# Movable searchbar

**URL:** https://discourse.jabref.org/t/movable-searchbar/293
**Category:** Features
**Created:** [October 30, 2016, 5:43pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/movable-searchbar/293 "2016-10-30T17:43:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![h3691512](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ee59a6/32.png) [@h3691512](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/h3691512)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2016, 5:43pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/movable-searchbar/293/1 "2016-10-30T17:43:14Z")

</div>

Dear Developers,

I used since years JabRef, and thank you all for the hard and excellent work. I test regularly the newest version of JabRef. We had no separated search bar in old version, then this bar is made separately, this reduces the usable height in the wide-screen age. But this is still usable, since it is under the tabs.

In the latest build, I find that the search bar is docked just under the main toolbar, so the usable workspace is reduced even more and makes the reading be more difficult.

I was wondering, if the search bar can be movable, or this has been decided without any possibility of modification. Or probably there’s a way to reduce the toolbar icon size ?

Thank you all,

**As you can see in the following figures, we have less and less vertical working space,**

In **2.xx version** The search bar is in left panel, tight main toolbar.  
From **3.0 version** , The search bar is blow the tab bar  
In **latest bild 3.7** version, the search bar is above the tab bar, and below the main toolbar and larger sizes:

 ![](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/jabref/original/1X/3e68462214bf4fa6030efea7633fa8858b20cee9.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![joerg.lenhard](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/joerg.lenhard/32/9_2.png) [@joerg.lenhard](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/joerg.lenhard)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2016, 3:54pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/movable-searchbar/293/2 "2016-11-02T15:54:06Z")

</div>

Dear h3691512,

This is less of a problem on higher resolution displays, but I understand your point. Unfortunately, there is no option to move the search bar inside the GUI. Also, icon size is currently not resizable, but the font size is: Options-\> Preferences -\> Appearance -\> “Menu and Label font size”. This may help you a little.

Furthermore, if you extend the JabRef window to the right, the search bar will eventually float over to the toolbar, as you can see in the following screenshot from my JabRef:

 ![](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/jabref/original/1X/883902257bd032325998facc44a0ec1ea48d8ab4.png)

But I am unsure if this really helps you if you have a lower resolution display.

Regards  
Joerg