# Serach bar: where have the buttons gone?

**URL:** <https://discourse.jabref.org/t/serach-bar-where-have-the-buttons-gone/2157>\
**Category:** Help\
**Tags:** ui\
**Created:** [June 17, 2020, 6:46am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/serach-bar-where-have-the-buttons-gone/2157 "2020-06-17T06:46:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jhh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/258eb7/32.png) [@jhh](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/jhh)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 6:46am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/serach-bar-where-have-the-buttons-gone/2157/1 "2020-06-17T06:46:15Z")

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The Search bar should have buttons at its right end, for toggling RegEx, global serach etc.  
As shown in the [help text](https://docs.jabref.org/finding-sorting-and-cleaning-entries/search).

I used to have these buttons but in my current 5.1 installation they are not present:

 ![Capture](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/jabref/original/1X/06e7e7499864cea474ec91c56811c789117b67a9.jpeg)

Any suggestions…? Or is this ss I should open a GitHub issue on?

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**Author:** ![Siedlerchr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/siedlerchr/32/216_2.png) [@Siedlerchr](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Siedlerchr)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 9:18am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/serach-bar-where-have-the-buttons-gone/2157/2 "2020-06-18T09:18:10Z")

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You first have to enable autocomplete in the preferences, then when you enter a search term the options will be shown in the suggestion

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**Author:** ![jhh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/258eb7/32.png) [@jhh](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/jhh)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 3:44pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/serach-bar-where-have-the-buttons-gone/2157/3 "2020-06-18T15:44:33Z")

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Thanks for the hint.  
Now I can indeed toggle RegEx and case sensitivity, but I still cannot find the global search option (i.e. using all open tabs)

![Untitled](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/jabref/original/1X/fdc599dc64a5223ab3f3ea66c7c726017d425a39.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![Siedlerchr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/siedlerchr/32/216_2.png) [@Siedlerchr](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Siedlerchr)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2020, 6:08am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/serach-bar-where-have-the-buttons-gone/2157/4 "2020-06-19T06:08:00Z")

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Hi,

unfortunately the Global search feature is no longer avaiable. See the following issues for some details.

> <https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/4096>
>
> Currently that the content of the search field is bound to a tab. In the old versions, it was globally stored....

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**Author:** ![jhh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/258eb7/32.png) [@jhh](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/jhh)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2020, 7:55am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/serach-bar-where-have-the-buttons-gone/2157/5 "2020-06-19T07:55:22Z")

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Thanks for clarifying.

A few related points:

- Besides that, I find it a bit strange that Search settings are influenced by an Auto-completion checkbox in the “Entry editor” preferences.
- When auto-completion is checked, the Search becomes case sensitive by default. As long as what you enter in the search bar does not trigger the autocomplete drop-down, the user cannot change case sensitivity.
- With respect to the three buttons on the bottom of the auto complete part: the “.\*” and the “abc” ones remain the same when clicked, so there is no feedback indicating the current state. (only the button on the right is changed when clicked, alternating between “float” and “filter”).

Please advice… Worthy of a GitHub issue?

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**Author:** ![Siedlerchr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/siedlerchr/32/216_2.png) [@Siedlerchr](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Siedlerchr)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2020, 10:56am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/serach-bar-where-have-the-buttons-gone/2157/6 "2020-06-20T10:56:56Z")

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@jhh Yes, please open a github issue with your points