I'm not clear on which behavior is recommended by Apple's UI guidelines, but I've encountered two general trends in the use of a quick filter/search field like BE's "Search All Fields" (in List View):
- Type some text into the field and the search is applied to the currently-selected subset of the database ("groups" in BE-speak). Switch to another subset and the field is cleared, requiring you to retype the search text again if you wanted to apply it to the new group. This is how BE 9.0.4 and iTunes 6 works.
- Type some text into the field and the search is applied to the currently-selected subset of the database. Switch to another subset and the search text is retained *and applied to the newly-selected subset*. This is how Bare Bones's nifty Yojimbo works.
The second method has an obvious advantage: you can apply the same search to different subsets/groups to generate different results very quickly. I think that this behavior would be preferred in the case of BE, where applying a search to successive groups would be *very* helpful.
TH
Suggestion re "Search All Fields"
Right now, Bookends will do this if you hold the Option key down when you switch groups. I could make that the default if people want it (it's not the default now, because I thought people would be too easily confused if they clicked on another group and no references showed up (because there were no hits in the selected group). Hence, the default to the iTunes style. What do other people think?
Jon
Sonny Software
Jon
Sonny Software
My own inclination would be the reverse. Trying to think as a user with no preconceived notion of the choices, I would assume that, if the "Search all fields" field is populated, that the contents of the field has been applied to any switch to a new Group. Option-switch to a new Group, with the effect of also clearing out the "Search all fields", seems to me more "optiony" than retaining the contents of the field and applying it to each selected group.joewiz wrote:I think keeping the iTunes style as default makes sense. It's nice to know about the option key option, though.Jon wrote:What do other people think?
TH
right. How about an auto complete? You enter a first letter and then you have a pull down list with the latest searches beginning with the letter you entered (similar to the URL field in eg Firefox).Jon wrote:OK folks, keep those opinions coming in...
A search history isn't a bad idea, but I don't think there is a good interface element for it. We already use the magnifying glass down arrow to select the field (or Spotlight) to search, so that's out...
Jon
Sonny Software
tom