Disable automatic switch between "verses" & "words" in search field

[AccordionCraig]

I've recently encountered something I find very annoying.  I wanted to open the book of Song of Solomon, so I typed Sol or Songs or SS into the search field and Accordance automatically changed from "verses" to "words" and performed a word search.  I had to keep changing back to "verses" and trying to guess what book abbreviation would work until I finally landed on Song.  I would appreciate it if you would remove any automatic shifting between "verses" and "words."  Please leave it to the user to decide if s/he wants to look up a reference or a word/phrase.

Thank you!

[Joe Weaks]

That's a bug.  That's not supposed to happen.

Type in 'mark' and it looks up the verse for 'mark', etc.

 

Can you find of any other book for which this happens?

 

I thought in Accordance/Preferences/Search Tabs, you'd find an option to disable auto-detect (=lookup a word if this isn't a valid book name), like there is for "flex search", but there's not. I think that would be a good option.

[Joel Brown]

This is the first we've heard of a problem with the automatic switching.  If it fails to find a verse, either it can complain, or it can do something useful - for the vast majority of our users, vast majority of the time, it is good that it switches.

 

If you are interested in finding a book abbreviation, you can always do Display -> List All Book Names.

[Joe Weaks]

Joel,

 

With searching set to [Verses], and when I search for 'song', it switches to [Words] and does a search. 'Song' is the abbreviation for Song of Solomon. This is no way this should be case-sensitive (dependent). Has it always been that way?

 

If I search for the capitalized 'Song', it works fine. But when I'm set for [Verses], should I really have to type 'Song' instead of 'song', 'Mark' instead of 'mark', etc?  I can search for 'mk' and get Mark.

Edited May 17, 2016 by Joe Weaks

[Joel Brown]

There is no bug.  This switch to words is only occurring because you have Quick Entry open, and when you type 'song' it exactly matches that word, so it considers it a better choice than the book name 'Song'.  You can always cancel out of Quick Entry with the escape key, or select the book name with the mouse.

[Joe Weaks]

Right, it's not a bug. I realize now it is an unfortunate side effect of when Accordance implemented the quick entry feature. I knew this could not have always been the case. I have never paid attention to the Quick Entry popup, and have obviously trained my self to just ignore it altogether. I don't think I've ever used it in any meaningful way. But now that I'm paying attention to how it works, the current situation is unfortunate.

This is what I hear you saying: 

"Now that we've implemented the Quick Entry box, you just need to…"

 

1. "…make the effort to followup your typing by hitting the escape key to remove a popup if you're ignoring it…", or

2. "…pay attention to the popup, decipher the list and mouseover to the item you want…"

 

"…in order to get the search to simply accept what you are actually typing as if it is the search you want."

 

That's not good.

 

It looks like the search entry box prioritizes a match under the "Verses" section, over an identical match in "Words", until it gets a complete  exclusive match in the "Words" section. This makes sense to me.

 

However, it seems to me that making the search case-sensitive is the wrong approach, because it creates problems with book names that are also words in the text.

 

I can type "genesis" or "john" or "luke" or "romans" and hit return without engaging higher level thinking regarding the steps you're mentioning and get the book I want, but I can't do the same typing "song" or "job" or "psalm" or "proverb" or "mark" or "mat" or "revelation" etc.  

If my window is set to search for verses, and I can't simply type "mat" or "song" and get the book I expect, then that's a design fail, and inconsistency in the work flow, where I think we can do better.

 

I think the benefits of having the Quick Entry box case sensitive are minuscule compared to the otherwise resulting confusing inconsistency on how to quickly lookup a book. How often are people searching for capitalized versions of common words and rely on the Quick Entry box's case-sensitive approach to speed along their process? Not near as often as users are typing "psalm" and expecting to be brought to the psalms, I would think. And remember, we're talking about when the search is set to find [Verses] even.

 

Another option to consider, which I would advocate for, would be prioritizing matches in the "Words" section of the Quick Entry box if [Words] is the current search mode.

Edited May 17, 2016 by Joe Weaks

[Ken Simpson]

Hi Joe, don’t forget you can disable Quick Entry if you wish (and I usually do) in the preferences

 

[Joe Weaks]

Great, Ken. I never 'forgot' it since never knew it. I've never paid attention to the Quick Entry. The Appearance Tab seems pretty random. I guess it was hard to figure out where to place it since it applies boxes other than a Search window, which is where I looked. We really need a search feature in the now-massive collection of Preferences window tabs.

 

I do think the Quick Entry box is a cool feature to have added. Just really needs detailed attention to 'how' it works to avoid the above, unnecessary problems.

[Mike Garrity]

We really need a search feature in the now-massive collection of Preferences window tabs.

 

Interesting request, but the best resource for associating Accordance terms (Quick Entry) to functionality/interface is the Help. (To find the preference, you probably would not know the term “quick entry”)

 

Mike

[Λύχνις Δαν]

I'm pretty sure search for prefs has been requested before and I agree it would be a welcome addition.

 

Tx

D