Sep 03 2019
10:26 AM
- last edited on
Feb 06 2023
03:41 AM
by
TechCommunityAP
Sep 03 2019
10:26 AM
- last edited on
Feb 06 2023
03:41 AM
by
TechCommunityAP
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?
Dec 07 2020 04:28 AM
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.
Jan 04 2021 01:02 AM
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.
Jan 11 2021 01:40 PM
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:
Jan 17 2021 06:51 PM
@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.
Jan 18 2021 07:39 AM
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.
Jan 19 2021 05:43 AM
Jan 19 2021 04:43 PM
We absolutely need the option to bring it where it was before. It's horrible.
Jan 20 2021 03:24 AM
Jan 20 2021 07:12 PM
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.
Microsoft’s new Outlook for Mac design launches in October - The Verge
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.
Jan 20 2021 07:39 PM
I don't want a "work around" - I want the search bar back where it was!!!@CapPike
Jan 20 2021 07:43 PM
Couldn't agree more & such a nuisance..... just doesn't work! I want my old search bar back!@btankwart
Jan 29 2021 02:55 AM
Agreed.
Mine also just changed this week. Clearly MS is not listening to feedback. This is an awful update.
Jan 29 2021 07:21 AM
Feb 01 2021 06:14 AM
Thank you @Mary Branscombe
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.
Feb 03 2021 12:15 AM
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.
Feb 03 2021 09:39 AM
It is really annoying that a dropdown menu pops up and hides the ribbon that contains the search options!
Feb 03 2021 05:17 PM
I can't believe this thread has been going for coming up to 2 years and it looks like nothing has been done. No flexibility has been provided for the user to put the Outlook search where they find it most useful.
Microsoft please provide user customised search field placement.
Feb 08 2021 07:23 AM
We just changed ours here and I as well would like to voice my annoyance with the new location!
Feb 12 2021 07:02 AM
1. Only users who closed has closed outlook windows received a tooltip that search has shifted on top, while users like me who have outlook opened for a week didn't receive and I thought its a bug in the system. After I searched online I realized it shifted above.
2. It's dragging the cursor extra
3. It's not noticeable plus disconnected to the major work area of the user
Feb 12 2021 01:38 PM
This just changed for me within the last few days. Horrible UI choice. The search bar makes all my Outlook folder windows look the same... can't tell which folder the window content is for anymore (or even which application the window belongs to, for that matter, if only the title bar is visible). Completely obliviates the purpose of the title bar, as now no window-identifying description is visible in the title bar. Seriously, all I see in the window title bar is the search input box, even though there is space for a window title.
Tried to provide feedback/vote at user voice (https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/322590-outlook-2016-for-windows/suggestions/39046513-search-at-...) but they have shut it down.
I am an IT professional and have designed GUIs myself, but it is hard to fathom what the product managers were thinking when this design decision was made. Maybe they need to read "The Inmates Are Running the Asylum" (seriously, this is a book about interface design). Developers love to overload UIs with functionality, to the point it gets in the way of usability, or to drive the design by what is easiest to implement, rather than what will be most user-friendly.