Struggling With Search/Find

[MarjaE2]

I often have to search/find, repeatedly, across multiple documents.

I have coordination problems, so clicking on the arrows is a pain.

I have a Lenovo, and the function key shortcuts, fn+function combos, and function lock don't work, at least not with Sticky Keys.

Control+F sometimes searches for the search term, sometimes finds its next appearance, and sometimes replaces the search term with selected text. / is supposed to work like Control+F, but it just types /. If it worked for me, it wouldn't be as awkward as Control+F.

Enter sometimes goes to the next appearance, but sometimes just goes to the next page; it's unpredictable.

F3 or fn+F3 is supposed to go to the next appearance, but it increases volume instead.

What's a good option for search/find when mouse clicks aren't practical and function key combos aren't working?

[GitHubRulesOK]

you can set scripting but that depends what you need as PDF is not real words like in NotePad or Word, where character numbers have a logical meaning.
So the search starts with one letter then 2 letters and ... thus even if they seem to be on a page in real PDF internal world of charted numbers, they don't exist like that, those are simply the rendered smoke and mirrors on the surface.

I have written scripts that could seek word in a document but may not always see what a user sees and ccan be slow if the reason is to highlight and count every match, you can set a key to a known word and try search that way as an "ExternalViewer" comand line using

search <term> : Start a search for a given term when opening a document e.g. SumatraPDF -search "foo" bar.pdf

that presumes you know the word character string to find is "foo" and replace the bar.pdf with "%1"

Here is one I wrote using vbs https://github.com/GitHubRulesOK/SumatraPDF-Plus/blob/master/Plus/Finder.vbs

such scripts can be modified to be a set of keywords but if click is a problem then would need assigning to key inputs.

[MarjaE2]

The search function usually works, it's just that the search shortcuts don't, and repeatedly hitting control-f-control-f-control-f can be frustrating.

[GitHubRulesOK]

OK I was adapting my code for users to find a set of Key Words by press a number,

but it seems you simply want to remap a key to do what / should do which is part of

Ctrl + F    Find text
/           Find text
F3          Find next
Shift + F3  Find previous

the first 2 are both CmdFindFirst and this is where any such call ENTERS the find box which is I suspect your problem as any key like / or any other is considered input
the last two are
CmdFindNext
CmdFindPrev

so those can be set to other easier keys like say using shortcuts [ ]
S = middle = seek or search
X = lowest = forwards
W = highest = prior

Shortcuts [
	[
		Cmd = CmdFindPrev
		Key = w
	]
	[
		Cmd = CmdFindFirst
		Key = s
	]
	[
		Cmd = CmdFindNext
		Key = x
	]
]

but using s will still have same behaviour it is in effect go to find box for typing so you would need to press Esc to defocus before x