V3.3 Beta Palettes - Search Box

• Sep 7, 2019 - 16:19

The search box is really useful, I like it at the top and I love that it's an immediate search! Much easier to find an item by typing a few letters than reading through the palette list.

Search box issues (Windows):

1) After opening the search box, I couldn't get rid of it to get the "Add palette" button back. Eventually I tried the ESC key, although I half-expected it to close the whole panel.

2) Search is so handy I'd rather have the search box open all the time instead of needing an extra click to open it. I'll use Search way more often than "Add palette". (Suggestions below)

3) There's no easy way to clear the search to start a new search. I have to click at the end of the word then backspace backspace backspace to clear it. The ESC key clears it, but it also closes search so I have to re-open it.

Suggestions: a) Need a clear button or X icon to clear the search, and b) Normal text input box behavior -- double-click to select the whole word, and drag to select text should both work. I keep TRYING out of habit to do both of those even though I know they don't work.

searchbox.PNG

4) I wish the matching palettes did not include empty spaces.

5) I wish search would match alternate names for an item. Like "bird" matches "fermata" and "decr" matches "diminuendo".

UI nitpicks:

  • The search text itself is very small and the whitespace around it is huge. There's 14 pixels of padding above/below the search text, which is only 10 or 12 pixels. Less padding, bigger text please!

  • The bright purpleish border around the search box makes the search text even harder to read. No colored border is needed.

  • There is no margin above the search box, it butts right against the top of the panel. (Maybe it's unfinished.)

  • The search box is much longer than needed. I'm going to find what I need after a few letters, I'm not going to type out "arpeggios" (but there's room for me to type it 5 times). Really, 8 characters is plenty, and just "Search" is fine for a placeholder.

  • Because the search box is attached to the right edge of the panel, decreasing the panel width causes the left edge of the search box to disappear (with my typed text). The box should shrink to fewer characters, or at least be attached to the left edge so the important part stays visible.

  • In search results, the open/close caret doesn't work (stays open even when I click it). Not a big problem, just that if it is present I expect it to work.

(Ok I don't know if anyone wants this much feedback but... I'm a UI designer, I can't help it...)

Attachment Size
searchbox.PNG 36.38 KB

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