On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:22:45 +0100 Enrico Tröger enrico.troeger@uvena.de wrote:
Nick suggested "Maybe just a keybinding to focus the search box that sets a reverse search flag, which is cleared when the search box loses focus would be enough." So, I think the keybinding would be the major way of using it. Anyway, I also think we need some kind of visible indication that the incremental search is in backwards mode.
I'm not sure we need an indication if the backwards mode is reset once the focus leaves the search bar - the user can remember they pressed the search backward keybinding.
I could think of an additional button between the search box and the search button in the toolbar (even if this would bloat it a little more). This additional button would be a toggle button, which is in normal state (unpressed) if the usual forward incremental search is active, and it will be toggled(pressed) when the keybinding is pressed or the user pressed the button directly. So, you can quickly see in which mode the incremental search would work, the button indicates it. But it's just an idea.
I'm not sure a toggle button would be good. Perhaps having 2 buttons, like this: [ search text ] [ B ] [ F ] Where B is for search backwards and F forwards. This would be quicker to use than having to check the toggle button is set correctly before using the find button.
Another alternative is to use the existing find button to mean search backward when holding Shift, saving an extra button, but this has no visual indication or discoverability. Having an extra button would be best IMO.
Regards, Nick