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[Charles <tanstaafl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(In reply to Blake Winton (:bwinton - Thunderbird UX) from comment #130)
> (In reply to Charles from comment #129)
>> (In reply to Blake Winton (:bwinton - Thunderbird UX) from comment #128)
>>> The main thing I dislike is that it feels _way_ too cluttered.

>> As compared to the Quickfilter Toolbar?
>> Remember, this is designed to *replace* the entire QF toolbar.

> No, as compared with something I would want to add to Thunderbird.  ;)

But...

a) we are talking about bringing something back that was *removed* that
a *lot* of people liked and want to see brought back, and

b) as I said before, it is not nearly as 'cluttered' as what replaced it
(the QF toolbar).

>> It also auto-expands/contracts, depending on how much room is available
>> where it is placed.

> I don't know how much of a feature that is.

It is nice, just like the way the Awesomebar (in Firefox) auto
expands/contracts...

> I think I would be confused if things moved around too much when I resized
> the window.  (Perhaps that's not how it works.  Perhaps it's not actually
> that confusing.)

It isn't, and it isn't... ;)

It doesn't 'move around', it simple takes up more or less space,
depending on how much room is available.

>>> Four icons in the search box is three and a half too many.

> I don't know of many search fields that have more than one active thing in
> them.  (Even Firefox's has only one _active_ thing, and the two icons it
> contains are on opposite sides, and thus less cluttered feeling.)  For this
> reason, I don't think letting people put _more_ icons into the text area is
> the right thing to do.

I was mainly talking about making iit configurable so that you could
DEselect ones - I don't see a need for others to be there either.

>>> The extra bar seems to pop up at odd times.
>> Haven't noticed this... and I use it heavily and have a lot of other
>> extensions - maybe a conflict with one you have?

> I only have lightning installed.

Dunno then... it doesn't do this for me though.

> I suspect the fact that you use it heavily is the difference here.
> For me, as a first-time user of the add-on, it feels cluttered and confusing.
> 
> (I also suspect that you have a higher tolerance for complexity than I do… 
> :)

Maybe, but I also think that the fact that I don't use GLODA/Global
Search ever has something to do with it too.

> > > http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2301433/Screenshots/SearchBar/GlobalSearch.png shows
> > > some extra icons beside the global search.
> > >   What are they for?  Is that just a bug?
> > I only see the clear button, the button to switch back to Filter mode, and
> > the Prefs button - what other buttons are you talking about?
> 
> The ones to the left of the words "Messages mentioning: Mike".

Oh... the 'Messages mentioning: Mike' pop-out is actually covering up
the rest - look and you'll see that those are the filter options, and
the ones that are hidden are the attachment icon, and then the 'Sender,
Recipients, Subject and Body options.

> So, I've got a picture of all the bars up at
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2301433/Screenshots/SearchBar/GlobalSearch.png
> 
> You'll notice that the add-on has four buttons in the text box, as opposed
> to one icon for each of the QFB and GlodaBar.

Correct, but...

That picture shows that you are in Global Search mode, not Filter mode.
This extension is *primarily* meant to be used for filtering, not Global
Searching, that part was added later. Switch to Filter mode (click the
mode toggle button, which is the Magnifying glass icon) and experiment
with that for a while...

> For the QFB and GlodaBar, nothing pops up until I type something, whereas
> the add-on shows an extra popup (with a button to switch the popup from
> horizontal to vertical?  Why is that even there?) as soon as I enter the
> field.

Someone didn't like the horizontal options panel and asked for it. But
like I said, you are using a mode that I never use.

> For the add-on's popup, there's no indication of what the various icons are,
> or which keys I would use to activate them.

If you mouse-over them, you get tooltip descriptions of what they do.

> For the add-on, to clear the options, Esc+Esc is a _horrible_ key
> combination.

So do like I do and just click the little x icon.

> (I also have no idea what "Clear Options" actually does…)

It clears the searchbox text and any of the options (show Unread only,
show Starred only, Show only messages with Attachments, etc)...

> Why is there an icon to show or hide the extra popup?
> 
> Once I type something, and the bar is popped up, how do I navigate to it
> with the keyboard?

Ok, I just played with this a little in Global Search mode, and yeah, it
looks like there are a few bugs in there... I've never encountered them
because I only use it in Filter mode.

> I agree there is more stuff displayed at the start in the QFB, but it's
> better organized, and so easier to understand, and I don't think the add-on
> actually does any less so it's not actually more minimal.

It is vastly more minimal, because it isn't a toolbar, it is a little
searchbox that you can put wherever you want. I put all of my icons and
the Unified Search box on the Menu bar.

> I think we can have something that offers both filtering and global search
> without making people specify which one they want, by extending the
> behaviour of the QFB when you type in something like "fjdsfjslfnsdkfn" to
> also cover cases where there are matches, and that seems like a better way
> to go to me…

The whole point of this addon is to eliminate the need for a huge
toolbar, and give us back the little filter searchbox that can be placed
wherever we want like TB 3.0- had.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop
Packages, which is subscribed to thunderbird in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/691380

Title:
  Quick Search  Filter should be moveable

Status in Mozilla Thunderbird Mail and News:
  Confirmed
Status in “thunderbird” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in “thunderbird” source package in Lucid:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: thunderbird

  Today I updated lucid 3.0.4 TB to 3.1.7 from security.  I never liked
  the new "smart" search feature but relied mostly on filtering on To,
  CC and recipient.  I had put the search field for that on the menu bar
  so no further screen real estate was used on my netbook.  3.1.7 now
  introduces a UI regression in that that search field is used solely
  for the dumb "smart" search that opens a tab to waste even more screen
  space.  To use the search that I care about I have to use the quick
  search bar, more lost screen space.  And when I actually use it it
  opens another bar to filter and by then I can't even see my messages
  any longer.

  Seriously, netbooks are here to stay.  What were the UI devs thinking
  looking at their 28" TFT display all day?

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