Comment 38 for bug 691380

> - Having quick filter and global search in one box was confusing and
> undiscoverable; it was difficult to use because you would have to change
> dropdown options each time between local filter and global search (unless we
> implement some sort of potentially difficult magic to distinguish between the
> two, like ctrl+enter and such, see existing bugs)

Honestly, I never had any issues with it. For me it was always very intuitive and I would change the pull-down filters accordingly and always get the results I wanted. I would also show users in our organization how to use it and they picked it up really quickly. The previous search bar seemed to work in a similar fashion to Mac Mail, if I remember correctly, and that's really the kind of common-denominator user you need to look at. Kinda like the iPhone, it's limited compared to Android, but they're able to pull it off because most users never need the really advanced features. It doesn't mean those advanced features shouldn't be available, it just means that they can be efficiently hidden as the power users will be able to find them while conveniently keeping them out of the way for the average user.

> - the old system of picking a predefined quick filter set of criteria from
> dropdown list was perceived by some as very inefficient and bulky. To provide
> all options for everyone, you need a list of about 10 different options (wild
> guessing), too many anyway, considering that all we want is any arbitrary
> combination of just 4 criteria: sender, recipient, subject, body. That's why we
> now have the much easier system of secondary toolbar with those 4 criteria to
> toggle and fine-tune results after the fact.

I'd be curios how many (and what type) of people were seeing it as inefficient and bulky. I've been pushing Thunderbird out in our organization and my users have picked it up very quickly and really enjoyed the functionality of the quick search bar because I'd make sure to show them that it was there. I bet none of them would even change the filters because by default it searched the needed criteria for 90% of the users. They were not power users and don't want to futz around with advanced features as they wouldn't use them anyways so it fit the bill just right.

Right now the new setup is very good for a power user that really wants to get in there and dial in their search - but power users are usually the minority. The average user just wants to type in their query and see a listing of messages that matched the filter.

I would recommend trying to figure out a way to unify the two search boxes because two is really confusing (my UI friend just said the same thing when I showed it to him). Then if you really don't like the pull-down in the search box like in previous version, put a "criteria" button next to the search box so that they user can customize how their search is made. The real-estate is there and it doesn't waste needed real-estate elsewhere.