If this field is not blank, an edit operation (opcode TXOP_CREATE or TXOP_REEDIT) will start by searching for the specified string, based on the options set in the TXC.SFLAGS parameter. The search starts from the same place that the cursor would ordinarily start (see flags TXF_EOT and TXF_POSCUR and parameters TXC.XCOL, TXC.XROW, TXC.XCUROFFSET).

If the search flag TXSF_EXIT is specified in TXC.SFLAGS, then the operation will return immediately. If successful, the exitcode will be 0 and the cursor position parameters (TXC.XCOL, TXC.XROW, TXC.XCUROFFSET) will be set to indicate the location of the first match. If not successful, exitcode will be set to -49 and the cursor position parameters will remain unchanged. To search for additional occurrences of the string, adjust the TXC.XCOL and/or TXC.XROW parameters by 1 (forwards or backwards, depending on the direction of the search) and repeat the operation.

If the search flag TXSF_EXIT is not specified, then the normal editing operation will take place after the search.

The following character sequences can be embedded in the search string to search for special control characters: