Has anyone noticed the “back” buttons on detail views seems to be missing sometimes again? Maybe a results of the details showing up in search results as part of this change. Just a guess.
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you are putting something big and bold in the middle of the page in front of our eyes!
we want to just focus on our current doc / page / content, not have a big bold search with bold icon and bold color change in the middle of the page!
make 100x lighter, just a very very very light box/color change/border, no big icon, nothing big!
and like notion, when we are writing, hide everything, don’t keep all the messy options in our face, we just want to focus in a nice canvas to lay down our ideas and projects!
and no top bar border that is again taking mind share and complications pleaaaaaase!
(but the rest of the search looks good…)
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Is it possible to have the option to move it from the center of the doc? Or just like hide/collapse it from view?
I loved it being on the side bar because it was way less distracting. This is messing with the aesthetic and being able to focus when I’m on a page. 
Not to mention, I don’t want people I collaborate with to have that in their faces because I structured some docs to help navigate their experience through it. And they’ve said it’s distracting!
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THIS!!!
IMO, Coda has always suffered from wasted space in the UI (yeah I’m looking at you Cross-Doc!), and this new feature makes things even worse. When I wanted to maximize the space used for… well, useful things, I used to press F11 which worked quite well, but now I always have that bar with things that I rarely use. Having access to search is nice, having access to “All docs” or my profile is nice but… I really don’t need to have it rubbed in my face the whole time! It would be nice to have options to for instance make this bar disappear when we scroll down. Or, you know, disable the search feature altogether 
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Great suggestion. And I agree: it’s a pity to try and build something that makes navigation easier to then have to explain “oh don’t mind that big new bar on top of the screen - and btw never click on All Docs otherwise it will close your Doc”.
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Hello there,
When could you launch this one (disabling search bar) ?
Sadly, that search bar is useless in most of my docs (apps) and makes the interface more complex/charged.
I would expect to have that feature disabled by default (and I would enable it if I want in page options (like subtitles or page width)). → I added that in the feedback form.
Regards
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This release is just another prove that Coda doesn’t listen to its users. We prefer if search is not there at all (at least until it’s optional) but they insist on having it front and big. We ask for more estate they decrease it. We ask for protection of the hidden data, they expose it. Can someone explain why they are so much willing to make us mad?
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Stefan, that comment is definitely NOT the position of all Coda users.
In general, office workers spend nearly 4 hours a day searching for information. Coda has virtually eliminated that time for me, and I assume for just about every user of the hub type of Coda doc.
Coda lends itself to an enormous variety of doc implementations, placing an enormous variety of demands on the software.
My first project manager for SAP implementations, allways used to say “First, assume good intentions.”
I don’t think Coda
As @Ben_Lieber1 pointed out, this is part of a process. A lengthy and exceedingly complex process, which Coda is executing better than anybody else in this space.
Yes, there are more that we would like to have, yes, certain things are important.
But Coda is still the best.
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agreed. meanwhile, i have two workspace members who i have to keep as doc makers solely because I need them to be able to edit content on a hidden page that I don’t want everyone else messing with. the fact that our backends are both completely exposed while simultaneously “hidden” is absurd.
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yes, and it’s really annoying
What are your thoughts on the new in-doc search?
- It’s a must-have feature for my docs, even if it can’t be disabled.
- I’d rather it be turned off until there’s an option to disable it for non-makers.
- I don’t find it necessary for my docs at all.
0
voters
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It’s great to see improvements to the search feature. While Coda is the best (who would dare say otherwise? 
), to be more constructive, it would be even better with an option to ‘hide’ the search button.
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This is a bad update, especially right after how poorly the grammarly merger was accepted.
It really seems like the devs take zero input from their customers or they have features in mind that they don’t want to tell us. But this one change to search probably screwed over hundreds of customers docs and they are now scrambling to fix their issue. No warning just bam it’s live.
I think the devs need to stop screwing around and just put the hidden and locking tools in the hands of the user. Let us use them in formulas and tables so we can create permission lists and allow certain users to access certain pages based on rules we can create ourselves. There opinions on how locking and hidden pages will never 100% with their customers. Just give us the ability to change it ourselves.
Also these updates get worse and worse and meanwhile not a single dev has addressed the absolutely appalling performance of mobile or any plans to fix it. It’s getting embarrassing around here.
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The poll will continue collecting responses (no Codans allowed, even with personal accounts ), and it will only further highlight the misalignment between what the community values and the direction the product is heading. It’s a clear signal that the so-called community manager (whoever that is) and product managers at Coda need to reevaluate their assumptions or take them elsewhere.
The Coda community has consistently been clear and united in identifying what truly matters to drive growth - for both the users and the product. If our feedback had been taken seriously, Coda could already be leading the startup, freelance, and SME markets while positioning itself to monetize enterprise clients.
Instead, with almost every update in recent years, Coda seems to be regressing to its early use cases - home projects like kids’ homework, school mentorship, or renovations. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to rely on Coda for anything more serious.
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I do appreciate the hard work done by @Ben_Lieber1 and the engineering team to make the Search feature work better. I understand how complex search can be, I was once the European product manager for Alta Vista (anyone remember them?).
But when I build business automations for my clients, I need to provide them with a simple direct UX that focuses on getting the job done with the minimum of mouse-clicks and interactions. That is quite different to building collaborative information-worker documents full of rich textural information - where a sophisticated Search feature is essential.
But for an automated SOP, searching takes on a different meaning - and I build my own search functions specifically for each type of user…
So a warehouse manager who searches for a given product, needs to see those data items that are relevant to their role, like the data for the stock control process for that product, cost and retail pricing, location and product weight/dimensions, stock movements, etc. They also need to see the buttons that do the work they need to do, like triggering the reorder process or conducting a stock-take, etc.
But when a CUSTOMER does a product search, I want them to see none of that information, but to see the pricing, description, user reviews, and the buttons to create a review, place it in their cart, return the product etc.
And when an ADMIN worker searches for a product, they need to see a whole different set of data and buttons based on their role.
So I design separate layouts for these different job-roles, and provide a simple Product Search mechanism that uses the correct UI elements for each user.
But when you but a BIG fat search bar right in the most prominent position on the top of the screen, people think “ah THIS is where I am supposed to search for that product I am looking for”.
But the results they see bear NO RELATION to their role or purpose. They will see the product listed in the main product table, the order items table, the reviews table, the stock movements table, and NONE of those will show them the carefully engineered UI that is crafted to match their role and purpose.
So BOOM! Customers and workers are teleported into weird and bizarre parts of the app and have no idea what to do. And they might even start typing in new values, thinking this is how they are supposed to get things done!
Now: I am NOT asking for the Search feature to become user-role aware!
But there are a few ways that Coda can address this problem easily:
- Allow the Search to be disabled at the document level - simplest approach
- Allow Search to be disabled via the page-level locking menu - very flexible
- Allow Search to be disabled at the table-level - takes the table out of the search path
Any ONE of these changes will solve the issue handsomely, thank you!
None of these 3 approaches involves deep complicated analysis of esoteric use-cases and dependencies. They are simple and straightforward to implement. And they do not involve any complicated unintended side-effects that need to be analyzed or pontificated upon.
Just good old classic software engineering.
Those that benefit from advanced Search will get all the benefits by default. And those makers who need to curtail Search for serious business reasons have some simple straight-forward affordances to achieve that.
QED.
Respect
Max
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I really like this update. To me, it was really well thought and done. Good job, codans.
The search box could definitely be less prominent and there should be a way of hiding it altogether.
What I don’t like is how bellicose some are here. As @Ben_Lieber1 has said, there are plans for disabling search and until it doesn’t come, you can use always use few known workaround to hide important information.
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It sounds like you’re upset, like many of us are about this latest release. But your statement is false, and if you’re going to publish this kind of thing, you should be ready to back it up with evidence.
Many of us are building full org operating systems for clients on Coda, and it’s significantly easier to do so now than it was even a year ago.
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Reads as “regressing its ambition”. I am here for “doc as powerful as an app”. Instead updates were rather note taker, blog posting CMS, excel 0.1, docs 0.5, etc. Without clear roadmap I was hopeful for a few years. Even if they intend to get closer to “doc as powerful as an app”, it doesn’t seem quite like it with released features.
Where is the back button? The close modal button? The “backend” and “frontend”? Access rights? Restrictions? Mobile UX? They are not that many, to be fair. But will they ever be a focus? Or we are tricked to think that they will be but instead codans will keep releasing what they “feel like it”.
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I’m confused about the poll options. They don’t seem mutually exclusive. I selected that I don’t need these search tools, meaning I think I should be able to turn them off.
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Well in my book you don’t release feature that basically makes Coda WAY worse for good portion of your users. Basically anyone who is not using Coda as information hub, canvas etc. and are actually building apps and business workflows - where search is totally useless, we went through at lest 10 of our apps and it does 0 things for us. Many reasons where already pointed out by @Agile_Dynamics so I wont repeat them.)
And then you say “but some time in future we will fix this”, which they really didn’t said as a clear message it was more implied (especially that Coda kinda has track of not fixing some stuff, or not that fast).
In this case you WAIT to have option to disable it / or solve some other way problems that its causing to many of our Doc Makers and THEN release feature. Especially that Coda was aware of these use cases and problems since beta was announced by many of us Doc Makers who where voicing their concerns.
I have a feeling Coda is slowly giving up on APPs part and going more toward Wiki, information hub, writing on canvas thing (which merging with Grammarly kinda underlines). I hope I am wrong because we used internally and externally with our clients Coda for years and really like product, but somehow we are slowly loosing faith.
We are still sticking with Coda and hoping for the best, but first time after like 5 years we started researching what are alternative platforms that we could use just in case.
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