.

(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #11)
> (In reply to ady from comment #9)
> > @Heiko, I think that's not what Roland described. It is rather closer to the
> > opposite.
> To limit the search to the current(?) column if there is no selection?

No. I don't know how else to explain this. Perhaps reading again the STR in comment 0 (and following them)?

> 
> (In reply to BogdanB from comment #10)
> > Heiko, try to imagine a scenario where hundreds of columns and rows are
> > selected, and having to repeat the selection for every search.
> Why do you deselect if F&R is the workflow?
> 
> I struggle with the request after having started with the implementation.
> The code works fine and is well elaborated. And I started to wonder what use
> case makes it necessary to complicate this nice piece of code.

I already posted a simple workaround to Roland's request. Perhaps it would be better to wait for someone to present a use case in which the workaround is not enough before working on this?

We discussed the topic in the design meeting.

The option depends on whether a selection has been made or just one cell is selected, and automatically set on or off. Excel always applies F&R to the selection or all cells, meaning our option is rather to ignore the selection. Another difference is that we select the cells with replaced content, which is very convenient in most cases. But fails for iterative operations.

The suggestion is to select the replaced cells only if no selection was made before; i.e. to keep it. And ideally to introduce a different kind of feedback, eg. per accent color.
And consequently to remove the option to disable it.

Essentially a duplicate of bug 132031.

(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #13)
> Essentially a duplicate of bug 132031.

Let's consolidate the topic.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 132031 ***