Quick Search in Toolbar
 

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."

heartily agree with brad
 

A quick search toolbar would be, for me, more useful than a web browser toolbar.

You can see lots of examples of this in other software, such as zoot and neopro.

Thanks.

Personally, I'm not sure what would be gained by having a quick search in the toolbar. What's wrong with Ctrl-F? Ctrl-F seems an equal step with clicking in a toolbar field, and it's consistent with Windows conventions. As soon as you search for something, the item details pane is going to change anyway, so it seems the usage would be equivalent whether Quick Search is initiated from the keyboard shortcut or a toolbar field.

I'm not against it as an option however.