Returning from a file search to the page containing the result is tricky.

[ubacher]

I am displaying a folder with about 1000 files.
I enter "1130" into the search field to find the file by this name.
The file is found and displayed.
I select the found file (wide yellow frame around the thumb).
I then click the X to cancel the search.
Now all files are displayed starting at the top.
If I now press Ctrl G-O I expected to see the selected file.
Nothing happens. It is necessary to first click the M&F window title bar
to make Ctrl G-O work! Not logical – is it?


But the logical action would actually be to directly display the page containing
the selected file once the file search is cancelled.

[Mario]

Not logical – is it?

Old-style or experimental mode?

You click a button in the toolbar or ribbon. Windows removes the focus from the File Window window and sets it to the button window. Ribbons can be navigated using the keyboard.

But the logical action would actually be to directly display the page containing
the selected file once the file search is cancelled.

Might be!?

The user searches for files with specific metadata. 200 files are returned by the search.
The user scrolls the File window, looking over the result. The user cancels the search. The File Window scrolls to a totally different position to bring the focused file (or first selected file, when there is no focused file) visible.

User is pi**ed since he has lost track of the images he was looking at...

Not sure.

I could forcefully set the focus back to the File Window when the user cancels the search by clicking the button.
Assuming if he clicks it and does not trigger the action via the SPACE key.

Which could interfere when the user is canceling the search with the keyboard, expecting the ribbon to retain the focus so he can navigate to other controls or the search bar.

[ubacher]

Experimental mode!

The problem is that after cancelling the search (clicking the red X over the loupe), the M&F window looses focus - and there is no visual indication of this. ** Wrong: I just noticed that the background gray of the M&F window changes
to a somewhat different shade! For me indistinguishable.

Because of this lack of focus Ctrl G-O does nothing.

I just discovered: If the search is cancelled by clicking on the Loupe icon in the M&F header
then the window does NOT loose focus!

....User is pi**ed since he has lost track of the images he was looking at...

I don't think so - since the user selected the/a found file he surely wants to see those.

[Mario]

First: This is not really a bug report. It's a BBD (behavior by design).

I have pondered this for IMatch 2024/2025 (ribbons are part of that code base and will soon leave experimental mode).

Ribbons, in order to support advanced accessibility for users with limitations, support keyboard navigation.
Clicking into the ribbon sets the focus to the ribbon and you can then navigate between elements using <Tab> or <Shift>+<Tab>. Pressing SPACE on a button control does the same as clicking it or tapping it.

I thus cannot simply put the focus on the file window when the user clicks the loupe button in the File Window ribbon. Because that would prevent further navigation.

This is similar to the special case where IMatch must ensure that the input focus remains on the search bar edit control when the user starts a search by pressing <Enter> in that control. Only then interactive searches / refinery can work, where the user enters a search term, presses enter to see the result, maybe changes the text and presses <Enter> again.

I have changed the loupe button functionality as follows for IMatch 2024/2025:

Clicking the loupse while a search is running (red X showing) cancels the search. Unchanged.
Clicking the loupe while a search result is shown in the result window cancels that search. Unchanged.
Clicking the loupe while no search result is shown but there is search text in the search bar edit now re-applies the search.
This makes this a "toggle" button. Cancel/Reset search and re-run search.

The ribbons now communicate to the host window if a button was clicked with the mouse or the SPACE key.
This allows the File Window to determine if the loupe button was clicked with the mouse or if the user used the keyboard.
If the user clicked the button with the mouse, the File Window is now automatically focused, allowing for keyboard navigation and running commands. If the user clicked the loupe button with SPACE, the focus remains on the ribbon to allow navigation.

[ubacher]

Thanks. This will sure help us users.

Leaves the almost unnoticeable color change in the header of the M&F header which indicates that the
panel is active. It was not noticing that the panel had lost the focus (and thus did not respond to CTRL-G/O) which
made me report this as a bug.

This is not really a bug report. It's a BBD (behavior by design).

Allow me a somewhat philosophical consideration as to what is a bug:
- The program not working as described in the documentation?
- The documentation wrong?
- The user having misunderstood the documentation or not understood it at all?
- The user not having read the documentation or not being aware of the docu?
- The documentation/behaviour of the program changed without the user being made aware of it?
- The user expecting a different behaviour of the program – from experience with other programs?
- The operating system misbehaving?


And the poor programmer gets the blame for most of these problems.....

[Mario]

Leaves the almost unnoticeable color change in the header of the M&F header which indicates that the
panel is active

If you are unsure if the File Window has the input focus, click on the Caption Bar or press <F9>,<F9>.

So far, you seem the first user with this issue.
Maybe I can add a custom "focused" Caption Bar color option for IMatch 2024/2025. Then users can change the color to something more vibrant on their screen.

But then I would have to add 8 new colors to the settings (normal focused, filter active focused, search bar active focused, Quick Filter focused). Too much, I guess.

[ubacher]

If you are unsure if the File Window has the input focus, click on the Caption Bar or press <F9>,<F9>.

This issue has not arisen before - let's hope I was the only one troubled with this. We will see if this
issue pops up again.