There are various discussions around the issue, you can search closed issues/PRs if you want, but bottom line is that the current behaviour is intended and desired:

1. if there is a selection, use that 2. else if the cursor is in a word, use that 3. else last search

This happens if Ctrl+f is pressed to open the dialog or pressed to reload the search text with the dialog open.

But the search text is selected when the dialog is opened, or the text is reloaded, so just start typing and its replaced by your typing, or one keystroke (backspace or delete) will remove all the contents.

I doubt that this is going to be changed.

This happens if Ctrl+f is pressed to open the dialog or pressed to reload the search text with the dialog open.

But the search text is selected when the dialog is opened, or the text is reloaded, so just start typing and its replaced by your typing, or one keystroke (backspace or delete) will remove all the contents.

That would be great if it is true, but it is not. The text in the search entry isn't selected. It is left exactly where it was including the cursor position, etc. So one has to be mindful where the cursor is. At the very least, one has to select the search text, and then delete it, and then start typing the new search term.

1. if there is a selection, use that
2. else if the cursor is in a word, use that
3. else last search

I agree that 1 and 2 are useful in their context. And nicely they have switches to control whether to enable this or not, because, it's not always useful (one doesn't always want to search automatically based on the selection or the word under cursor). I just wish that they have switch for no 3 too.

You're right, it's not geany. It's GTK, specifically, the default GTK theme that I used, that specifically disables select-on-focus. Thanks for pointing me to the right direction.