I have this usage problem with ST2 and I was wondering if anyone else had the same issue or if it’s just me and my clumsiness.

Oftentimes I want to replace something in a selection, so I select text and press Cmd-F to find the word (this is my error) and type the word in. Only then I realize that I am just in search mode and press Cmd-Alt-F to switch to replace mode but then my selection is gone (and then I accidentally replace something in the whole file)

Is it feasible to request a feature to make ST2 remember (and restore) the selection in that case, or is it me who has to adapt? Or to put this differently: does this happen to anyone else?

I can confirm this on Windows 7 x64. But it might be worse for you, if you’re on OSX – have a look at your Preferences -> File Settings – Default and read the comment for the “find_selected_text” setting. You might try enabling it in your User settings and see if that makes a difference for you. With that setting enabled, any matched text in your Cmd+F would carry over into Cmd+Alt+F, and just the unmatched text would be lost.

I don’t lose the search text but the region I define for replacing within. A little hard to explain…