Multi-Text Search Highlight

About

# Multi-Text Search Highlight Extension User Guide

## 1. Introduction

**Multi-Text Search Highlight** is a modern web browser extension that supports searching and highlighting multiple texts simultaneously. It offers group management, auto-search, regex search, and 14 highlight color options.

## 2. Main Features

### 2.1 Multi-Text Search Highlight

- Search multiple texts at once, auto-search triggers as you type each line
- Uses CSS Highlight API without modifying page HTML structure
- 14 highlight colors available to avoid conflict with browser's default search
- Shows match count on extension icon after search (displays "99+" for counts over 99)

### 2.2 Group Management

- Save frequently used search texts as groups
- View, edit, and delete groups
- Select all groups with one click
- Search multiple groups simultaneously
- **Group selection state is automatically saved** - closing the extension preserves your selection
- 14 color options for groups
- **Import/Export Groups**: Supports exporting groups to Excel files or importing from Excel files, with support for overwriting existing groups with the same name

### 2.3 Auto Search

- Automatically search when opening new pages or page content updates
- Toggle switch to enable/disable
- Search based on selected groups
- Supports shortcut `Ctrl+Shift+S` for quick auto-search (without opening popup)

### 2.4 Search Settings

- **Ignore case**: Match regardless of case when checked, distinguish case when unchecked
- **Whole word**: Match complete strings only, not partial matches (mutually exclusive with regex)
- **Regular expression**: Advanced search using regex patterns (mutually exclusive with whole word)
- Built-in regex help page with common patterns and examples

### 2.5 Keyboard Shortcuts

- **Ctrl+Shift+F**: Open extension popup and auto-search content in input or selected groups
- **Ctrl+Shift+S**: Quick auto-search without opening popup
- **Ctrl+Shift+X**: Clear all highlights

### 2.6 Internationalization

- Supports English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic
- Automatically switches based on browser language, or manually select in settings

## 3. Usage

### 3.1 Basic Search

1. Click the extension icon on browser toolbar, or use `Ctrl+Shift+F` shortcut
2. Enter search texts in the input box, one per line
3. Each line automatically triggers search (no need to click Search button)
4. Matched texts will be highlighted, match count shows on icon
5. Click "Clear Highlight" or use `Ctrl+Shift+X` to remove all highlights

### 3.2 Group Management

#### Create Group

1. Enter texts in the search input box
2. Click "Save as Group" button
3. Enter group name (max 15 characters) in the dialog
4. Select highlight color (14 colors available)
5. Click OK to save

#### Use Groups

1. Check the groups you want to use
2. Click "Search Selected Groups" button, or use `Ctrl+Shift+S` for quick search
3. All texts in selected groups will be searched and highlighted

#### Manage Groups

- **View**: Click "View" button to see all texts in the group
- **Edit**: Click "Edit" button to modify group name, content and color
- **Delete**: Click "Delete" button to remove the group

#### Group Color Selection

14 highlight colors available:

- Yellow, Green, Blue, Orange, Pink, Purple
- Cyan, Brown, Blue Grey, Deep Orange, Red
- Light Green, Sky Blue, Amber

#### Import/Export Groups

- **Export**: Click the "Export Groups" button to export all your groups to an Excel file (.xlsx). The file contains group names, search texts, and colors.
- **Import**: Click the "Import Groups" button to select an Excel file and import groups. If a group with the same name already exists, it will be overwritten. The imported file should have columns for group name, search text, and color.

### 3.3 Search Settings

1. Click "Search Settings" header to expand (collapsed by default)
2. Check desired options:
   - **Ignore case**: Ignore letter case when searching
   - **Whole word**: Match complete strings only
   - **Regular expression**: Use regex search (mutually exclusive with whole word)
3. Click "? Help" button for regex guide

### 3.4 Auto Search

1. Check "Auto Search" checkbox to enable
2. Ensure at least one group is selected
3. Extension automatically searches when opening new tabs or page updates

### 3.5 Keyboard Shortcuts

| Shortcut     | Function                     |
| ------------ | ---------------------------- |
| Ctrl+Shift+F | Open popup and auto-search   |
| Ctrl+Shift+S | Quick auto-search (no popup) |
| Ctrl+Shift+X | Clear all highlights         |

> **Note**: On Mac, replace Ctrl with Command

### 3.6 Interface Features

- **Collapse/Expand**: Search text area and group management both support collapse/expand
- **About Info**: View plugin name, version and contact email at bottom of search settings

## 4. Regular Expression Guide

### 4.1 Basic Syntax

- `.` - Match any single character
- `\d` - Match any digit (0-9)
- `\D` - Match any non-digit
- `\w` - Match letter, digit, or underscore
- `\W` - Match non-letter, non-digit, non-underscore
- `\s` - Match whitespace (space, tab, newline)

### 4.2 Quantifiers

- `*` - 0 or more times
- `+` - 1 or more times
- `?` - 0 or 1 time
- `{n}` - Exactly n times
- `{n,}` - n or more times
- `{n,m}` - n to m times

### 4.3 Common Patterns

- `1[3-9]\d{9}` - Match Chinese phone numbers
- `[\u4e00-\u9fa5]+` - Match Chinese characters
- `\b\w+\b` - Match complete words
- `.*` - Match any content (used for content between fixed start and end)
- `^https?://` - Match URL beginning
- `\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}` - Match date format

### 4.4 Special Characters

- `^` - Start of string
- `$` - End of string
- `|` - OR operator (e.g., cat|dog matches "cat" or "dog")
- `()` - Grouping (for capture and grouping)
- `[]` - Character set (e.g., \[abc] matches a, b or c)
- `[^]` - Negated set (e.g., \[^0-9] matches non-digit)

### 4.5 Examples

| Pattern        | Description                            | Example                         |
| -------------- | -------------------------------------- | ------------------------------- |
| `hello`        | Exact match "hello"                    | Matches text containing "hello" |
| `hello.*world` | Match "hello" at start, "world" at end | "hello, how are you world"      |
| `^word`        | Match "word" at beginning              | "word123"                       |
| `end$`         | Match "end" at end                     | "the end"                       |
| `file\d+\.txt` | Match "file", digits, ".txt"           | "file001.txt"                   |

## 5. Notes

1. **First Use**: Refresh page after first installation or update to activate
2. **Auto Search**: Requires at least one group selected to work
3. **Group Names**: Limited to 15 characters
4. **Color Selection**: 14 colors available when creating or editing groups
5. **Regex**: Mutually exclusive with whole word, cannot use both
6. **Match Count**: Displays "99+" for counts over 99
7. **Auto-Search on Input**: Each line in search input automatically triggers search
8. **Group Selection Saved**: Selected groups are saved automatically and restored when reopening
9. **Import/Export**: Groups can be exported to Excel files or imported from Excel files for easy backup and sharing
10. **Import Overwrite**: When importing, if a group name already exists, it will be overwritten, and the color will be based on the first record