Search results are not user friendly.

[davidpbrown]

Statement of the bleeding obvious follow Thunderbird search results needs an overhaul. It is the worst search results presentation that could be.

Why is it not just simply a filter on the inbox?; why confuse users with a whole new interface?

Most the rest of Thunderbird is a pleasure, the search results feature is a bug in itself..

[DanRaisch]

It's not clear from your post what you are seeking when you initiate searches. Perhaps you are not taking advantage of all of the search procedures available in Thunderbird. There is a simple filter functionality available by pressing Ctrl+Shift+K to filter the currently viewed folder.

[WaltS48]

For Linux it is Ctrl+Shift+F to bring up the Search Messages window.

Then there is the Search bar and Quick Filter in the Mail Toolbar if the user hasn't removed them.

Global Search

Quick Filter

[davidpbrown]

Quick Filter works well and as I'd like to see
but Quick Filter doesn't appear to have option to search all folders.

Global Search is so different on its presentation, with no apparent added value aside from depth of search.

What I'd like is Quick Filter in all folders.. perhaps simply with an additional column indicating the folder it was found in. Call it a skin for Global search, if you want.

Perhaps you are not taking advantage of all of the search procedures available in Thunderbird.

Perhaps it's not intuitive enough.. Why is [Search Ctrl+K] so obvious tempting the Global search and then different interface and the Quick Filter not just visible without an extra click? Simple quick search of the folder visible, should be available by default.. without an obscure key combo [Ctrl+Shift+K].

Also, it's not obvious if Quick Filter will do child folders or just the top level that is visible.

[DanRaisch]

Intuitive is such a subjective term. Some folks may find the current Global Search extremely easy to use while others struggle with it. You might find this extension helpful -- https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/th ... h-as-list/

[davidpbrown]

> Intuitive is such a subjective term.

urgh.. advanced option by default is silly. This is not a hard point to understand. [Basic and simple] should not overhaul the UI, just because some are familiar with it. The Search box presented by default tempts that it will do the intuitive search on what is visible in the form that is apparent already. IF the advanced option is wanted then user is expecting a more complex presentation. It's better than it was but it need another thought.

Why should users install an add-on just to get the fix for the default. There's an add-on or hack for everything but why not just do it right from the start.

Good UIs aren't about defaulting to cater for the devs advanced preferences, they are about what is most simple and most obvious.

[DanRaisch]

You would have to take that up with the developers, who, in case it's not clear, don't live here. This forum is not run by or formally associated with Mozilla. We're an independent user-helping-user community.

[tanstaafl]

Quick Filter works well and as I'd like to see but Quick Filter doesn't appear to have option to search all folders. Global Search is so different on its presentation, with no apparent added value aside from depth of search.

Global search's user interface is poor, but it does more than quickly search all folders. Global search also supports a faceted search. "That means the search results are not exact matches, it will also attempt to find closely related matches. Faceted search is not the same thing as using wildcards (which Global Search supports) or regular expressions (which it doesn't). If you search for "informative" it may include messages containing "information" for example."

You can use quick filter to search all folders in all accounts if you create the appropriate virtual folder using saved search. However, it can be extremely slow (and might even fail due to lack of resources in some cases) because its not reusing a pre-built search index (like global search does). This type of hack works best of if you are using IMAP accounts because the actual search is offloaded to the IMAP server (it sends a IMAP command to the server asking it to search that folder rather than fetching all of the messages and then searching them itself.).

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Search_-_Thunderbird

[wsmwk]

You would have to take that up with the developers, who, in case it's not clear, don't live here. This forum is not run by or formally associated with Mozilla. We're an independent user-helping-user community.

Nor is Thunderbird run by or formally associated with Firefox/Mozilla Corp [-X

[davidpbrown]

From two many remarks, I note that [Board index ‹ Mozilla Thunderbird ‹ Thunderbird Features] is not for remarks about Thunderbird Features..
Given Thunderbird.Help menu doesn't have a direction for comments to devs and I've better to do than play hide and seek, I shall leave it at that.

[tanstaafl]

"is not for remarks about Thunderbird Features.. "

No. This forum is an appropriate place to discuss features you want. However, your expectation should be that its a way to get help from others users by their making suggestions on how to try to implement that using features you didn't know about, by editing settings, by installing add-ons, editing userChrome.css, referring you to related bug reports etc. It is not a place to submit enhancement/change requests to the developers. That you can do by filing a bug report with a severity set to enhancement request at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/home . You can improve you chances of the bug report not being ignored/denied by being extremely specific about what you want, and explaining why it would be useful for many users.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Search_-_Thunderbird mentions some add-ons that you might find useful.

[wsmwk]

@tanstaafl, can "Mozilla" be removed from the various Thunderbird forum titles? (I hadn't really thought about it until David mentioned it.)

[tanstaafl]

@wswmk

Only the admin can do that. However he is too busy to deal with most requests unless its a emergency (forums or KB are down). I've been trying to get him to update the KB software for over a decade, for example. I don't know what he would think of that request since we already have a sidebar that says: "mozillaZine is an independent Mozilla community and advocacy site. We're not affiliated or endorsed by the Mozilla Corporation but we love them just the same.", and Mozilla is part of the product name.

[wsmwk]

Unfortunate that. But again, we have nothing to do with Mozilla corporation. At one time, yes. But long gone.

[Snake4]

Unfortunate that. But again, we have nothing to do with Mozilla corporation. At one time, yes. But long gone.

just wondering whether its worth having a " Thunderbird.next " thread on the neowin forum?