Re: Usability: search dialog missing

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On Apr 3, 2006, at 6:04 AM, Jost Boekemeier wrote:
> You seem to think that a search is stateless, which usually isn't the 
> case.

No, I don't, in fact I don't even know what that means.

> > So basically, your only problem is that the type-ahead find bar is
> > missing the search history menu that the dialog had.
>
> No. My problem is that a search dialog is missing.

Sorry if I'm slow understanding this, but I've never before seen 
someone asking for more dialogs. Often people want particular features, 
and those features are best presented in dialogs. But the *only* 
feature you've listed (search history) is one that would work equally 
well in the search bar.

> > That should be pretty easy to restore. :-)
>
> How should that work?

In exactly the same way as it does in the dialog, with the usual 
exception that you don't need to press Enter to find the first 
occurrence.

> We're talking about two completely different concepts here. One is the 
> "type-ahead", as you call it, which usually jumps to the occurences as 
> you type and vanishes when you found what you're looking for.
>
> The other is a stateful search dialog which lets you "navigate" 
> through the document.
> ...

How would a search dialog let you "'navigate'" through the document in 
ways that the search bar does not, or in ways where the search bar is 
slower to use? Please give examples in terms of key presses and mouse 
clicks.

--
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/