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Smart highlight

Select a word — the easiest way is to double-click it — and every other occurrence of that text in the document lights up automatically. The status bar shows how many occurrences were found, and two commands jump between them. The highlight is implicit and transient: change or clear the selection and it follows along.

This is the built-in equivalent of Notepad++'s Smart Highlighting.

How it works

  • Selection-driven. A bare caret resting on a word highlights nothing; making a selection (double-click, drag, Shift+arrows) triggers the scan. Selections shorter than the configured minimum (default 2 characters) are ignored.
  • Count on the status bar. While matches are highlighted, the status bar shows N occurrences (hidden when there are none).
  • Debounced. The scan runs shortly after the selection settles, so it never gets in the way of typing or dragging.
Command (View menu) Shortcut
Next Highlighted Occurrence Alt+F3
Previous Highlighted Occurrence Alt+Shift+F3

With no selection, both commands fall back to the word at the caret, so you can walk a symbol's occurrences without selecting it first.

Not the same as Ctrl+F3

Ctrl+F3 is the Find and Replace plugin's Select and Find Next — it promotes the selection to the persistent Find term. Smart highlight navigation (Alt+F3) is independent and never touches your Find history.

Settings

Preferences ▸ Smart Highlight:

Setting Default Meaning
Enable smart highlighting on Turn the feature off entirely.
Match case off Foo also highlights foo when off.
Match whole word only off When on, cat does not highlight concatenate.
Minimum selection length 2 Selections shorter than this are ignored.
Highlight delay — How long the selection must settle before the scan runs (milliseconds).

Appearance

The highlight tint is theme-driven: each theme can define its own smart highlight colour, editable in the Theme Editor alongside the other editor decoration colours (brace match, marks, URLs, bookmarks).

  • Mark plugin — explicit, persistent, multi-colour marks you place yourself; smart highlight is its implicit, transient cousin.
  • Find and Replace — Ctrl+F3 select-and-find and the persistent search term.