I want to have the Search window popping up separately, just the way it has been.
It seemed to me it was the “change for the sake of change”. It didn’t improve any usability.
I like it better this way. I used to have to open the search window and resize it so I could still see my reference list, now it is already done for me, with one click.
I am getting used to it. I understand some of the reasoning behind it, and I don’t think it was just a change for change’s sake. The number of times my colleagues (yes, even myself) “lost” the search pane, or were searching the wrong library vs. online resource…
Three months later since I posted this by myself, I’m also getting used to it. The thing I’m still frustrated is the location of the “Search” button. Since I work sometime with 24 inch monitor, sometime with laptop, the search button tends to “hide” down below. Of course, I can bring it back, but I have to do it everytime and I get grumpy if things are not going well. All I want is probably big monitors wherever I go.
Best regards,
This change came out of a formal usability test done last year by a very well-respected third party consulting group. The integration of the Search dialog into the main Library window was one of the specific recommendation the consultants made.
We have not done a formal follow-up study to completely validate the change but the overall feedback has been very positive.
Jason Rollins, the EndNote team
Thank you Jason.
I’m just a person who doesn’t tend to accept new ways, and insist “old fashioned way is better” kind of person. So, the change is probably a better for most of users.
By the way, when I want to switch “search within a group” and “search for entire library” back and forth, I have to click the group pane on the left each time. The pull down menu on the right gives me either “search whole group” or “search whole library”.
Do you think you could include “search whole library” in the pull down menu, even I’m in a group search mode, and selecting the option swing me to the “All References” on the left?
Also, I want “Restore default” as an independent button. I frequently do the multiple-keyword search, and want to erase all of them. I have to go to “restore default” from the pull down menu each time.
These things are just about my search habits. So if you could listen to it, that’s great, but may benefit others and total usability as well.
Best regards,
I like it better this way. I find it much easier to work with
Sorry to disagree, but I don’t like the integrated Preview-Search pane at all, since the Search Pane uses much more screen “real estate” than the Preview. I use preview all the time and the big tabs clutter up the library window. Especially on a notebook screen this is an issue.
Suggestions:
Perhaps this could be made a user-selectable option (in preferences) to either have the Search pane integrated with Preview or to have it stand-alone as it used to be in X1 and previous versions?
Another option would be to automatically return the pane to Preview size after the search is done. right now, it needs to be manually resized after each search. And reduce the size of the menu tabs on that pane.