diff --git a/docs/changelog.txt b/docs/changelog.txt
index 679ba6d99..9dda06bec 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.txt
+++ b/docs/changelog.txt
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ changelog.txt uses a syntax similar to RST, with a few special sequences:
 ## Misc Improvements
 - `orders`: update orders in orders library for prepared meals, bins, archer uniforms, and weapons
 - Terminal console no longer appears in front of the game window on startup
+- `gui/control-panel`: new preference for whether filters in lists search for substrings in the middle of words (e.g. if set to true, then "ee" will match "steel")
 - `gui/design`: Improved performance for drawing shapes
 - Dreamfort: improve traffic patterns throughout the fortress (stockpiles and zones are still not working, pending updates in `quickfort`)
 - Core: For debugging purposes, you can now pass ``--disable-dfhack`` on the Dwarf Fortress commandline or specify ``DFHACK_DISABLE=1`` in the environment to disable DFHack for the current session.
diff --git a/docs/dev/Lua API.rst b/docs/dev/Lua API.rst
index db5a9d59c..1d70647f7 100644
--- a/docs/dev/Lua API.rst	
+++ b/docs/dev/Lua API.rst	
@@ -5106,6 +5106,14 @@ The widget implements:
 
   Same as with an ordinary list.
 
+Filter behavior:
+
+By default, the filter matches substrings that start at the beginning of a word
+(or after any punctuation). You can instead configure filters to match any
+substring with a command like::
+
+  :lua require('gui.widgets').FILTER_FULL_TEXT=true
+
 TabBar class
 ------------
 
diff --git a/library/lua/gui/widgets.lua b/library/lua/gui/widgets.lua
index aa18d9fa9..797bd8da4 100644
--- a/library/lua/gui/widgets.lua
+++ b/library/lua/gui/widgets.lua
@@ -1932,6 +1932,8 @@ end
 -- Filtered List --
 -------------------
 
+FILTER_FULL_TEXT = false
+
 FilteredList = defclass(FilteredList, Widget)
 
 FilteredList.ATTRS {
@@ -2102,19 +2104,22 @@ function FilteredList:setFilter(filter, pos)
             end
             for _,key in ipairs(tokens) do
                 key = key:escape_pattern()
-                -- start matches at non-space or non-punctuation. this allows
-                -- punctuation itself to be matched if that is useful (e.g.
-                -- filenames or parameter names)
                 if key ~= '' then
                     if not self.case_sensitive then
                         search_key = string.lower(search_key)
                         key = string.lower(key)
                     end
 
-                    if not search_key:match('%f[^%p\x00]'..key) and
-                        not search_key:match('%f[^%s\x00]'..key) then
-                            ok = false
-                            break
+                    -- the separate checks for non-space or non-punctuation allows
+                    -- punctuation itself to be matched if that is useful (e.g.
+                    -- filenames or parameter names)
+                    if not FILTER_FULL_TEXT and not search_key:match('%f[^%p\x00]'..key)
+                            and not search_key:match('%f[^%s\x00]'..key) then
+                        ok = false
+                        break
+                    elseif FILTER_FULL_TEXT and not search_key:find(key) then
+                        ok = false
+                        break
                     end
                 end
             end