Blank Lines not counted as Before or After Surrounding Lines

Question

I have Surrounding Lines set to 5 Before and 7 After. However, blank lines aren't counted. I'm thinking this is desirable behavior some of the time. Is it configurable?

Here is my sample text file to search, including the blank lines.

Bob

Tom

Fred

Dave

Alex

Nancy

Sue

Ahmed

Joaquin

Alejandro

Guellermo

Liberace

Michael

Doris

Manny

Moe

Jack

Spike

Jones

Here are the results of a Plain Text search of Alej

C:\Users\grub235.WADS\Documents\Test.txt	1 KB	Text Document	2014-09-30 12:08:14 PM	2014-09-30 12:04:23 PM	2014-09-30 12:04:23 PM	1
9	Alex
11	Nancy
13	Sue
15	Ahmed
17	Joaquin
19	Alejandro
21	Guellermo
23	Liberace
25	Michael
27	Doris
29	Manny
31	Moe
33	Jack

Answer 1

You're correct that blank lines aren't counted (it's to make the most of the space). It's not a configurable option.