KatePart has an incremental search bar and a power search and replace bar, which offers the means of entering a replacement string along with a few extra options.

The bars offer the following common options:

The power search and replace bar offers some additional options:

To find text, launch the incremental search bar with Ctrl+F or from the Edit → Find... menu item.

This opens the incremental search bar at the bottom of the editor window. On the left side of the bar is a button with an icon to close the bar, followed by a small text box for entering the search pattern.

When you start entering the characters of your search pattern, the search starts immediately. If there is a match in the text this is highlighted and the background color of the entry field changes to light green. If the search pattern does not match any string in the text, this is indicated by a light red background color of the entry field.

Use the or button to jump to the next or previous match in the document.

Matches in the document are highlighted even when you close the search bar. To clear this highlighting, press the Esc key.

You can choose whether the search should be case sensitive. Selecting will limit finds to entries that match the case (upper or lower) of each of the characters in the search pattern.

Click on the button at the right side of the incremental search bar to switch to the power search and replace bar.

To repeat the last find operation, if any, without calling the incremental search bar, use Edit → Find Next (F3) or Edit → Find Previous (Shift+F3).

To replace text, launch the power search and replace bar using the Edit → Replace command, or the Ctrl+R shortcut.

On the upper left side of the bar is a button with an icon to close the bar, followed by a small combo box for entering the search pattern. The box remembers recently used patterns.

You can control the search mode by selecting the options Plain Text, Whole Words, Escape Sequences or Regular Expression from the drop down box.

If Escape sequences or Regular expression are selected, the Add... menuitem at the bottom of the context menu of the text boxes will be enabled and allows you to add escape sequences or regular expression items to the search or replace pattern from predefined lists.

Use the or button to jump to the next or previous match in the document.

Enter the text to replace with in the text box labeled Replace and click the Replace button to replace only the highlighted text or the Replace All button to replace the search text in the whole document.

You can modify the search and replace behavior by selecting different options at the bottom of the bar. Selecting will limit finds to entries that match the case (upper or lower) of each of the characters in the search pattern. will search and replace within the current selection only. The Find All button highlights all matches in the document and shows the number of found matches in a small popup.

Click on the button at the right side of the power search and replace bar to switch to the incremental search bar.