IE8 search focus bug

  • Thread starter Christof Schwiening
  • Start date
C

Christof Schwiening

I too get very fustrated by this. I know I should just wait, but it still catches me out - often.....

I think what makes this a UI problem is that when you open a new tab the cursor focus shifts to the toolbar address box. If the focus is in the search box at the point the new tab is opened, then surely the best approch would be to leave it there....but, then again maybe the real problem is that there is still a distinction - which is becoming increasingly blurred - between the search box and the address box.....







Don Wilson wrote:



IE8 search focus bug

12-Nov-09



This problem annoys me often. IE still behaves this way with IE 8, or in my case the focus jumps from the search box after a few characters and into the address input. I do not have any add ons installed. This is the main reason I use Chrome as much as I can instead of IE.



Previous Posts In This Thread:



On Saturday, June 14, 2008 4:08 PM

kt wrote:



IE 7 startup and instant search text box focus

My computer and/or internet connection are a bit slow, so when I start

Internet Explorer it takes a few seconds before it is completely ready. As

soon as the IE window is available, but usually before it has completely

loaded I often start typing a search term in the instant search box.



I'm running IE 7.0.5730.11 on Windows XP, and Google.com is my homepage. I

type pretty quickly. Often what happens is the first few letters of my

search term show up in the instant search box, and then the focus changes to

the homepage, and the last several letters show up in Google's text box. For

example, if I type "triathlons" what I'd get is "tr" in the instant search

box, and "athllons" in the Google search box (on the main page).



Of course if I waited a second for the entire page to load this would not be

a problem... but sometimes I'm in a hurry!



My suggestion is as follows: If the user starts typing in the instant

search box, do not change the focus when the home page completes loading.



Thanks!



----------------

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suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I

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On Saturday, June 14, 2008 4:56 PM

Leonard Grey wrote:



You can't interfere with what IE needs to do in order to start, just like you

You can't interfere with what IE needs to do in order to start, just

like you can't get your CD to play before the disk spins up and the

laser locates the first track, If you want your browser to start faster,

do what I do: load a blank page instead of Google.



---

Leonard Grey

Errare humanum est



Kevin wrote:



On Saturday, June 14, 2008 5:39 PM

PA Bear [MS MVP] wrote:



The time it takes for a new IE7 window AND/OR tab to fully load is entirely

The time it takes for a new IE7 window AND/OR tab to fully load is entirely

dependent on what and how many Add-ons have to load. Either be more patient

or disable/uninstall some add-ons.

--

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)

MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002

AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net

DTS-L http://dts-l.net/



Kevin wrote:



On Saturday, June 14, 2008 9:17 PM

kt wrote:



Thanks for the responses.

Thanks for the responses. Being more patient and waiting for IE to fully

load is a good workaround.



I do think, however, that the IE development team could error-proof against

this situation, and am making this as a suggestion here. If the program lets

you start typing in the instant search box, it shouldn't jerk the cursor away

from there no matter what's happening behind the scenes.



I would think that it should either keep the cursor there, or not let you

start typing in the first place until it's completely ready. I noticed that

if I set my homepage to www.nytimes.com a similar situation occurs, except

when the cursor focus is taken off the instant search box it doesn't go

anywhere else. Perhaps that NYT page does not have a default text entry box

set.



I tried to see if this situation exists in Safari and Firefox. In both

cases you can start typing as soon as the window is launched even if the home

page is still loading. The focus is never shifted away from the search box.



"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:



On Sunday, June 15, 2008 1:46 AM

PA Bear [MS MVP] wrote:



Re: IE 7 startup and instant search text box focus

Again, WYSIWYS: The speed with which an IE7 window or tab loads is entirely

dependent on the number of enabled Add-ons. Mine is a very short list and

it usually takes 3-4 seconds for a new window or tab to load here. YMMV.



Kevin wrote:



On Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:42 PM

phayward_delet wrote:



Hi Kevin, I completely agree with you.

Hi Kevin,

I completely agree with you. I find this behaviour frustrating indeed.

Yes waiting for IE to finish initializing is desirable but I still find

myself busy typing away into what I think is the search box as it allows me

to select it because teh IE startup is so slow but only to find that after

the init has finished, IE has stolen the focus away.



Somehow this is odd to me.









"Kevin" wrote:



On Saturday, June 21, 2008 3:21 PM

Robert Aldwinckle wrote:



Re: IE 7 startup and instant search text box focus

"Pete" wrote in message

news:887C41BB-35BD-491C-9BBE-8E902494AF60@microsoft.com...





IE7 has a search box now, accessed by Ctrl-e. Why not use it?









Not to me. Your typing and the rendering you set in motion are concurrent

processes, so at the very least you should first attempt to Stop the rendering

e.g. by pressing Esc, before starting your typing. However, since the rendering

may consist of multiple steps, e.g. multiple frames for example, even pressing

Esc once may not be enough. That's why it would be a much better idea to

use the Search bar instead.



On Saturday, June 21, 2008 9:31 PM

phayward_delet wrote:



Hi, Thanks for the reponse.

Hi, Thanks for the reponse. Yes I could use Ctrl-e however to me this misses

the point as it is a workaround to what I believe is a UI useability problem.

Others have also suggested waiting for IE to completely initialise. All very

fair comments, however as with what Kevin has raised, the developers of IE

could not allow a user to begin typing if IE is yet to complete it's

initialising.



Oh I also do not have any extra addins loaded other than that installed by

default.





"Robert Aldwinckle" wrote:



On Thursday, November 12, 2009 1:37 PM

Don Wilson wrote:



IE8 search focus bug

This problem annoys me often. IE still behaves this way with IE 8, or in my case the focus jumps from the search box after a few characters and into the address input. I do not have any add ons installed. This is the main reason I use Chrome as much as I can instead of IE.





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R

Robert Aldwinckle

"Christof Schwiening" wrote in message news:20103565631cjs30@cam.ac.uk...

> I too get very fustrated by this. I know I should just wait, but it still

> catches me out - often.....

> I think what makes this a UI problem is that when you open a new tab the

> cursor focus shifts to the toolbar address box. If the focus is in the

> search box at the point the new tab is opened, then surely the best

> approch would be to leave it there....but, then again maybe the real

> problem is that there is still a distinction - which is becoming

> increasingly blurred - between the search box and the address box.....






Have you tried pressing Esc or clicking the Stop button before typing?





---





>

>

>

> Don Wilson wrote:

>

> IE8 search focus bug

> 12-Nov-09

>

> This problem annoys me often. IE still behaves this way with IE 8, or in

> my case the focus jumps from the search box after a few characters and

> into the address input. I do not have any add ons installed. This is the

> main reason I use Chrome as much as I can instead of IE.

>

> Previous Posts In This Thread:

>

> On Saturday, June 14, 2008 4:08 PM

> kt wrote:

>

> IE 7 startup and instant search text box focus

> My computer and/or internet connection are a bit slow, so when I start

> Internet Explorer it takes a few seconds before it is completely ready.

> As

> soon as the IE window is available, but usually before it has completely

> loaded I often start typing a search term in the instant search box.

>

> I'm running IE 7.0.5730.11 on Windows XP, and Google.com is my homepage. I

> type pretty quickly. Often what happens is the first few letters of my

> search term show up in the instant search box, and then the focus changes

> to

> the homepage, and the last several letters show up in Google's text box.

> For

> example, if I type "triathlons" what I'd get is "tr" in the instant search

> box, and "athllons" in the Google search box (on the main page).

>

> Of course if I waited a second for the entire page to load this would not

> be

> a problem... but sometimes I'm in a hurry!

>

> My suggestion is as follows: If the user starts typing in the instant

> search box, do not change the focus when the home page completes loading.

>

> Thanks!

>

> ----------------

> This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the

> suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I

> Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow

> this

> link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then

> click "I Agree" in the message pane.

>

> http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...&dg=microsoft.public.internetexplorer.general

>

> On Saturday, June 14, 2008 4:56 PM

> Leonard Grey wrote:

>

> You can't interfere with what IE needs to do in order to start, just like

> you

> You can't interfere with what IE needs to do in order to start, just

> like you can't get your CD to play before the disk spins up and the

> laser locates the first track, If you want your browser to start faster,

> do what I do: load a blank page instead of Google.

>

> ---

> Leonard Grey

> Errare humanum est

>

> Kevin wrote:

>

> On Saturday, June 14, 2008 5:39 PM

> PA Bear [MS MVP] wrote:

>

> The time it takes for a new IE7 window AND/OR tab to fully load is

> entirely

> The time it takes for a new IE7 window AND/OR tab to fully load is

> entirely

> dependent on what and how many Add-ons have to load. Either be more

> patient

> or disable/uninstall some add-ons.

> --

> ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)

> MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002

> AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net

> DTS-L http://dts-l.net/

>

> Kevin wrote:

>

> On Saturday, June 14, 2008 9:17 PM

> kt wrote:

>

> Thanks for the responses.

> Thanks for the responses. Being more patient and waiting for IE to fully

> load is a good workaround.

>

> I do think, however, that the IE development team could error-proof

> against

> this situation, and am making this as a suggestion here. If the program

> lets

> you start typing in the instant search box, it shouldn't jerk the cursor

> away

> from there no matter what's happening behind the scenes.

>

> I would think that it should either keep the cursor there, or not let you

> start typing in the first place until it's completely ready. I noticed

> that

> if I set my homepage to www.nytimes.com a similar situation occurs, except

> when the cursor focus is taken off the instant search box it doesn't go

> anywhere else. Perhaps that NYT page does not have a default text entry

> box

> set.

>

> I tried to see if this situation exists in Safari and Firefox. In both

> cases you can start typing as soon as the window is launched even if the

> home

> page is still loading. The focus is never shifted away from the search

> box.

>

> "PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:

>

> On Sunday, June 15, 2008 1:46 AM

> PA Bear [MS MVP] wrote:

>

> Re: IE 7 startup and instant search text box focus

> Again, WYSIWYS: The speed with which an IE7 window or tab loads is

> entirely

> dependent on the number of enabled Add-ons. Mine is a very short list and

> it usually takes 3-4 seconds for a new window or tab to load here. YMMV.

>

> Kevin wrote:

>

> On Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:42 PM

> phayward_delet wrote:

>

> Hi Kevin, I completely agree with you.

> Hi Kevin,

> I completely agree with you. I find this behaviour frustrating indeed.

> Yes waiting for IE to finish initializing is desirable but I still find

> myself busy typing away into what I think is the search box as it allows

> me

> to select it because teh IE startup is so slow but only to find that after

> the init has finished, IE has stolen the focus away.

>

> Somehow this is odd to me.

>

>

>

>

> "Kevin" wrote:

>

> On Saturday, June 21, 2008 3:21 PM

> Robert Aldwinckle wrote:

>

> Re: IE 7 startup and instant search text box focus

> "Pete" wrote in message

> news:887C41BB-35BD-491C-9BBE-8E902494AF60@microsoft.com...

>

>

> IE7 has a search box now, accessed by Ctrl-e. Why not use it?

>

>

>

>

> Not to me. Your typing and the rendering you set in motion are

> concurrent

> processes, so at the very least you should first attempt to Stop the

> rendering

> e.g. by pressing Esc, before starting your typing. However, since the

> rendering

> may consist of multiple steps, e.g. multiple frames for example, even

> pressing

> Esc once may not be enough. That's why it would be a much better idea to

> use the Search bar instead.

>

> On Saturday, June 21, 2008 9:31 PM

> phayward_delet wrote:

>

> Hi, Thanks for the reponse.

> Hi, Thanks for the reponse. Yes I could use Ctrl-e however to me this

> misses

> the point as it is a workaround to what I believe is a UI useability

> problem.

> Others have also suggested waiting for IE to completely initialise. All

> very

> fair comments, however as with what Kevin has raised, the developers of IE

> could not allow a user to begin typing if IE is yet to complete it's

> initialising.

>

> Oh I also do not have any extra addins loaded other than that installed by

> default.

>

>

> "Robert Aldwinckle" wrote:

>

> On Thursday, November 12, 2009 1:37 PM

> Don Wilson wrote:

>

> IE8 search focus bug

> This problem annoys me often. IE still behaves this way with IE 8, or in

> my case the focus jumps from the search box after a few characters and

> into the address input. I do not have any add ons installed. This is the

> main reason I use Chrome as much as I can instead of IE.

>

>

> Submitted via EggHeadCafe - Software Developer Portal of Choice

> EggHeadCafe Chat Chaos in Silverlight Released Today

> http://www.eggheadcafe.com/tutorial...6-54f31bdede5d/eggheadcafe-chat-chaos-in.aspx
 
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