Colors for search in notebook and jupyterlab are difficult to use and may be inaccessible

[muffletuffle]

i've used jupyter for 10 years and always preferred it to any other IDE. i've a bad eye condition that requires me to only use darklight screens if i want to see anything and not be in pain. the color you use to highlight used to be yellow when it used the built in browser search. jupyter's new search doesn't even highlight the damn text i'm looking for. it's so frustrating to try to do the simpllest thing like text search and have to use that new search feature. i know the software is free and i'm trying really hard not to outright complain here, but WHY is that search feature now in notebook? i quit using lab because the search made it unusuable. now even notebook has it. is there another version i can run that's recent but excludes the new search features? ugh.

[krassowski]

the color you use to highlight used to be yellow when it used the built in browser search

Suggestions for changing the colors are welcome. I am not sure what exactly you are suggesting here though, as the current state is black for matches and yellow for current highlight.

jupyter's new search doesn't even highlight the damn text i'm looking for.

Is it in an output of a cell? If so then you need to tick "Search in Cell Outputs":

See:

• Consider searching in cell outputs by default jupyterlab/jupyterlab#15445
• Enable "Search Cell Outputs" in Find/Replace, disable "Replace" button when an output is highlighted jupyterlab/jupyterlab#15966

i quit using lab because the search made it unusuable

I understand, I am frustrated by the default not searching in outputs. I spent too much of my free time in evenings and quite a few days paid by downstream users to fix many of the search issues but this one has not been resolved yet. I wish there were resources dedicated to fixing issues like that. I am frustrated here too.

i know the software is free and i'm trying really hard not to outright complain here, but WHY is that search feature now in notebook?

To be frank you are complaining in a wrong repo (jupyter-client), I will move this to notebook. But to your question, Notebook 7 is based of JupyterLab components. If you wish to use the old interface or the native browser search you have two options:

• use nbclassic/notebook 6.5.x (the old interface)
• read the documentation for search/replace in Notebook 7 https://jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io/en/stable/notebook.html#searching

[krassowski]

Huh, GitHub does not allow me to transfer this issue, when I click on "Transfer" button:

I see:

Can we get some help from an admin on the repo @jupyter/executive-council

[minrk]

You can disable this shortcut. In JupyterLab "Advanced Settings Editor", select Keboard Shortcuts and add:

{
    "shortcuts": [
        {
            "args": {},
            "command": "documentsearch:start",
            "keys": [
                "Accel F"
            ],
            "selector": ".jp-mod-searchable",
            "disabled": true
        }
    ]
}

to the JSON field, which should disable cmd-F for search. For me, this results in regular browser search on cmd-F in both notebook 7 and JupyterLab.

(alternately, write this same JSON to ~/.jupyter/lab/user-settings/@jupyterlab/shortcuts-extension/shortcuts.jupyterlab-settings).

[krassowski]

^ up, but remember to change windowing mode to none (as described in the linked documentation) as otherwise the browser will not find all matches.

[minrk]

@krassowski (this is a JupyterLab issue) but I tried disabling the shortcut via the shortcut editor UI, and I can't change or disable these shortcuts. Every edit or Add I make just gets reverted and has no effect. No error message or anything.

[krassowski]

@minrk which version of JupyterLab? There was an issue like that:

• Delete shortcuts through the settings UI jupyterlab/jupyterlab#15937
• but I believe it was fixed in 4.2.0 in Refactor shortcuts UI to fix most of the known issues jupyterlab/jupyterlab#16043 (and there are tests for this).

If it still occurs in newer versions, can you open an issue on jupyterlab and provide a recording/reproducer?

[minrk]

Will do. This is 4.3.5, I'll make sure I'm fully up to date before opening an Issue.

[minrk]

What I'm seeing seems to be Safari specific: jupyterlab/jupyterlab#17510

[choldgraf]

I'm moving this over to notebook 👍 (EDIT looks like somebody beat me to it). I've also changed the title to be more precise about the bug being reported.