ookii.org

Certain applications, such as the Emacs text editor and Mozilla Firefox, provide a very convenient method of searching in a document: every time you type text in the search box it automatically searches the document. You don't need to click "Find" or do anything else, just type, and it'll search. This type of search is sometimes called "interactive search", "incremental search" or "look ahead search". I call it "find as you type".

Unfortunately, Internet Explorer does not provide this functionality, not even in Internet Explorer 7. Fortunately, Internet Explorer can be extended which allows third party developers to close this gap.

Find As You Type for Internet Explorer is an add-on for Internet Explorer 6 and newer that provides this kind searching functionality. It adds a toolbar to Internet Explorer where you can type search terms, and it will find them, as you type.

Requirements

• Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 or Windows Vista. Both x86 and x64 systems are supported.

Note that Find As You Type does not work on Windows 95, 98, Me or 2000.

Installation instructions

Download the installation package below, and extract it to a folder using the built-in Windows compressed folders functionality (Windows XP and newer only), or using a third party application such as WinRar.

Run setup.exe to install the add-on. Setup may need to download some prerequisites, so please have an Internet connection available as you install it. After installation is complete, start Internet Explorer and press CTRL-F to show the toolbar. If you wish to use Internet Explorer's original Find dialog, you can still open it from the View menu.

If you have version 1.1 of Find As You Type installed, you can simply install version 1.3 and it will upgrade it. If you have version 1.0 installed, you are advised to uninstall version 1.0 before installing version 1.3.

Spyware/adware-free guarantee

Find As You Type for Internet Explorer is not spyware, adware, or any other form of malware. It does not install any hidden components, and can be completely removed at any time using the "Add and Remove Programs" option from Control Panel. Find As You Type does not send any information about your browsing habits or search usage to ookii.org or anyone else. Find As You Type does not show any advertisements.

Find As You Type will periodically send version information to ookii.org to check for updates. No information is included that can be used to identify you. Update checking is optional and can be disabled from the settings dialog.

Of course you don't have to take my word for it. You can download the source code, check it out, and compile it yourself if you like.

Download

You can download the following packages for Find As You Type for Internet Explorer 1.3. You do not need to match the language to your operating system language; you can use any Find As You Type language you like.

English

• Installation for Windows XP, Server 2003, and Vista x86
• Installation for Windows XP x64, Server 2003 x64 and Vista x64

Dutch

• Installation for Windows XP, Server 2003, and Vista x86
• Installation for Windows XP x64, Server 2003 x64 and Vista x64

German

• Installation for Windows XP, Server 2003, and Vista x86
• Installation for Windows XP x64, Server 2003 x64 and Vista x64

Italian

• Installation for Windows XP, Server 2003, and Vista x86
• Installation for Windows XP x64, Server 2003 x64 and Vista x64

All languages

• Source code

Please note that the x86 package does not install on x64 and vice versa. The x64 package contains the add-on for both the 32 bit and 64 bit Internet Explorer. If you don't know which one to pick, you probably want the first one.

Change Log

Version 1.3

• Note: Windows 2000 is no longer supported.
• German and Dutch localized versions available.
• Find As You Type can now search while you're typing using an Input Method Editor (IME).
• Search bar closes when browser is closed to prevent automatic opening on browser start.
• The behaviour that the ESC key clears the search text before closing the search bar is now optional. The default is to immediately close the bar.
• Reliability improvements.
• Improved error handling.
• Fixed: search bar does not work in windows without a toolbar, and prevents regular IE find window from opening if CTRL-F shortcut is used (in version 1.3, the search bar still does not work in those windows, but the regular find window will open correctly).
• Fixed: certain dialogs do not use visual styles.
• Fixed: a message is displayed repeatedly when update checking fails.
• Fixed: IE in protected mode does not share settings with IE outside protected mode.
• Fixed: Highlights are not updated if "highlight all" is selected and the user toggles the "match case" button using the keyboard shortcut.

Version 1.2

• Text in the search field is selected when the user presses CTRL-F.
• Improved support for pages with frames and iframes.
• Support for highlighting all occurrences of a search term on a page.
• The shortcut key used to open Find As You Type can be configured by the user. The default is still CTRL-F.
• The toolbar has a close button.
• Pressing the Escape key now clears the search box first, and closes only when the box is empty.
• If the currently highlighted search result is a hyperlink, you can follow this link by pressing alt-enter.
• The background color of the search box turns red when the search text is not found.
• FIXED: Shortcut key does not work in IE7 when UI elements outside a tab (such as the address bar) have focus.
• Support for automatically opening the the Find As you Type toolbar when you begin typing on a web page. This is not enabled by default; you can enable it using the settings dialog.
• Support for opening the Find As You Type toolbar when you press the forward slash key. This is not enabled by default; you can enable it using the settings dialog.
• Support for automatic update checking.
• A chevron is displayed when not all the toolbar buttons fit in the window.

Version 1.1

• SearchBar opens and gets focus when the user presses CTRL-F in the browser.
• SearchBar closes when the user presses ESC while the searchbar has focus.
• Pressing Enter in the search box triggers "Next".
• Similarly, shift-Enter triggers "Previous".
• The search highlight is cleared when all text is removed from the search box.
• The "search passed the end of the page" message is cleared from the status bar if you search again.
• Fixed some tab-key navigation issues.
• Fixed the match case button text being cut off on Windows 2000.
• Font size and DPI support improvements.

Version 1.0

• First version.