I’m trying to use the Search tool because it’s powerful, but there are usability issues that prevent me from doing so. Here’s are a few issues I encountered today that made me close the window and fallback to the project window search:
Issue 1: Elements are missing from the search
- I’m trying to find the bow weapon prefab.
- I press Ctrl+K
- I type: “bow item”
- Nothing appears (because indexing is in progress). There should be a more obvious feedback I think.
Issue 2: Column widths make the results unreadable
- I’m trying to find the bow weapon prefab.
- I press Ctrl+K
- I type: “bow item”
- I cannot read the results because the names and the descriptions are all truncated.
- There’s lots of empty space on the right? Why aren’t the columns filling the space?
- I adjust the column widths manually to correct it.
- Close the window, try again, columns reset to unusable widths.
Issue 3: Window stays opened after I find and open my file.
- I’m trying to find the bow weapon prefab.
- I press Ctrl+K
- I type: “bow item”
- I find it
- I use the keyboard arrows to navigate to it
- I press ENTER
- The prefab is selected, but the windows stays in your face. I have to close it manually.
These annoyances unfortunately make the Project window search and mouse clicks more convenient…
Hi @msfredb7 ,
Thanks for your detailed feedback. Here are some comments on the issues you have raised:
Issue 1 : no feedback when indexing is happening.
- There is a spinner at the bottom right corner of the search window when indexing is happening.
- But I agree that this isn’t probably obvious enough.
- Next week I want to ensure that the “empty results view” properly displays if indexing is happening.
- As a workaround though: when indexing has been performed the first time this behavior shouldn’t happened anymore. All further searches will yield the items that are available right now even if incremental indexing is happening.
Issue 2: weird columns spacing
- Yes I agree with you this looks bad. I will try to improve the initial sizing of the columns.
- As a workaround: if you correctly create a query, add columns, size those columns, you can always save this query on disk (either as a user queries or as a query part of your project). The query will be persisted with ALL the necessary viewState: which means if you rexecute it, the view will be restored to what it was (with all the columns and column spacing). More info on Search Queries can be found here. More info on the power of table and columns config can be found here.
- I just want to highlight though that the Project browser doesn’t support any columns workflow. I still feel that if you properly configured a query and save it on disk, you can get a lot of usefulness of such a feature.
- But I agree that the initial column sizing is bad
I will try to improve this ASAP.
Issue 3: Window stays open even after a selection
- This is a tricky issue. When we first created the Search tool (at the time it was a package called QuickSearch) the whole goal of the Window was to be transient. You would open the window, type a query, perform an action on a givent item and then the window would automatically closed.
- Thing is: A lot of users started to like the Search Window as a "collection view " of live queries. And closing the window when an item was acted on became an annoyance.
That said, you can still use the “Transient Search Window” You just need to bind a shortcut to it:
- Open the Shortcut manager, look for Help/Search Transient Window
- Now when using Ctrl + P (the shortcut I chose to assign) you will get this window:
This window will open in the center of screen without any border and will be automatically closed if you act on an item, is you press ESC or if you click anywhere else on screen (kinda like the Spolight search window on Mac).
Thanks for your feedback. We will continue to work hard to make the Search Window as best as it can.
Thanks for the quick and detailed reply!
Regarding the transient search window, from what I understand, people use the Search window for 2 different workflows right? One that works best with “Close on Act” (quick search) and the other “Stay on act” (collection view).
Could the behavior be adaptive? Or manually customizable? Maybe it could be a togglable option on the window that is saved when you save the query (like the columns and size, etc.)?
You’re in a better position than me to find the best solution. I’m just concerned that “Hey, go into your keybindings and use Transient version instead” is going to be something I have to annoy all my colleagues with. And that without this obscure tip, they would get frustrated.
Hey @msfredb7 ,
this is a catch 22 issue. At some point we had a preference to make search open in transient mode. And some people were confused or didn’t see the point of it. So we removed it…
Like all things software wise: what is an issue for some, is a golden features for other
I think this feature still existed, up until 6.3? There’s the “keep open” option in the little disclosure menu in the search popup, and it used to work as described, but now in 6.3 it does nothing.
The “transient search window” shortcut is great - similar functionality, but that borderless popup is pretty cramped. It would be nice if it was resizable (and remembered its size).
