I have recently upgraded to PhpStorm 2016.2 on MacOS X and sadly quite a few things have got worse.
Previously (v10.x) if I selected some text, then double-tap shift, when the search-everywhere dialogue pops up it had the selected text pre-filled and it would be already searching. This was a super-quick way to find stuff, as it was almost always the first option that was correct.
Now you have to select, copy, double-shift, paste, enter - which is several times more work. For such a frequent task I can already feel the RSI building.
I have looked in the preferences, but cannot see anything relevant. I've also searched their help but it doesn't mention this feature.
Why has PhpStorm 2016.2 stopped pre-filling “Search Everywhere” from selected text
Because users were asking for this: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-147128
I have looked in the preferences, but cannot see anything relevant.
AFAIK there is no such setting.
https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-157100 -- watch this ticket (star/vote/comment) to get notified on any progress.
I suggest to (at very least) vote for this ticket .. and maybe even ask your friends (who use this IDE and miss such feature) to do the same. More votes -- higher the chance of implementing it.