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Address book search filter does not ignore accents

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  • 1 has this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by huulong

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I noticed that the Address book's field value search filter does not ignore accents, so if I type "remy" for instance, it won't find "rémy" (unless the email happens to be unaccented remy@domain.com, but this doesn't work if email doesn't contain the unaccented name).

I noticed that other apps like the Firefox browser itself are able to search text ignoring accents (if I search "remy" on this very question, it finds all occurrences including "rémy").

It would be nice to ignore accents by default, and add a toggle option if you want backward-compatibility, or simply for people who need to search precise names with accents.

The notion of accents may vary between languages and it may be more or less significant. my guideline would be "if a standard user would type without accents when typing quickly just for searching, then you should ignore it. It may also be significant in target language, but not convenient on user side: for instance, an English-writing user may know that a name needs some accents, but find it more convenient to type without accent on a US or UK Qwerty keyboard.

Workaround: add alternative names without accents in some fields of the contact...

I noticed that the Address book's field value search filter does not ignore accents, so if I type "remy" for instance, it won't find "rémy" (unless the email happens to be unaccented remy@domain.com, but this doesn't work if email doesn't contain the unaccented name). I noticed that other apps like the Firefox browser itself are able to search text ignoring accents (if I search "remy" on this very question, it finds all occurrences including "rémy"). It would be nice to ignore accents by default, and add a toggle option if you want backward-compatibility, or simply for people who need to search precise names with accents. The notion of accents may vary between languages and it may be more or less significant. my guideline would be "if a standard user would type without accents when typing quickly just for searching, then you should ignore it. It may also be significant in target language, but not convenient on user side: for instance, an English-writing user may know that a name needs some accents, but find it more convenient to type without accent on a US or UK Qwerty keyboard. Workaround: add alternative names without accents in some fields of the contact...

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(not really a reply but I cannot edit my own question)

Confirmed workaround/hack: write "Remy" in first name but "Rémy" in Display name, so you can search it unaccented but still read the correct writing.