1. Is there a way to set the default size of the panel that appears when I search for files?

2. Is there a way to ignore certain files or filetypes, a la TextMate’s folder/file references?

Answer to my second question: In Global Settings, there are three keys:

folder_exclude_patterns: folders (NOT a full path, just a folder name or pattern) to leave out of the sidebar and search
file_exclude_patterns: file name or pattern to leave out of the sidebar and search
binary_file_patterns: file name or pattern to leave IN the sidebar but OUT of search

I don’t think so, but there is a button that will put the find results into a new view instead of in the results panel—it’s called “Use Buffer”. I recommend it: in fact, I think it should be select by default.

You can also enter negative file patterns, such as -*.txt in the “In Files” field (or in the Where field in the current dev build).

I knew about the buffer, but I didn’t realize till just now that double-clicking on search results would work from that buffer! I thought it was just a text buffer. Nice.

For the folder_exclude_patterns, can we instead define relative path patterns instead of folder name pattern which is limiting.

This is the case when I have the following,

proj
|-- assets
|-- compiled
    |-- assets

I want the “proj/compiled/assets” folder to not appear in the sidebar and and search. And I can’t use the pattern “assets” to exclude it because there are other “assets” folders in the project which I would want to be searchable.

Yes, please… relative path patterns are a must.

+1