In Impress' Find-Replace dialog, one can search either the whole presentation or the current selection. This is good, but - one also needs to be able to search the current slide. So, I suggest the "current selection only" toggle be replaced with a three-value field, e.g.: Scope: [Presentation V] which expands to present the three options "Presentation", "Slide" and "Selection" (or "Current Slide" and "Current Selection").
If an object is selected you search within the object. Otherwise in the whole presentation. The option "Current selection only" applies when text is selected and is mostly relevant for replacement. Adding another option "Current slide" and "Current page" in case of Draw sounds like a reasonable enhancement. Calc allows to expand the search to "[ ] All sheets" via checkbox underneath the find text. And we could enhance Draw/Impress with "[x] Current Slide/Page" and search within the current slide over all objects if the option is off. To find items only in the currently active object, as it's the fact today, one has to select the content and use the "[x] Current selection only" option.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #1) > If an object is selected you search within the object. Otherwise in the > whole presentation. The option "Current selection only" applies when text is > selected and is mostly relevant for replacement. Oh, that's even worse... I would suggest allowing changing the search scope when objects are selected as well. "Current selection only" would be the default, not the only option.