Description: 1. Find-ing is conceptually identical to Replace-ing. - They share the same options & features, - They do the same action. - a separate, different dialog formats is confusing, it impacts learning in an already complicated software, impaacts usability, and doesn't contribute anything positive in return. 2. I suggest using the same dialog, - in "Find-Only" mode, hide dialog controls related to "Replace" - in "replace" mode, show / unhide them. 3. search bar kills usability in multiple areas. 3.a. it is barely noticed, overlooked, 3.b. it takes focus, but novice users wouldn't see where it is. 3.c. if it looses focus, it's more difficult to return the focus to it (as opposed to Alt-Tabl for a "real" dialog). 3.d. its options are NOT accessible via keyboard Alt-X combination. Users must rever to mouse to activate /select / check its options. 3.e. it's limited in options - there's no screen asset for all essentia & desired options for this feature. 4. INACCESSIBLE but important & useful features, when using the current "find" dialog: - current selection only - Regex - similarity search - wild cards - diacritic. these are important useful tools Steps to Reproduce: 1. Find text. 2. Replace text Actual Results: critical features are missing in Find bar. all of the above mentions reasons related to different UI. Expected Results: One Dialog To Control Them All. Same UI, same acceleration keys within the dialog (e.g. Alt-F) Reproducible: Always User Profile Reset: Yes Additional Info: see for example, suggestion #129781: "find in current selection" https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=129781
UX-team, it's one for you
There is a 'Find' TOOLBAR <Ctrl>+F, and a 'Find & Replace' DIALOG <Ctrl>+H. They have similar search function, but implement them in line with intended use. The find toolbar is intended to present simple and convenient search, and can be made available with no affect on the GUI (access with mouse or keyboard (F6) movements). The find & replace dialog is intended to be heavy weight and more robust--including performing replacements. See no functional benefit to be gained by combining them, and a lot of UX churn in trying to merge them into a toolbar/dialog with some mix of contextual behavior. IMHO a clear => WF -1
Seems no real benefit. Both simple find bar and complex find dialog have their purpose. -1 for this request.
We discussed the topic in the design meeting. The workflow is to quickly find one or more places without considering special cases, which is done with the search dialog. The quick find toolbar should remain simple (we should rather remove the Whole words only option than adding more). So the verdict is WF. See also bug 72080. We should make the ctrl+H search and the ctrl+F find functionality completely independent, as reported in bug 115665.