Keyboard shortcut for inserting from search menu to composer not working in Markdown mode

Bug
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1

:information_source: Overview

The shortcut to insert search results into the composer is not working reliably in Markdown mode.

:walking_woman: Steps to reproduce

  1. Open the composer and make sure it’s set to Markdown mode.

  2. Click on the search icon and submit a search.

  3. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to highlight a topic in the search results.

  4. Hit the a key.

:white_check_mark: Expected results

The link to the highlighted topic should be inserted into the composer.

:x: Observed results

The link to the highlighted topic is inserted into the search field.

:books: Additional context

Original report from @rkda:

I used to be able to insert search results from the search menu using the A shortcut.

CleanShot 2025-08-11 at 13.00.54
CleanShot 2025-08-11 at 13.00.54554×211 15.8 KB

Here’s the workflow:

  1. Open Composer.
  2. Use Ctrl⌥F to open Search Menu.
  3. Input search term and press Enter
  4. Use ↓/↑ to navigate to preferred result
  5. Press A to insert result to composer

Now it just changes the search term.

CleanShot 2025-08-11 at 13.04.58
CleanShot 2025-08-11 at 13.04.58517×146 5.03 KB

Am I doing it wrong or is this workflow just broken?

1 Like
2

This is odd, I just repro’d your steps and it works perfectly for me.

So let’s start from the top: can you repro this behaviour here on meta too or is it on your own site?

Are you using markdown or new composer?

Do you have any components modifying search?

A video to illustrate might help too!

2 Likes
3

Got it. Here’s my recording:

CleanShot 2025-08-11 at 17.10.09

I used the Markdown composer.

None that I know of. Are there components that are known to interfere with search?

I am using Chrome on MacOS if that helps.

2 Likes
4

Ah, interesting. With markdown composer I can repro it too here. Thanks, will need to be investigated

2 Likes
5

So I was not just imagining things :laughing:

I was able to use it on the new composer though :smiley: Glad to know it works somehow :slight_smile: Looking forward to the fix!

1 Like
9

@rkda Thanks for the report; this was on our radar but we have not gotten to fixing it yet. I’ve touched up the OP and tagged as pr-welcome in case anyone in the community wants to take a stab at fixing this!

10

Just in case you aren’t aware:

You can pretty much do the same thing directly form composer by using cmd+K or click the insert-link in the composer toolbar.

It’s a pretty handy “workaround” to achieve the same result while waiting for a PR, arguably easier?

3 Likes