Forum Discussion
The new Outlook search in the title bar is disconnected from the content it searches
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?
222 Replies
MaryB Vote here to fix the search in the title bar issue. It's really annoying as there is hardly any real estate now to grab and move the window. I've had to resort to Alt-Space M and use the arrow keys a few times now.
https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/322590-outlook-2016-for-windows/suggestions/39046513-search-at-the-top-optionlesterw100 I just noticed that you can actually grab the search bar itself to move the window. Just click and move in one motion. Don't click the search bar and then click again to move.
SpencerDCS Can you attach video clip of this happening please. It does not work on my system.
lesterw100 Considering how many people has viewed (and commented) on this topic, it would probably already be an option to move the search box if everyone had voted on UserVoice. As the workaround for now is to toggle off "coming soon" it has not been implemented as default for all Update Channels and could possibly be adjusted.
- My 2p is that for someone who doesn't use every app maximised there's frequently very little title bar to drag without tripping over various bits that have been moved there now. I know who I am, so don't need that taking up a huge swathe of space and was happy with where search was.
It's going to completely mess up my way of working- Replying to myself now a number of months on I've got more used to it, but there's no consistent way to work round the fact that working from home via remote desktop becomes quite a chore when the connection bar for RD sits right over the search bar and I have to keep resizing windows or moving it to see the search bar and often just typing blind
- This is a terrible change. The search effectively acts as a filter on the message list, and so removing it from the context of the list pane is downright confusing, besides requiring extra mouse movement as many have already stated.
If Microsoft cannot or will not make this a configuration option, they should at least add a quick search/quick filter bar (giving immediate feedback / live preview) back in at the top of the list view. Actually, that would be similar to how Thunderbird handles filters/search.
paulcopsey It's an ill-conceived design change, making it virtually impossible to grab some title bars to move the window now. There is an open UserVoice topic about this at:
https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/322590-outlook-2016-for-windows/suggestions/39046513-search-at-the-top-option
myke0111What if the toggle option isn't showing in Outlook...how can we change "coming soon"? My computer added the search box to the top of the screen today, and it is already driving me nuts! Please HELP!!
- Is this toggle switch still available? I can't find it anywhere
Carm465 As far as I understand the toggle 'Coming Soon' was implemented as a tool for Microsoft to collect feedback on future feature releases in the client, and at the same time allowing you to try the new experience at your convenience. When they received sufficient info it was withdrawn in the new version release (obviously as suggestions had already been handled). Then it was introduced as a feedback tool again. With this in mind, if seeing the toggle or not, I believe it's all about which version/build you're using or that your administrator has disabled it with a policy.
MaryB Hi all, this request should be posted at UserVoice as all other suggestions for product improvements. For the Outlook client https://outlook.uservoice.com/
(my apologies if it has already been done).
*edit* I am using O365 ProPlus version 2002 and when toggling off "coming soon" at the menu bar (upper right corner) the search bar goes back to the previous location. Maybe that solves the problem for some of you, at least for now.
More specifically
https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/322590-outlook-2016-for-windows/suggestions/39046513-search-at-the-top-option
The new layout is really annoying and very poor UX. Please roll back the feature or at least make it optional so users can change it back to where it was.
Regards,
Pratik
MaryB I couldn't agree more. The new search is a total pain. In every task preformed with search I have 50% more clicks and navigation. This is a unnecessary time waster and there is no benefit. This is proof positive that the engineers and designers at MS have nothing to do, so they just messed up a perfectly functional and useful part of Outlook so they could claim to be doing some work. They haven't even integrated a connection with Outlook and Skype after all of these years and they mess with search?
This decision by MS to move the search bar without flexibility is extremely shortsighted.
The functionality obviously was not tested by heavy Outlook users.
ere are a few comments. I am dealing feedback from a sample set of about 5000 users many who use the search bar frequently.
1) I very much like the filter drop down, Great addition.
2) The position of the search bar.
Moving the bar above the ribbon to the top left of the window and makes it much less user friendly. Sounds petty but time wasted accumulates when you have to move the mouse further especially if you are a frequent searcher. The current location, pre-update on the right side below the ribbon, works just fine.
Standardization is nice but Outlook is not Word and Outlook is not Excel. They are used differently.
MS .... Please reconsider or at least do some additional research.
Regards,
RobGfyrlwwhen I first brought this up nearly a year ago, the Microsoft response was that they were going to wait and see what the wider group of users thought about it; I see that I'm going to be reporting back the next time I talk to anyone on the Outlook team that the wider group of users finds it as annoying and displaced as I continue to do a year later 😉
- Ever since they fixed the ribbon so that the search ribbon tab stays selected more easily, when you've clicked into the title bar search box, I have started to no longer mind it. As long as the ribbon tab is still the same as before, all they've done is move the little search box which is puny and not a big deal. It was just the shock factor that got me initially.
With Click to Run, the whole world is on a conveyor belt and so the shockwaves keep coming here. Eventually it will dwindle and be just fine as is.
Putting the search into the title bar is horrible and unnatural (and make its harder to drag around the window). One of the Microsoft Office apps gets so bad that there is literally nothing to "grab" to drag the window -- you have to use ALT-Space and M to move the window. But Microsoft Program Managers will sit there and defend it as "great and innovative" - despite feedback here and on many other forums. So we are probably stuck with this poorly conceived UX design for the next decade.
