Open the following HTML snippet in IE (6 or 7) as HTML document. Ctrl+F and look for "test". IE never finds if the search term "test" which happens to be in the hidden textarea.
<html>
<body>
<table>
<tr>
<td style="display:none;">
<textarea >test</textarea> -- first hidden 'test' is here
</td>
</tr>
</table>
test -- Second 'test' is here
</body>
</html>
am I missing something trivial here?
Try visibility hidden or using absolute positioning and/or removing and replacing the textarea from one part of the body to another element to hide the textarea. But I have to ask why you would want something to be found if it's set to display:none.
Gotta agree with apphacker on questioning the need. IE's behavior sounds right - why would you expect the browser to return a result when it couldn't show that result even if it were 'findable'?
I'd reassess the UI you're doing - look at the result you need rather than this particular implementation. Some JavaScript might come in handy.
Chandra - nice bug! you are correct, IE should find the other visible "test" values without issue, but can not.
I noticed in IE7, if you search backwards (e.g. Previous) it does find them.
Addendum: It appears with IE8's inline search that they have fixed this issue now.