Ctrl+ F is a standard keyboard shortcut to search in MS- Office, browsers and most of
the standard applications.
Just try it out….
You will see the forward mail window rather than the ‘Find’ pop-up/ search box, the read
mail window will remain open in the background.
So in MS – Outlook, one of the Microsoft applications to search you need to press F4 and
not Ctrl+F…!! :)
Apart from that just press Ctrl+F …
- On the mailbox (root for inbox etc...); you will get a find box.
- On the inbox (root for folders), you will not see any response.
- While browsing through your mails in a folder, you will see a forward mail window for the selected mail.
- In a new/forward mail window and the find pop-up will come up.
This is one of the biggest examples of inconsistency..!!
5 comments:
Consitency is a component of a usable interface. So is relevance.
1. For an email, CTRL-F is mapped to the "fordwarding" action. This action is much more relevant than searching. I mean how many times do you end up searching 'inside' an email?
2. Searching within a document or spreadsheet or web page is a common usage.
Hence CTRL-F being mapped to Find is accurate.
3. It is important to understand the three scenarios that you are calling inconsistent
(a) When you click on the Mailbox, you are performing action on a collection of documents (emails, appointments, tasks, reminders) and search is relevant
(b) When you click on the inbox, notice this very carefully, two things happen in rapid succession. The inbox gets the focus and then the focus is transferred to a mail inside it. So the live object is an email and hence CTRL-F instantiates a forward. Which is absolutely how it should be.
(c) I could not validate the third scenario (Search pop up in a new mail window. So no comments)
Ergo, I do not consider this to inconsistency.
(BTW, The F in CTRL-F seemed correct as the usage of the word FIND was much more prevanent than SEARCHbut then it is too much of a muscle memory to try and change it)
Here is another way to look at the problem. Lets say you were building an offline blog writer (like http://get.live.com/betas/writer_betas)
Would you map the CTRL - P to print or publish?
Sunil, I agree with you that in this application, forward function is used more than find function.
But within one application, a shortcut should perform one function. If we are using Ctrl + F for forwarding then it should always do the same irrespective of where we are performing the function. In MS outlook, Ctrl+F is for forwarding the mails, then the functions its performing should not be changed again and again. Otherwise its can be difficult for a user to figure out what Ctrl+ F is going to perform.
According to me, to be consistent in one application a shortcut should perform only one function.
Application is too broad a scope. I would stay with context.
Mailbox as the selected item Vs Mail each as individuals should define indivisual and relevant experiences.
Ctrl-F behavior in outlook is maddening. Rationalize it however you want. But it's inconsistent with the rest of the world and that makes it a very stupid choice.
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