Omnibar UI question: how to get back to search term after selecting a note?

jmck

Hi everyone,

I am currently evaluating The Archive after years of managing all my notes in a folder full of markdown files which I editu using BBEdit. After just a little light search and replace in that fine app, I was able to get all my notes into The Archive with some hashtags already applied, etc.

I like the simplicity and responsiveness of this app, but right now I have one UI issue about how the Omnibar works. In the screen grab below, I entered the word "Vacation" into the Omnibar, and as you can see I got five hits, and I have selected the second one.

My issue in this screen shot is that it is impossible to tell what the original search term was, as the Omnibar is filled in with the name of the note. I think it would be clearer if the omnibar still read "vacation," although that goes against the grain of the Notational Velocity way I guess... not that I remember how any other NV type app has solved this issue.

What do you think? Should I just get used to it?

Will

@jmck, I'm not sure why you are not seeing the persistent search term. Maybe this is a new feature not yet available in the Stable Release. I looked at the preferences and the view options and didn't see what might turn this feature on.

I followed you and "I entered the word "vacation" into the Omnibar, and as you can see I got four hits, and I have selected the third one." and I get a persistent "vacation" in the window title.

Maybe @ctietze has an idea why this is this way.

jmck

Ah, thanks for your response. I wasn't even looking at the title bar, but I do see that yours is different. I think that is a tolerable solution. By the way, I am running Version 1.7.7 (204).

Will

1.7.7 (204) is the same version I'm running. The only difference is I'm running a registered version and the window title bar in your example is taken up with the 45 trial days left message.

Ubaldo_Passamonti

Hi @jmck @Will and everyone I am running1.7.7 (204), registered version. In my case, I can't see the search term ("gaslight") if only 1 tab is shown (screenshot 1). If I open a new tab (2) or a new window (3) the title bar in the first tab correctly shows the search term.

Will

@Ubaldo_Passamonti, great catch! I run The Archive in two windows at all times and hadn't noticed this benefit. By the way, you have some fancy "Saved Search" icons.

jmck

Well — I can see The Archive has a sharp and active user base, that's a plus. I can now duplicate what @Ubaldo_Passamonti and @Will see in their app.

I would just suggest as a feature that the app behave this way even in single-window, single-tab mode.

Thanks for your help!

pryley

On the cutting edge channel, I only see the titlebar text change if the tab bar is visible. If not, the title bar only shows "The Archive" and this does not change.

GeoEng51

I have the same comment as @pryley - the only way the search term is persistent is if I have the "view - show all tabs" option active. Otherwise, I only see "The Archive" in the title bar.

By the way, don't type a search term in the omnibar and then hit "enter", or you'll get a new note with that name.

Will

You will get the search term in the title bar when you select the menu item Window -> New Tab and when you select Window -> New Window.

I find it easy to keep work in context by opening a new window and tiling the windows rather than using tabs.

GeoEng51

@Will said:
You will get the search term in the title bar when you select the menu item Window -> New Tab and when you select Window -> New Window.

I find it easy to keep work in context by opening a new window and tiling the windows rather than using tabs.

That works - thanks, @Will . I know you have talked about using two windows before, but I've never followed up on it. I'll give it a go, now.

ctietze

@pryley said:
On the cutting edge channel, I only see the titlebar text change if the tab bar is visible. If not, the title bar only shows "The Archive" and this does not change.

Yeah, that's basically the designed behavior at the moment. (With some fixes to make this work more reliably incoming.)

@jmck
Going back from the title of the currently selected note to the search is on my to-do list.