Re: Notes regarding implementing a Searchbar into Abiword

Hi Alan,

> If you are using a whole seperate toolbar why not include a box for
> Replace as well as find?

I see this as a search-only bar.

> Having the same icon for Find Next and Find previous doesn't seem like a
> good idea at all. You'd be better off using the stock Next and Previous
> icons rather than using a search icon.

Sorry, I did not mention that the current icons are only to show the button
positions. To use Next and Previous icons sounds like a good idea.

> I still think it would be better to fix the Find and Replace dialog so
> that it doesn't get in the way and block your search results.

The Find and Replace dialog box will always take part of your document view.

> I'm sure I will keep using the Find and Replace dialog unless this this
> toolbar works differently to (or in some way better than) the Find and
> Replace dialog, it would need to do something extra like highlight all the
> matches or something.

I do not know if we can do highlighting without modifying the document. Is
this possible?

> I dont use abiword for viewing documents all that often, mostly for
> creating and editing them (then converting to html or pdf usually) but I
> can see a toolbar like this would much more useful in an "Abiword Viewer",
> and if I had abiword embedded in my browser window* this would be a
> feature I'd be more likely to use.
> I dont think there is anything wrong with the idea but unless it is
> replacing the Find and Replace dialog (which I dont actualy want) I cannot
> help feeling it would be redundant to include it.

I do not think that replacing the find and replace dialog box with a toolbar
is possible because most likely Abiword in the future will add more features
to the Search/Replace dialog box. If you look into other word processors there
are still a few useful things that can be implemented.

I understand your feelings but I think that giving to the users both options
is a good thing. I do not believe that we are overbloating Abiword doing this,
specially because Search that is common function.

I honestly believe that this is a useful feature for our users and I have seen
other people that thinks in the same lines. If there is more people that
thinks that is not useful I'm ok with forgetting about it and move to other
issues in Abiword (like fixing more bugs). I do not have a personal attachment
to the idea, I just think that is useful.

Thanks for your comments

-- 
Jordi Mas i Hernàndez
Homepage and LiveJournal at http://www.softcatala.org/~jmas