Comments on: CTRL+F and Outlook 2010: will Microsoft follow Google into design by engineers

By: anon

anon — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:09:18 +0000

Just want to throw in my two cents regarding design by engineers. This is my number one problem with Google products. Design by engineers usually sucks, and Google is a prime example. The fact that they’ve had enormous success in search puts them in the dangerous position of thinking they’re good at everything. In fact, all their products are inferior to Microsoft’s–mail, calendar, photo albums, spreadsheets, word processor, etc. MS has a bad rep as the evil empire, but their products have consistently gotten better in the 20 years that I’ve used them, whereas I find it maddening how little progress Linux (engineer-designed) has made toward usability by the average person.

Thanks for bringing it up!

By: Mareli Furtado

Mareli Furtado — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 07:38:15 +0000

This is funny. I’m the 1%! Or the .05% Or the 50%. I have depended on Ctrl-F to make a copy of my current email for years. How do I use this? Example 1: I want to send the same email to multiple people with their name inserted at the beginning. I am a manager and I have drafts to ask for self-evaluations, leave information, etc. I open a draft, Ctrl-F and then insert names and dates (or whatever) and then off it goes, keeping my original intact. Example 2: (What I am doing today) I want to send 10 large pixel photos. I want them to fit in as few emails as possible. I attach 4. Try to send. Message too large. I delete 1 (after copying the email) and re-try. Usually I get 2 to 3 per email, but sometimes I can get 4.

I use the 2003 version at work and 2007 at home. Can’t find how to change the option in 2007. Just so you know, there is a way to change between Ctrl-F to Find and to Copy (or forward if that’s what you want to call it) in 2003. Change editing features or methods to Word. I’ve done it multiple times (each time I change computer or desks at work over the last 10 years and also changed for co-workers.) I’ll have to find the exact sequence under TOOLS>OPTIONS if anybody wants it.

My problem is that I want to be able to copy/forward in 2007. Anyone know how to do it? Outlook help is useless. Such a command would not be needed in Excel or Word so it is probably buried if available at all.

By: steve_c

steve_c — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:22:54 +0000

I’ve always been a fan of keyboard shortcuts, especially those I can work with my left while keeping my right hand on the mouse (Ctrl +C, +V, and +F). I have always know, that in Outlook I must use Ctrl +Shift +F to find, and despite the fact that is a two hand move, I often forget and have to close the message I inadvertently started forwarding before I can find the one I want. My organization is heavily involved in complex systems design and we rely more and more on the (formerly Human Factors, now) Human-Machine Interface (HMI) or Human Systems Integration (HSI) professional. At first only necessary for safety critical or mission essential functions, they are becoming a “must have” for any user interface in order to minimize workload and stress. Sometimes bad HMI is just very annoying, like when Direct TV changes the location of the clock between different screens or when the direction of increasing channels changes depending on mode (the button on the remote always has + on top, so should the menu screen). While some “look and feel” design decisions may be just an opinion for other engineering disciplines, the HSI or HMI professional should be able to support an efficiency preference.

By: bate vanko

bate vanko — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:51:18 +0000

This is not a 50/50 feature, this is more like a 99.96 / 0.04 feature. I have NEVER seen a person who would expect that Ctrl-F is Forward. It has always been Find, it should be Find, period. Or, at least have a setting or preference in Options….

By: Mike Powers

Mike Powers — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:59:09 +0000

F3 goes to the search box in your inbox, as does CTRL+E. CTRL+E does nothing in an email message, whereas F4 goes to the search box. Talk about a lack of consistency.

By: Mike Powers

Mike Powers — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:50:25 +0000

CTRL + F = Find. That’s the rule for nearly every program, and Microsoft even prints “*Find” on the ‘F’ key of their keyboards.

Actually, to be complete with the conventions: F = find, G = go to, H = find & replace. When I need to find text in a message, I hit CTRL + H and then search that way.

By: robert

robert — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 21:12:21 +0000

I finally got mad enough about Ctrl-F that I tried to look up a solution and found this column. So I thought I would babble here.

According to CUA (Common User Access) which Microsoft used during the early days of windows development, Ctrl-F is to Find. This holds for Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Onenote, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Windows 7 explorer, Windows XP explorer, Microsoft Visual Studio, and every other product I have used that Microsoft produced. Ctrl-F means Find in Firefox, Chrome, SlickEdit, Astrogrep, Evernote, and every program I have ever written.

If Microsoft is not going to follow their own standard and make Ctrl-F mean Find in Outlook, then they should at least make it easy to change the keys to work like every other program I use.

-rwg

By: Don Green

Don Green — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 23:19:26 +0000

I think it’s ridiculous for MS to have an integrated office suite (e.g. Office 2010) that fails to have shortcut keys as standardized as possible. E.g., CTRL-f should find within the email currently being viewed, as in Word or Excel.

What makes me angry is that MS makes this be such a big deal, by denying us the ability they provide in other Office programs (e.g. Word) to re-map shortcut keys to whatever we want. Office 2010 has CTRL-f bring up a “navigation pane”, which I suppose their focus groups liked but I hate. I never wrote any flames about this, because in the “customize ribbon” screen is a “keyboard” button where I can re-map any shortcut I want. (So, in my personal Office 2010, CTRL-f now brings up the ol’ familiar find/replace box.) I cannot understand why MS fails to include this simple, handy feature in Outlook.

By: Jim Sunny

Jim Sunny — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:53:19 +0000

Just use F3 to search. PLEASE.

By: Robfl

Robfl — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:24:35 +0000

Why using CTLR+F when you can simply use a search tool? When I want to know if a mail really contains the information I am looking for I simply type in let’s say “diner wednesday february 17″ into my lookeen toolbar and half a second later I have the information I want. Easy, isn’t it?