Why is find/change missing "selection" as option to search?

[hankhead]

I am working in Indesign CC 2019 on a document that will not show "selection" when perfoming find/change.

It only show document as the option to search. How do I restore all the options (selection, story, etc.).  ??  Mike

[Steve Werner · Accepted solution]

In Find/Change, the Selection option only appears when you have made a selection in text. It's working in InDesign CC 2019 for me as you can see in this screen capture:

If it's not working, you might try restoring InDesign preferences:

Set preferences in Adobe InDesign 

[hankhead]

Thanks Steve.

I think I tried that but certainly will when I get back to work Monday; maybe I didn't! On a deadline.

How do I restore the Indesign Preferences if I need to?

Mike

[hankhead]

Oh I see the link in your reply. Thanks!

[pushabutton123]

This behavior is super confusing in CC 2020. Spent 20 minutes try to figure out why story and selection wouldn't show. Thanks for another unnecessary change to something that wasn't broken for the last 20 years.

[Jongware]

So you did figure it out? What has changed, exactly?

[dzgnr89]

I have faced this multiple times in version CC2018, CC2019 and again today in CC2020. Even when the story or selection is selected, the find/change box doesn't show the respective option. Restarting InDesign always fixes the issue for me. 

[joshuao20030862]

Ok. This worked. Thank you!

[Laubender]

Hi arjun2,

also came accross this behavior that option Selection wasn't available.

What helped: Deselect all. Select again.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[clintp1]

This has been happening to me even when i have things selected. First it started in the "text" tab. now i cant search selected anywhere? Having to dump preferences is not viable when you have extensive workspace and short cut key settings its just a pain in the (_._)

[jmlevy]

Having to dump preferences is not viable when you have extensive workspace and short cut key settings its just a pain […]

Custom wokspaces and shortcut sets are stored in different files than preferences. So, resetting preferences don't make you loose them.

[Laubender]

Hi clintp1,

as I said above, try the following:

[1] Close the Find/Change panel.

[2] Deselect all.

[3] Select the text again.

[4] Open the Find/Change panel.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[clintp1]

I have....many...many times. even restarted and that worked for about 2 selections. then back to missing again. but available in text search now. about to restart again and see what happens

[clintp1]

AHHHH ok found a work around. 

If you have selected something and opened the Find/Change panel and there is no "selection" option, use any other option then just apply any small inconcequential change. It will then automatically show 'Selection' and you can continue on your way.

well it worked for me anyway. Good luck

[dzgnr89]

Tried this trick. Not working in Indesign 2021. v 16.0.1. 

This is such an annoying bug! Deselecting, applying insignificant changes to text, opening a new file, nothing worked . I eventually had to restart InDesign to fix this issue. 

[Digital-Henry]

Thanks for the work around. Works perfectly. I would like to add that you don't have to actually replace anything for your work around to work. I search items that I know it won't find, and it works also!

[TᴀW]

This is a really annoying bug.

For occasions when Selection is missing and nothing brings it back, and you just cannot be bothered to restart InDesign, run the following one-line script. It assumes you have selected something in InDesign and have set up the GREP find/change as needed.

app.selection[0].changeGrep();

Or, if you want to execute a regular find/change (not GREP), then this:

app.selection[0].changeText()

This won't bring back the "Selection" option though...

Ariel

[mordaskyt]

This bug persists in the most current version of InDesign and this thread should definately not be marked "Solved" the only way I get this option to re-appear is to restart InDesign. Frustrating.

[Henrik Lindqvist]

Confirmed. Restart is the only solution. This bug has been hanging around for years which suggests it's buried deep in the code somewhere and probably hard to replicate.

[Owen Magnus]

I was able to fix this bug by just closing the problem document and opening it again (didn't have to restart InDesign).

[jpmackey]

This has been an ongoing an unpredictable bug for years for me. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. I just have to go back and do it another day (which can make certain parts of my job very difficult obviously). Adobe needs to address bugs like this instead of making stupid changes like reversing the free transform function.

[Laubender]

Hi jpmackey,

what do you mean by "reversing the free transform function" ?

I don't think that something changed with that the last years…

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[dzgnr89]

I am using latest 17.2 update of InDesign 2022 and still facing this issue. 

[dzgnr89]

Facing this issue on a regular basis. Deselecting the text box, working on something else like drawing some rectangles,  doesn't bring the option for "search selection" back in the find/change box.

Enclosed is a short screen recording of what exactly happens. 

[BIDOUN]

Constantly have to restart indesign while working because of this issue. Please fix it. Absurd bug that affects everyday use constantly, spanning multiple versions of indesign. Inexcusable.