UI: Search All Menus with Space Bar #113299

Harley Acheson · 2023-10-05T19:29:46+02:00

Harley Acheson commented

2023-10-05 19:29:46 +02:00

Allow initiating the search of any named menu by pressing space bar.

This seems like a simpler, and less invasive, alternative to #112925 since this does not remove the use of accelerators.

This PR removes the menu option SEARCH_ON_KEY_PRESS and the SearchOnKeyPress MenuTypeFlag, allowing search for all named menus by pressing spacebar while the menu is open. By "named" I mean that the menu has a name, like "VIEW3D_MT_object_context_menu" for example. So this works on pulldown menus in the Top Bar and elsewhere, context menus, "Add" menus, etc. This also works in the File / Open Recent list if you press spacebar while that menu is open.

This shows "Press spacebar to search..." in the status bar, but otherwise there is no other indication of this feature. The thought is that this is likely to become known over time since it applies to all menus.

Note that this doesn't work for unnamed menus and those that are enum lists. So not from the Editor selection menu or Mode Menu. It works for "Frame Rate" but not for "File Format". It works great for the "Add Modifiers" menu.

Allow initiating the search of any named menu by pressing space bar. --- This seems like a simpler, and less invasive, alternative to #112925 since this does not remove the use of accelerators. This PR removes the menu option SEARCH_ON_KEY_PRESS and the SearchOnKeyPress MenuTypeFlag, allowing search for all named menus by pressing spacebar while the menu is open. By "named" I mean that the menu has a name, like "VIEW3D_MT_object_context_menu" for example. So this works on pulldown menus in the Top Bar and elsewhere, context menus, "Add" menus, etc. This also works in the File / Open Recent list if you press spacebar while that menu is open. This shows "Press spacebar to search..." in the status bar, but otherwise there is no other indication of this feature. The thought is that this is likely to become known over time since it applies to all menus. Note that this doesn't work for unnamed menus and those that are enum lists. So not from the Editor selection menu or Mode Menu. It works for "Frame Rate" but not for "File Format". It works great for the "Add Modifiers" menu.

❤️ 8 🎉 1 🚀 1

Harley Acheson added 1 commit 2023-10-05 19:29:57 +02:00

a03956ac41 UI: Search All Menus with Space Bar

Allow initiating the search of any named menu by pressing space bar.

Harley Acheson added this to the User Interface project 2023-10-05 19:30:07 +02:00

Harley Acheson requested review from Pablo Vazquez 2023-10-05 19:30:16 +02:00

Harley Acheson added 1 commit 2023-10-05 19:34:25 +02:00

39dd7ef66f "Press spacebar to search..."

Harley Acheson added 1 commit 2023-10-05 19:48:06 +02:00

491d85fbef Remove "Find..." from Node context menu

Harley Acheson requested review from Julian Eisel 2023-10-06 03:13:49 +02:00

Harley Acheson requested review from Dalai Felinto 2023-10-06 03:14:27 +02:00

Dalai Felinto commented

2023-10-06 10:38:44 +02:00

I think for this to work, the search should take into consideration which menu is under the mouse (where the active item is), not which (sub-) menu is open.

Right now:

I open a menu.
I look around trying to find what I want.
Meanwhile Blender promptly opens a sub-menu based on where I left my mouse idle.
Now I press SPACEBAR and only that random sub-menu is open.

That means if I happened to mouse over an enum, I can't even use SPACEBAR (since anonymous menus are not supported):

Even worse is for menus that have mostly sub-menus (e.g., Geometry Nodes add). There I need to mouse the mouse to the "Title" of the menu in order to get search to search all sub-menus.

I think for this to work, the search should take into consideration which menu is under the mouse (where the active item is), not which (sub-) menu is open. Right now: 1. I open a menu. 2. I look around trying to find what I want. 3. Meanwhile Blender promptly opens a sub-menu based on where I left my mouse idle. 4. Now I press SPACEBAR and only that random sub-menu is open. That means if I happened to mouse over an enum, I can't even use SPACEBAR (since anonymous menus are not supported): ![image](/attachments/f9f95b80-bd35-40d8-b151-c23872d26a55) Even worse is for menus that have mostly sub-menus (e.g., Geometry Nodes add). There I need to mouse the mouse to the "Title" of the menu in order to get search to search all sub-menus.

image.png

63 KiB

👍 1

Dalai Felinto requested changes 2023-10-06 10:40:57 +02:00

Dalai Felinto left a comment

Requesting changes ...

Pablo Vazquez reviewed 2023-10-06 11:56:47 +02:00

scripts/startup/bl_ui/space_node.py Outdated

						
				@ -565,10 +564,6 @@ class NODE_MT_context_menu(Menu):

				            layout.separator()

				            layout.operator("node.find_node", text="Find...", icon='VIEWZOOM')

Pablo Vazquez commented

2023-10-06 11:56:47 +02:00

Any reason for removing this? Find is different than Search.
Search adds new nodes while Find looks up the tree for matching node names (or custom labels even).

Any reason for removing this? `Find` is different than `Search`. `Search` adds new nodes while `Find` looks up the tree for matching node names (or custom labels even).

Harley marked this conversation as resolved

Pablo Vazquez commented

2023-10-06 15:48:20 +02:00

To make the text in the status bar more prominent and at the same time consistent with the rest, the text could include the space bar icon and Press to search in menu or simply a description of the operator, like Search in Menu.

Maybe now is also a good time to add a help text mentioning accelerator keys? Press the underlined key to trigger item or something along those lines.

To make the text in the status bar more prominent and at the same time consistent with the rest, the text could include the space bar icon and `Press to search in menu` or simply a description of the operator, like `Search in Menu`. ![Status bar](/attachments/607cde8b-4ec0-47a6-ac72-20a3c39c0302) Maybe now is also a good time to add a help text mentioning accelerator keys? `Press the underlined key to trigger item` or something along those lines.

image.png

2.1 KiB

Harley Acheson added 1 commit 2023-10-06 17:53:02 +02:00

2e9e2c404f Putting "Find" back in Node Context Menu. Search only in activated menu.

Harley Acheson added 1 commit 2023-10-06 17:55:34 +02:00

buildbot/vexp-code-patch-coordinator Build done. Details

e9c3c08c6c Accidental whitespace removal

Harley Acheson commented

2023-10-06 18:13:27 +02:00

@dfelinto - search should take into consideration which menu is under the mouse

It does exactly that now.

@pablovazquez Any reason for removing this?

Sorry, I put that back in. I only removed it by misunderstanding your comment about "No menu entry to indicate/trigger search". This was the only existing thing I could find. I realize now you were talking of some of our proposals to add such items, not about existing items,

the text could include the space bar icon

Unfortunately this type of status text can only contain text. The kind that shows icons is something that is generated from keymap data and we can't create that explicitly. Interestingly I did once propose being able to use our icons within ordinary text strings, but there was some limitations with it. https://archive.blender.org/developer/D8993

Maybe now is also a good time to add a help text mentioning accelerator keys? Press the underlined key to trigger item or something along those lines.

I didn't do this (yet), mainly because I couldn't think of text I liked there and wanted to update this PR. Some text I tried also seemed to give an impression that the second sentence relates to the first. Like there are two steps to searching:

"Press spacebar to search. Press underlined letters to activate items."

> @dfelinto - search should take into consideration which menu is under the mouse It does exactly that now. > @pablovazquez Any reason for removing this? Sorry, I put that back in. I only removed it by misunderstanding your comment about "No menu entry to indicate/trigger search". This was the only existing thing I could find. I realize now you were talking of some of our proposals to add such items, not about existing items, > the text could include the space bar icon Unfortunately this type of status text can only contain text. The kind that shows icons is something that is generated from keymap data and we can't create that explicitly. Interestingly I did once propose being able to use our icons within ordinary text strings, but there was some limitations with it. https://archive.blender.org/developer/D8993 > Maybe now is also a good time to add a help text mentioning accelerator keys? Press the underlined key to trigger item or something along those lines. I didn't do this (yet), mainly because I couldn't think of text I liked there and wanted to update this PR. Some text I tried also seemed to give an impression that the second sentence relates to the first. Like there are two steps to searching: "Press spacebar to search. Press underlined letters to activate items."

Dalai Felinto commented

2023-10-06 19:00:10 +02:00

@blender-bot package

Blender Bot commented

2023-10-06 19:00:13 +02:00

Package build started. Download here when ready.

Package build started. [Download here](https://builder.blender.org/download/patch/PR113299) when ready.

Harley Acheson added 1 commit 2023-10-06 22:22:01 +02:00

342a71c40f Search parent if the child cannot be.

Harley Acheson added 1 commit 2023-10-06 22:24:01 +02:00

00346ff088 Improved comment

Harley Acheson commented

2023-10-06 22:38:16 +02:00

@dfelinto - search should take into consideration which menu is under the mouse

I just made a small adjustment to this. Hard to explain in words, but simple in practice. The last change could be described as "search the parent if a child menu is open but not active". This PR now alters that to add an "or if the child is not searchable".

In a nutshell this menu searching feature works on menus that have names and therefore can be individually identified and found. Enum menus can't be individually searched, but their items can be seen when searching a parent. So when hovering over a child enum menu, search the parent.

In case I have not explained this well, in the earlier version of this PR you could open the 3D Viewport "Object" menu, then open "Set Origin". That submenu cannot be individually searched, so nothing would happen. With this PR now, pressing spacebar will search the parent menu and therefore you can still search for, and select from, the items on the submenu.

> @dfelinto - search should take into consideration which menu is under the mouse I just made a small adjustment to this. Hard to explain in words, but simple in practice. The last change could be described as "search the parent if a child menu is open but not active". This PR now alters that to add an "or if the child is not searchable". In a nutshell this menu searching feature works on menus that have names and therefore can be individually identified and found. Enum menus can't be _individually_ searched, but their items can be seen when searching a parent. So when hovering over a child **enum** menu, search the parent. In case I have not explained this well, in the earlier version of this PR you could open the 3D Viewport "Object" menu, then open "Set Origin". That submenu cannot be individually searched, so nothing would happen. With this PR now, pressing spacebar will search the parent menu and therefore you can still search for, and select from, the items on the submenu.

👍 2

Pablo Vazquez commented

2023-10-07 15:33:56 +02:00

In a nutshell this menu searching feature works on menus that have names and therefore can be individually identified and found. Enum menus can't be individually searched, but their items can be seen when searching a parent. So when hovering over a child enum menu, search the parent.

I think this is a good compromise, a bit inconsistent because from the user's point of view there's no visible difference between a menu like Transform and an enum like Set Origin or Editor dropdown. But usable nonetheless for the time being and miles better than what we have in main.

Thanks for working on it! From my side I think with this last commit this feature is ready to go.

> In a nutshell this menu searching feature works on menus that have names and therefore can be individually identified and found. Enum menus can't be _individually_ searched, but their items can be seen when searching a parent. So when hovering over a child **enum** menu, search the parent. I think this is a good compromise, a bit inconsistent because from the user's point of view there's no visible difference between a menu like `Transform` and an enum like `Set Origin` or `Editor` dropdown. But usable nonetheless for the time being and miles better than what we have in main. Thanks for working on it! From my side I think with this last commit this feature is ready to go.

Pablo Vazquez added the

Module

User Interface

label 2023-10-07 15:34:22 +02:00

Pablo Vazquez approved these changes 2023-10-07 15:34:38 +02:00

Dalai Felinto approved these changes 2023-10-08 14:17:50 +02:00

thorn-neverwake commented

2023-10-08 15:55:40 +02:00

First-time contributor

Is there any concern that because the spacebar is a default hotkey for "play animation" - and relatively easy to even hit by accident, that a user is going to misplace their cursor when attempting to search? This can cause large problems, when dealing with frame-specific edits.

👍 1

Harley Acheson referenced this issue from a commit

2023-10-09 16:56:25 +02:00

UI: Search All Menus with Space Bar

Harley Acheson merged commit 35d3d52508 into blender-v4.0-release

2023-10-09 16:56:25 +02:00

Harley Acheson deleted branch SpacebarSearch

2023-10-09 16:56:27 +02:00

Harley Acheson referenced this pull request

2023-10-09 21:20:17 +02:00

UI: Add Preference to Instant Search in all Menus #112925

Joseph Hansen commented

2023-10-10 16:32:55 +02:00

First-time contributor

Why is the above concern about Spacebar being used for animation playback not being addressed? There’s nothing in this PR or on dev talk about how this shortcut interacts with that functionality, is this just an oversight? This needs to be addressed, ASAP.

Daniel Salazar commented

2023-10-11 08:51:21 +02:00

Hiding the ubiquitous search function under spacebar instead of typing right away is horrible. Multiply this by 100s of times a day.

👍 3

YimingWu commented

2023-10-11 08:52:01 +02:00

This change is still pretty confusing... we already have confused people reporting it like #113528 :/

Ludvik Koutny commented

2023-10-11 09:58:30 +02:00

Having to press two unique keys to start searching is UX nightmare.
The industry standard for search in most of content creation software is Tab key, so of course in Blender it will be Spacebar. 😠

1. Having to press two unique keys to start searching is UX nightmare. 2. The industry standard for search in most of content creation software is Tab key, so of course in Blender it will be Spacebar. 😠

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UI: Search All Menus with Space Bar #113299