Bug 150205

Summary:	De-emphasize freetext search
Product:	LibreOffice	Reporter:	Mike Kaganski <mikekaganski>
Component:	Documentation	Assignee:	Not Assigned <libreoffice-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED WONTFIX
Severity:	normal	CC:	olivier.hallot
Priority:	medium
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	All
OS:	All
URL:	https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/how-to-show-hide-hidden-text-in-writer/80051/10
Whiteboard:
Crash report or crash signature:		Regression By:

Description Mike Kaganski 2022-07-31 06:42:31 UTC

In our help, the topmost bar (with product name, module and language selectors) has also a freetext search box (using "Omega Search" engine).

Personally I never found it useful (also before the engine switch, when it used Google search IIRC); the relevance of results was always awful. On the other side, Index search gives *much* better results in my experience.

I realize that my use might not be the most typical; but e.g. https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/how-to-show-hide-hidden-text-in-writer/80051/10 shows that others may be hit by that, too.

So the proposal is to de-emphasize somehow the freetext search, to be secondary to Index search.

Comment 1 ajlittoz 2022-07-31 06:59:53 UTC

Off topic: is this freetext search Windows-specific? I never met it under my Linux configuration (Fedora).

Comment 2 Olivier Hallot 2022-08-01 05:00:47 UTC

(In reply to ajlittoz from comment #1)
> Off topic: is this freetext search Windows-specific? I never met it under my
> Linux configuration (Fedora).

No, it is only available in the online version of the Help (together with the Language selector)

Comment 3 Olivier Hallot 2022-09-02 15:28:26 UTC

I consider the free text search on the top of the Help online (Omega search) as a benefit for the end-user.

It is an entry point for the occasional search on a given topic. User can navigate then and use the Index search after. Help pages provide hyperlinks for navigation and there is also the Contents tree that helps the user.

I am setting this ticket as WONTFIX.