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
- i can't tell you how useless this "forced" change to the search bar position is. Putting my own company aside I had at least 50 ppl call me after this "upgrade" to ask me why this absolutely useless change was adopted. Useless by the way is a nice term from the majority of expletives I heard.
Cheers,
Roc Absolutely RIDICULOUS.. this is perhaps one of the worst UI decisions I have seen in a very long time. for years the windows title bar served as the handle for window relocation, minimize and maximize. Who that this was the right place to search for content shown several hundred / thousands of pixels away!
Give us the option to put it back where it belongs in the message frame!!!
- I think the programmers were suffering from cranio-rectal inversion. As an added benefit, I think they slowed the response, time after one clicks on the search bar.
If I'm in a hurry and not thinking to move slower, I'll hit the search bar again, activating the shortcut to shrink the window. Sometimes, several windows open at once because the response time is so slow and I'll click again.
I have to learn to make slow methodical clicks now. That's progress for ya.
Maybe Microsoft is contracting out to those prisoners that got early release 🙂
Will someone please program a way to get around this issue?
MaryBAaaaaaaaa, this is the worst feature I have ever seen added to Office in over 20 years. Everyone must leave feedback explaining how bad this is, especially in outlook, the drop down hides the search tools that appear when you click in the box, it's unbelievably bad.
I totally agree with your characterization of this change as "jarring".
Call me an old "fuddy-duddy", but if I'm going to be forced to re-learn my day-to-day environment, I might as well go the whole hog, and revisit Google Office, etc.
There might be some underlying issue that this change to Search in Outlook is caused by. I would suggest that the Devs find a way around it.
Cheers
russ
I have read through this post. I agree with all comments that the new search bar is awful. It only first showed up on my computer this past Friday (May 9, 2020). This post has two suggestions on how to get rid of it: (1) turn off "coming soon"; and (2) turn off "Enable optional connected experiences" in Privacy Settings. I do not have a "coming soon" button and my understanding is that this is pretty typical of the current version of Microsoft 365 for business. I tried the second suggestion as well. Although I was able to do it, it does absolutely nothing. I first tried doing it and just restarting Outlook, but that didn't work so I restarted my whole machine. Still does not work.
If anyone has any other suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
I join the others in stating this is an appallingly awful change. It popped up on one of my machines. I rolled back the office 365 version only to find the search bar unmoved. How can that be??? MSFT makes changes that are not part of the update process?????
I am beginning to suspect that it is actually an operating system change vs a ms office change, but it is not clear. It seems the search location change was not related to any update. It literally showed up without any known updates happening to the computer.
I also want things to be set back to the way they were. The <control-e> keystroke mitigates some of the pain, but this "server error search on local computer" is truly intolerable. What server? Can't be exchange server, as outlook is happily connected to exchange. Why can't search be configured to look on the local machine first???
It raises my blood pressure just to write this. ☹☹
My work uses a remote server for all our workers to access our main programs rather than them being installed on our main desktops. With the search bar in its new spot, the "X" is behind the remote info bar at the top of the screen. I can unpin it so that it disappears but as soon as my mouse it near the top of the screen it comes back and blocks the search bar so I have a heck of a time canceling the search. I am a dispatcher for my company so I am constantly searching through emails to follow up with technicians so this is incredibly inconvenient.
Agreed! Microsoft please fix this ASAP. We don't like this. Put it back with the inbox. It makes no sense for it to be in the titlebar.
Yes I agreeMaryB ,
it is very bad, on the old search it propsed solutions and started filterin as I wrote about 3 signs, now, nothing. The results are bad, I search for mail I know are existing and its not picking them up. I have several account and it is completly confusing where you are, it says current mailbox, but its disconected from the mailbox. The position is good for a global search across ALL mailboxes but not for a singular mailbox. Plus it takes some time to get up there with the mouse, I use the mailboxes as "data storage" for comunication, data, etc and the search was great before this update . Now its about as worse as 5-6 years ago.
Christine1755 Hi Christine, please vote for it https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/322590-outlook-2016-for-windows/suggestions/39046513-search-at-the-top-option
Depending on Office version and client configuration you can toggle off "Coming Soon" in the Outlook client menu bar (top right corner). This will revert the search bar to its legacy location (see previous posts if you need more info).
