Quick Search in Toolbar

[bkonia]

It would be really convenient if you had a Quick Search box right on the toolbar, so the user could perform Quick Searches without having to first open the search window.

Kevin's response:

"We deliberated on this part of the design quite a bit and tried several different implementations of Quick Search before settling on this one. I typically use the Ctrl+F shortcut to quickly show the Quick Search Info item, which works well for me... Also a Toolbar button is provided as well. Obviously, having Quick Search as a Search Pane Info Item means using it is a navigation step (but the Go Forward/Go Back navigational capabilities helps). "

My response:

"Part of the problem is that the "Quick Search" toolbar item does not automatically select Quick Search. If your last search was an advanced search then you'll have to go through an additonal step to get a quick search. If you had an option to automatically revert to quick search mode when clicking on the tool bar icon, that would help, but I still think you should at least give the user the option of dragging a quick search box onto the toolbar itself. That way you could immediately do a quick search without having to first open the search window."

Kevin's response:

"A way to go directly to a Quick Search is a good idea, but I am not sure that dragging a Quick Search onto the toolbar is feasible. Perhaps a user option to always switch to Quick Search when clicking the Search button (or using the Ctrl+F keyboard shortcut) would be helpful."

My response:

"You could also have separate "Quick Search" and "Advanced Search" icons that could be dragged onto the toolbar allowing the user to choose what kind of search he wants to do with a single click. However, I still think the best approach would be to simply have a Quick Search box right on the toolbar. Then the user could just start typing any time he wants to do a search."