I do not get why a property is useful here and why not just a temp is not good enough. Especially since there are no other users of the property. displayFiltered: evt | matchStr matches feedbackMorph | matchStr := self valueOfProperty: #matchString. matches := self menuItems select: [:m | | isMatch | isMatch := matchStr isEmpty or: [ m contents includesSubstring: matchStr caseSensitive: false ]. m isEnabled: isMatch. isMatch ]. feedbackMorph := self valueOfProperty: #feedbackMorph. feedbackMorph ifNil: [ feedbackMorph := TextMorph new autoFit: true; color: Color darkGray. self addLine; addMorphBack: feedbackMorph lock. self setProperty: #feedbackMorph toValue: feedbackMorph. self fullBounds. "Lay out for submorph adjacency"]. feedbackMorph contents: '<', matchStr, '>'. matchStr isEmpty ifTrue: [ feedbackMorph delete. self lastSubmorph delete. self removeProperty: #feedbackMorph ]. " This method is invoked with evt = nil from MenuMorph >> removeMatchString. The current implementation can't select an item without an event. (Yet :D)" (evt notNil and: [ matches size >= 1 ]) ifTrue: [self selectItem: matches first event: evt]