Since this is purely lazarus related, I cross post this, and set reply-to to lazarus list.
@Rainer: You can read relevant posts in the archive:
http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Rainer Stratmann wrote 14 lines
If for example I am at the first relevant instance of an identifier. e.g a procedure-local variable, and I am at it's declaration. If the same word occurs earlier in the text, it is a different variable, belonging to a different procedure.
Truth is I use the find dialog very seldom. If I need to search I do a incremental search (search as you type) via ctrl-e => it does a better highlighting
If I need to do a replace (usually limited to one procedure) I used to use the find/replace, but now I use syncro-mode (select block, press icon on gutter / or select and ctrl-j)
Of course, not every search is starting from the cursor, but as I said, then I use find in files. The find dialog is (if used at all) reserved to find the next occurrence
And if I ever really want to use find, from top of file, I save myself the need of changing the option, I use: ctrl-home ctrl-f and I search from cursor
But it all comes down to personal likings. : I did it may way ...
Martin