I appreciate the benefits of Microsoft Search in the Office apps but I'm getting feedback form multiple people that having the search in the title bar is unhelpful because they need to use the title bar for dragging the window around. In Outlook in particular, having the search box so far away from the content that you're searching is jarring. I understand the value of consistency, but I think that the utility of putting search with the content it searches overrides being consistent at all costs. Can we have an option to move the search box back down to the content in Outlook, and perhaps not to have it in title bars at all?

Here's another really awful side effect of having the search bar in the title bar... When you type into it, the search suggestions and actions drop-down menu COVERS the ribbon and the "Search" tab which contains search refinement options!!! This makes the "Search" tab options completely unusable. If you click away in order to get the search suggestions to disappear, then the Search tab also disappears from the ribbon.

I think its location should be customizable like the Quick Access toolbar and Ribbon. It shouldn't be forced into the title bar which removes or impairs the function & consistency of the title bar.

This has appeared for one of our staff now as well. They are on Monthly Channel (Targeted) so it seems they are the first to receive it. Confused the hell out of them to have search just disappear (yes it only moved, but that's not where their eyes look for it) and they don't like it. The option to move it back would be ideal. I have no idea what benefit this is supposed to bring.

Paul Cunningham 100% agreed. This search box on the outlook title bar is terrible.I'm glad an authoritative voice as Paul noted this, so I hope the will retire or modify this behaviour. Thanks. Enrico

None of my users like this change either. They are also not on the insider preview version of outlook.

The new Outlook search in the title bar is disconnected from the content it searches

222 Replies

buttumer
Copper Contributor
Feb 03, 2021
Now I'm 100% sure Microsoft hire people who has mental problems.
They are in trouble and they feel comfortable by creating problems for other.
john58
Copper Contributor
Feb 01, 2021
Thank you MaryB

everyone I have spoken to dislikes this new "feature" as well. The top bar should be sacred for moving windows, we all use 2-4 monitors on our team and we need to frequently move windows around. This search in the window bar is disconcerting and hurting productivity. These forced feature updates and lack of customizability are what is keeping me from embracing office 365 on my personal machines.
Barry Coveney
Brass Contributor
Jan 20, 2021
The new location in the title bar is a wrong move, against any kind of good user experience expectation and just impacts the natural flow for how to conduct search. Please make the position a configurable option. The cycnic in me is thinking MS are doing away with embedded search and that will be through some general Office/Delve/teams mechanism down the line.
- jfranchetti
  Copper Contributor
  Jan 21, 2021
  I also do not like this change.
  
  That said, they did a better job with this in the latest version of Outlook for the Mac. There are a lot of nice design changes there and the larger size of the search box and the closer proximity to the inbox make it work well.
  
  https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/22/21448985/microsoft-outlook-for-mac-new-design-october-release
  
  My concern is that this change is now in the stable release of Office, so it sounds like Microsoft has decided to stick with this change. And we are probably a long way off before the Mac design changes make it to the Windows version.
Alan_Villalobos
Brass Contributor
Jan 19, 2021
Just changed this week. It´s just terrible. My work flow just went out of the window. I get dozens, if not hundreds of mails each day and need to filter and search all the time. Need the search bar on top of the content!
- ML4000
  Copper Contributor
  Jan 29, 2021
  Agreed.
  
  Mine also just changed this week. Clearly MS is not listening to feedback. This is an awful update.
- DaxInvader
  Brass Contributor
  Jan 20, 2021
  We absolutely need the option to bring it where it was before. It's horrible.
borgvardt68
Copper Contributor
Jan 18, 2021
MaryB
If anyone knows how to remove this terrible way MS has made in Outlook I am all ears. Moving the search function are one thing but crashing the search function totally are another. SHAME on the guys how have made this bad bad bad issue. I my company we are 16.000 colleagues where this have been ruined.
Looking forward to get this fixed.
Labsy007
Copper Contributor
Jan 11, 2021
Well, in latest updates search bar is moved to just above list of e-mails, but it is still in title bar.

What I LIKE about it is maybe the consistency between all MS products, search in the same place in any app. Ok, makes sense.

What I HATE about it is that they obviously did not think about it at all:
When you click on it, suggestions cover just the mail list and if you wanted to search for something in one of top 10 e-mails, you cannot see it, because it is covered by search suggestions.
In GREY or DARK design cursor is not vicible in search box, so you do not know if you clickec at start or end of search word, neither you know whether you double or tripple click selected or not the search word. Annoying.
And last but not least, MS is still the only company in the world, which considers text with non-alphanumeric characters as SEPARATOR. So searching for "e-invoice" finds everything containing letter "e" OR "invoice". Useless, stupid and ....aghrrrrrrrr!
Slow? I have the same mailbox presented in Outlook and via WebClient (zimbra webmail). Searching for anything via Zimbra WEB client is much, much faster than in Outlook. I do not know how, but MS somehow managed to make it slower. Most probably by using objects and exchanging a lot of unnecessary data for every task within every MS app.
There are Suggested Actions there on the bottom of Search suggestion box. Actions like "Signature" or "Sent Items" or something you did lately. What's this doing in SEARCH box? I think it is waste of time, resources and space. Remove those, please.
btankwart
Copper Contributor
Jan 04, 2021
MaryB

The search box constantly conflicts with the full-screen title bar of the remote desktop connection.
This is the daily bread of many people in the home office in times of the Covid-19 pandemic and therefore especially unpleasant.
- Alison650
  Copper Contributor
  Jan 21, 2021
  Couldn't agree more & such a nuisance..... just doesn't work! I want my old search bar back!btankwart
TormodS
Copper Contributor
Dec 07, 2020
MaryB Beg to differ. I wasn't a fan at first either, but after some time getting used to it, I applaud the change. There is now consistency between all Office products.

I've found that this has made it easier to teach users about the functionality search offers, and I've seen users begin to use search more often across all Office products, and not only Outlook as they did before.
- Ed_Watkiss
  Copper Contributor
  Dec 07, 2020
  I see the consistency between MS Office products to be completely irrelevant and a huge negative if it detracts on everyday usability. To use this as a justification for the change is crazy and given the number of comments a poorly researched one. It assumes users are incapable of knowing which product they are in and to adjust accordingly. And this is the reason I so object to this backward step. The position of the outlook search box was much better and the interface better (less clicks) to achieve the everyday searches. It should stay there or users should have the option to revert to the previous position. As a user of two screens its place in the blue bar is at best annoying as it makes moving around apps on the screens more difficult.
  
  In term search functionality I have not seen any benefit and I also find the fact that is searches across all MS Office products to be a real pain. I'm in Outlook, I want to search just my emails not a word or excel or whatever! Just emails! If I want to search for other files I'll use a different app to search for them.
  
  Overall, as with many other users I dislike this "improvement" and find it affects my productivity.
  - billgault
    Copper Contributor
    Jan 18, 2021
    Ed_Watkiss I registered on this forum just to agree with you.
    
    I'm not sure if the developers of office are using 14" laptop screens as it may not be as disruptive for them but using a 24", 27", and 32" high DPI monitors, this search box is seriously disruptive to my work flow. Everything about it is wrong. I just want to search for text related to an email I need to find, I don't care about all of this other garbage that comes up.
    
    Honestly, stepping back and looking at this objectively it makes zero sense why a developer would do this and that someone would actually sign off on this. I can only assume they don't search as regularly as most business workers do.
UsesOutloolALot
Copper Contributor
Nov 16, 2020
MaryB

I also hate this new search...proof microsoft does not care about its users...like it hired steve jobs corpse

wasupon

Copper Contributor

Sep 17, 2020

MaryB

Issue : outlook search bar moved to top

Outlook Version 2007 Build 13029.20534

Problem

Test Update Monthly Enterprise Channel

It is easy to change to a differnt channel Office 365Pro+ channel:

Close ALL Office products (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visio…)

Open and CMD prompt as an administrator

type cd C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun and press the ENTER key

type either

OfficeC2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=Broad

OfficeC2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=Targeted

OfficeC2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=Monthly
and press the ENTER key

type OfficeC2RClient.exe /update user and press the ENTER key
wait the 3 to 5 minutes it takes for the command to pull the relavent files down from the internet and install them

i found problem Search bar moved to title in Monthly Enterprise Channel Version 2006+

Current Channel	2008	13127.20408	September 9, 2020	Version 2009 is released
Monthly Enterprise Channel	2007	13029.20534	September 8, 2020	November 10, 2020
Monthly Enterprise Channel	2006	13001.20648	September 8, 2020	October 13, 2020
Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview)	2008	13127.20408	September 8, 2020	March 9, 2021
Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel	2002	12527.21104	September 8, 2020	September 14, 2021
Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel	1908	11929.20946	September 8, 2020	March 9, 2021