The controls at the top of the symbol detail panel decide which cells across the chart get classified as a given symbol. Get them right and the matches are almost perfect on the first pass.

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Why search settings matter

 

The search controls live at the top of both the Adding panel and the Existing detail panel. They are the same controls in both places, doing the same job: deciding which cells on the chart are considered a match for the symbol you are working with.

A strict search misses cells that should match; a loose search drags in cells that should not. Spending a minute tuning these controls per symbol usually saves much longer fixing wrong matches one at a time.

The search controls

 

The top of a symbol detail panel showing two chips (Icon and Colour), a horizontal slider beneath them, a refine toggle, and a second horizontal slider.
Figure 1. The search controls. (1) The Icon and Colour chips pick which trait is matched on first. (2) The primary threshold slider controls how strict that first match is. (3) The refine toggle turns on a second pass. (4) The secondary slider controls the strictness of the refine pass.

Icon-first versus Colour-first

 

The two chips at the top of the controls switch between matching primarily on the shape of the printed mark (Icon) or primarily on its colour (Colour).

Two side-by-side detail panels of the same coloured chart showing different match counts for Icon-first and Colour-first.
Figure 2. The same symbol matched two different ways. (1) Icon-first returns cells whose mark shape is similar regardless of colour. (2) Colour-first returns cells whose colour is similar regardless of mark shape.

Icon-first (default for black-and-white charts)

Matches cells whose printed mark looks the same as your seed cell. Use this on monochrome charts, where shape is the only distinguishing trait, and on coloured charts when you have several symbols of the same colour but different shapes.

Colour-first (for coloured charts)

Matches cells whose colour is the same as your seed cell. Useful on coloured charts where the symbol design can vary slightly cell to cell, but the colour is consistent. Markup R-XP auto-suggests this mode when it detects the chart is in colour.

Tip. Switching between Icon and Colour reruns the search automatically, so you can flip back and forth to see which gives the cleaner result.

The primary threshold slider

 

The slider directly below the chips controls how strict the first-pass match is. Drag it left for stricter, right for looser.

Three thumbnails of the same symbol detail panel with the threshold slider at low, mid and high positions, showing the match grid growing in size.
Figure 3. The threshold's effect. (1) A low (strict) value returns only the closest matches. (2) The default mid value catches most. (3) A high (loose) value includes anything that even slightly resembles your seed.
  1. Start in the middle. The default is usually a good guess.
  2. If you see false positives (matches that are clearly not the symbol), drag the slider left. The match grid shrinks as wrong cells fall out.
  3. If you see misses (the symbol is on the chart but not in the grid), drag the slider right. The match grid grows as more cells qualify.
  4. Stop when the grid contains only the cells you wanted.

The refine search

 

For symbols that look similar to others on the chart, a single threshold cannot always tell them apart. The refine toggle adds a second pass that filters the first-pass matches further, using the trait that was not the primary one. So if you picked Icon-first as the main search, the refine pass adds a colour filter; if you picked Colour-first, refine adds a shape filter.

The detail panel with the refine toggle on, the secondary slider visible, and a smaller, tighter match grid.
Figure 4. The refine pass. (1) Refine toggled on. (2) The secondary slider appears below the toggle. (3) The match grid tightens - cells that passed the primary but fail the refine pass drop out.
  1. Toggle refine on. The secondary slider appears.
  2. Drag the secondary slider until the match grid contains exactly the cells you want. Same rules as the primary slider - left for stricter, right for looser.
  3. Toggle refine off again if it does not help. Some symbols are clean enough that the primary pass alone is best.

Apply to all pages

 

The Apply to all pages toggle at the bottom of the detail panel decides whether the search runs across every chart page or only the current one.

The Apply-to-all-pages toggle in its on and off states, with a hint of the difference in behaviour.
Figure 5. Apply to all pages. (1) When on, the search runs across every chart page. (2) When off, the search is limited to the page on screen.

On (default)

The match grid includes cells from every chart page. This is what you want for symbols that recur across the chart.

Off

The match grid is limited to the page you are currently viewing. Useful for symbols that only appear in one place, or when you want to spot-check the search settings on a single page before committing across the whole chart.

A typical refining workflow

 

The fastest way to clean up a stubborn symbol is usually:

  1. Glance at the match grid. If it looks roughly right, do nothing.
  2. If you see false positives, drag the primary slider left. Watch the grid shrink.
  3. If false positives remain after the slider hits the bottom, try the other search type (Icon if you were on Colour, or vice-versa).
  4. If false positives still remain, toggle refine on and tune the secondary slider.
  5. For the final stragglers, tap individual wrong cells in the grid to remove them.
  6. Tap the rescan button (Rescan all pages on Existing mode, or just Save on Adding mode) to make the changes stick everywhere.

Tips and common questions

Here are answers to the most common questions about search and filter.

Q: The slider does not seem to do anything. Why?

Answer: Markup R-XP debounces the search so it does not rerun on every pixel of drag.

Move the slider and pause for a moment - the new match grid should appear within a second.

Q: When should I use Colour-first?

Answer: On coloured charts where similar shapes appear in different colours.

On a colourless or two-tone chart, Colour-first has almost nothing to work with. Stick with Icon-first there.

Q: The refine pass made the matches worse. What went wrong?

Answer: The secondary slider is in the wrong place.

Drag the secondary slider to its widest setting and see if the matches return. Then narrow until you see the improvement you wanted. If refine still does not help, toggle it off - some symbols are easier without it.

Q: Does changing the search settings on one symbol affect any others?

Answer: No - each symbol has its own search settings.

You can have one symbol on Icon-first low threshold and another on Colour-first with refine on. The choices stick to the symbol until you change them.

Q: Why is the chart sometimes slow to update after a slider change?

Answer: Rescanning every page can take a moment on large charts.

The activity indicator at the top of the chart shows when a scan is in progress. Tap it to cancel if you change your mind mid-search.

What's next?

 

Once your search settings give you a clean match grid for the symbol you are working on, save (in Adding) or tap Rescan all pages (in Existing) to push the change out.

For the broader workflow, return to the overview. For the bigger-hammer cleanup tools, see Build & erase.