In my work I write a lot of locators to elements on websites. So I will inspect the element and then manually construct an xPath matching it.
What is driving me crazy is that when using the ctrl+f search bar to construct/verify the locator it jumps to the first element as soon as it gets any sort of match. So if I start writing '//div' and is intending to continue it, it still jumps to the very first div in the code and the element I was trying to construct a locator for disappears from view. Or I will have to start constructing it from the back etc just so it won't find a match until I am done, which just complicates it.
Is there any way of disabling the automatic search? So that it only does the match when pressing enter, or something similar. I have looked through the settings but can't find any way.
Please help, it is driving me insane.
Was running into this same issue and found something that might help.
In Devtools > Settings > Preferences > Global > "Search as you type" checkbox.
Just uncheck that setting and the selector won't match until you hit Enter.
For more context, check out the chrome documentation page about this: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/dom/