1819508 - Option to Hide global search bar

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Thunderbird :: Search, enhancement)

Description

[Kiran]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/112.0

Steps to reproduce:

Am on 111.0b1 (64-bit), Windows 11
The Search bar is prominently displayed in the "Supernova" UI

Actual results:

The Search Bar takes up real-estate, though it is used rarely / occasionaly.

Expected results:

I would like an option to hide it by default, and for it to appear if I type CTRL + K. This is similar to hiding the menu bar, and getting it to show up on clicking F10 key.

Comment 2

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Sorry, we're not making the top bar of our main window toggleable, nor are we creating exception to toggle on and off only unique toolbar elements.

Comment 3

[Anje]

I'm searching to a way to:

1. At the very least - move the Unified folder to a more logical position below the Menu Bar toolbar. So 'Menu Bar' toolbar is at the top where it is expected.
2. Else Hide the Unified folder.
3. Currently having to turn the 'Menu Bar' toolbar into a 'stuff it all in here' toolbar, but I cannot get 'Global Search' added to that toolbar nor can I move the 'Menu icon' (3 lines) off the unified toolbar.
   Basically the massive blank space at the top looks aweful. I do not understand how this can be considered to be OK.

How to achieve all of this in order to fix the design.
You can expect the public to ask for this, so why not put in the options at the start.

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Anje from comment #3)

I'm searching to a way to:

1. At the very least - move the Unified folder to a more logical position below the Menu Bar toolbar. So 'Menu Bar' toolbar is at the top where it is expected.

Not going to be an option as previously mentioned. Users will adjust.

2. Else Hide the Unified folder.

Not going to be an option as previously mentioned.

3. Currently having to turn the 'Menu Bar' toolbar into a 'stuff it all in here' toolbar, but I cannot get 'Global Search' added to that toolbar nor can I move the 'Menu icon' (3 lines) off the unified toolbar.

If global search is not in the unified toolbar, then there is a bug, not from design. And if it is not in the toolbar you are als not going to see the icon in customize because it is not a removable feature - if global search is enabled then the search just automatically appears to the user in the toolbar.

Basically the massive blank space at the top looks aweful. I do not understand how this can be considered to be OK.

But it is not blank when users install addons or customize to add buttons.

Comment 5

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

We're dropping the customization of the menu bar because only the Unified Toolbar will be customizable.
We're considering an option to show the Menu Bar inside the Unified Toolbar, so with that you can then remove the global search and add buttons there, as well as set the density to compact, and achieve the look you're looking for.

We're not sure we will be able to implement that for 115, but the overall goal is to have a single source of truth in terms of customization, which is the unified toolbar, and not having multiple customizable toolbars or areas like it was in 102 because that opens up a can of worms in terms of support and code consistency.

The objective is also to transition the users to rely on contextual actions in the places they're interacting with, since the old paradigm of always moving outside of context to reach the toolbar on top or navigate a large menubar is proved to not be a good paradigm.

Comment 6

[Anje]

It would be useful to have one Unified toolbar which is fully customisable.

I like the idea of "We're considering an option to show the Menu Bar inside the Unified Toolbar"
Just add two or more lines to the Unified toolbar and put the 'Menu Bar section at the top starting on the left.
It is going to be necessary to allow users to create new lines in the Unified toobar, so anything they add can be set up in an uncluttered logical manner for the User.

Ideally, I would move the 'Menu icon' onto the 'Menu bar' and place to the left of 'File' as it is part of the menu group and I would have expected it to be in menu location.

Currently I've also had to move the 'Write, Tag ' onto Menu bar, I tried adding the 'Get Messages' but it remains greyed out, so unuseable. Adding anything to the Menu Bar is not ideal as you have mentioned.
I've also had to add the Addons & Thremes to Menu bar, but this is not really correct at all because Addons and Themes would be better in the left 'Spaces Toolbar'.
Could 'Addons and themes' be added to the 'Spaces toolbar'?

In Folder Pane header - I removed the blue button
The pretend Blue button is unecessary, highly distracting and illogical and composing emails has nothing to do with the Folder Pane. The + sign has nothing to do with writing, it's already generically used in thunderbird to mean add a line.
Hence adding 'Write' with pen icon for writing an email onto the Menu Bar toolbar.

But if there were several lines in a Unified toolbar then I could have all menu at the top and items like Write below it and everything would be tickety boo.

Now that's what I call a design which offers Users the flexibility to create the right working environment to suit their needs.

So yes, a single fully customizable Unified toolbar containing the Menu bar set at the top and the ability to add lines, so preventing everything trying to get squeezed into one line gets my vote.

Comment 7

[Anje]

The objective is also to transition the users to rely on contextual actions in the places they're interacting with, since the old paradigm of always moving outside of context to reach the toolbar on top or navigate a large menubar is proved to not be a good paradigm.

I'm of the school of thought that says if it ain't broke and when it works better than the alternative - do not mess with it.
When it comes to The Menu Bar toolbar, it gets used everywhere. It's easy for people using keyboard, it's easy for people with poor eyesight. It easy for people who cannot learn new things for a variety of reasons, it's faster than the app menu icon, it's use reduces RSD as it promotes hover and visibility over loads of clicking. So top left will always be the perfect location.

Message Pane - Yep - agree - Reply, Forward etc something you expect in the top section above an opened message.
But not everyone works that way.
You get a message which you know you are going to offer a Reply, why bother selecting to open it first to read and then select to Reply.
You just want to select Reply because that will open a new message where you can read the received email and also compose reply in one go.
People do not always conform to expected methods of working. Only providing contextual actions in specific areas may not be the best action or provide the best workflow. Just some food for thought.