Desperately need the categories section from 1Password Windows 7 Sidebar in 1Password 8

Please bring back the categories section in the sidebar from 1Password Windows 7 in 1Password 8; it's super difficult to navigate without it. The current sidebar is very unhelpful. Thank you!


1Password Version: 8.2.0
Extension Version: 2.0.5
OS Version: Windows 10 21H1

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Comments

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  • robothor
    robothor
    Community Member

    There seems to be a drop-down at the top of the entries list that shows the categories.

  • tiltowaitt
    tiltowaitt
    Community Member

    I have to agree, the old sidebar was much more useful for me. I suppose if you change vaults often, then the new model is better, but that’s not how I use 1Password. I have an “everyday” vault and a few very specialized vaults that rarely get used.

    @robothor This is true; however, it’s more cumbersome than the old sidebar.

    I suspect this is just one of those personal preference things that likely won’t get changed. I’ve only seen a few people (including myself) complaining.

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @yfan7!

    As robothor correctly said, you can switch categories using the dropdown menu at the top of the item list:

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    @tiltowaitt:

    I suspect this is just one of those personal preference things that likely won’t get changed. I’ve only seen a few people (including myself) complaining.

    In the meantime, I have let our developers know that you would like to see the categories in the sidebar, it doesn't hurt to mention it ;)

    ref: dev/core/core#9299

  • tiltowaitt
    tiltowaitt
    Community Member

    @ag_ana Appreciated. While we’re at it, it would be nice if changing vaults kept the same selected category rather than switching back to all.

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    Thank you @tiltowaitt, noted!

  • dougl
    dougl
    Community Member

    +1. I use categories every single day. And never, ever change vaults. Adding clicks to a common use case is just an annoyance!

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    Thank you as well @dougl, I have added you to the list too :+1:

  • KirkMcPike
    KirkMcPike
    Community Member

    If someone doesn’t have multiple vaults or use tags, the new sidebar is completely useless. Categories clearly belong here.

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    Thank you for the feedback @KirkMcPike! On the other hand, I see how it could be useful for someone who does have multiple vaults and uses tags. I have let our developers know that you are also among those who prefers to see categories :+1:

  • KirkMcPike
    KirkMcPike
    Community Member

    Disclosure triangles allow people to show or hide different things at different times.

    And, of course, in a real Mac app it would be fairly easy to make the sidebar highly customizable. Electron’s bad UI conventions are severely limiting here.

  • cyberskier
    cyberskier
    Community Member

    This talk of Vaults in the sidebar has me looking for some input, as it has me thinking maybe I'm using 1Password "wrong," or I'm overlooking something obvious, or maybe there's a way I can improve my workflow.

    Although I use multiple vaults between my company account and my personal one, I rarely ever switch between them. I keep the dropdown on "All Accounts" and just search when I need something . . . except for when I use the category list to quickly jump in to find something like a Credit Card or Wireless Router. I have eight vaults total. Maybe that is the difference (i.e., maybe that is very low compared to some people who like vaults in the sidebar?)?

    I'm always open to the idea that I'm just dense, and that I'm overlooking an obvious way to use 1Password (specifically Vaults) and improve my workflow.

    Maybe the use case has something to do with the number of items saved in Password somebody has? I have 2200+ items in 1Password, so clicking on a Vault in the sidebar is worthless, as it takes me into a long list, and the item I want could be number 1383. Is there something I should be doing to make Vaults more useful (i.e., are people using Vaults as an organizational tool?)? I guess my point is that I'm not seeing how having something in the sidebar that just jumps me into a massive list is helpful, as opposed to having Categories there, which breaks down that list into manageable chunks. Oh, and I guess Tags break it down, too, but I rarely use them.

    Thanks to anybody willing to share how you do things. I really feel like this is one of those things where I'll feel stupid for overlooking something obvious.

  • I appreciate the feedback. It certainly helps to see a different perspective on things.

    I described it earlier in the forums that we wanted to avoid an overloaded/two-state sidebar like we had in 1Password 7 and this was the primary reason behind moving the Categories out.

    At the moment, the vaults in the sidebar can be used for both filtering items and for organization (as drag-and-drop targets). The Categories can only be used for filtering items. It means that we can't simply swap Categories and Vaults without losing the organization option.

    I personally do not use either and mainly rely on search. We had an option to hide the sidebar completely in early internal builds and I hope it would be back.

    Maybe we take @KirkMcPike advice and make the sidebar completely customizable. Just like in Slack Electron app.

  • spyderdsn
    spyderdsn
    Community Member

    Please add the categories, this dropdown is not good enough.

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  • jnd
    jnd
    Community Member

    +1 for adding categories back to the side bar. I had a go at moving things to vaults, but couldn't get it to work particularly well. My 1 password workflow is pretty basic - I've never needed to use vaults and they just add an additional level of complexity and faff. A customisable sidebar would probably be the best solution.

  • OAW
    OAW
    Community Member

    +1000 for adding Categories back to the sidebar. I don’t switch between vaults. Ever. I have my personal vault. And the ones I share with my children. And since I started doing that I no longer get the “Dad what’s the Netflix password?” question. But I don’t need to switch vaults to solve that problem. OTOH … quickly getting to Cresit Cards, Bank Accounts, etc is something I do all the time.

  • tiltowaitt
    tiltowaitt
    Community Member

    @roustem Thank you for sharing the thought process behind this change. I can appreciate that it has some benefits, even though my personal workflow is hindered by it. I think a customizable sidebar would be a great idea. I prefer having categories front and center because they provide "automatic" sorting, whereas vaults are entirely manual. Some additional feedback:

    • I can't find a way to rename vaults or change their icon. Either this functionality is fiendishly hidden, or it has not yet made it into the current build.
    • I prefer the old search functionality, where typing in the search box filters the item list directly. This has a functional benefit, because there have been times in the past where I wanted to work on several similarly named items in a batch; the new search functionality impedes this type of workflow.
  • slessardjr
    slessardjr
    Community Member

    @roustem I think relying on search works more when you have an established vault. When you're doing vault maintenance, adding bulk items, or starting a new vault you can't rely on search. Categories is immensely helpful with the activities I listed. I think that's part of the problem why people are upset with electron. I cannot use the browser version because there is no right-click context menu to easily move/duplicate items like you can with the desktop app. And I cannot use 1Password 8 because well while the interface might look better, you've taken my workflows and made what used to feel single-pane and few clicks into multiple panes and multiple clicks. The only option I have to have a workflow like before is to have multiple vaults that are single category specific.

  • roustem
    edited August 2021

    I can't find a way to rename vaults or change their icon. Either this functionality is fiendishly hidden, or it has not yet made it into the current build.

    Sorry about that, @tiltowaitt. We don't have implemented yet. We also need to make it possible to change how the vault is shared.

    I prefer the old search functionality, where typing in the search box filters the item list directly. This has a functional benefit, because there have been times in the past where I wanted to work on several similarly named items in a batch; the new search functionality impedes this type of workflow.

    Does the ⌘+Return after you type in the search field work for you for filtering?

    Interesting that you mentioned "filter". We had months of internal product debates on searching vs filtering. We wanted to make it easier to search and find the individual items and at the same time allow filtering when needed.

    This is probably one of the trickiest part to do well. For example, most of the Login items have the website field with https://something.something but you probably would not want 1Password to show all of them when you type "http" in the search field. Or when you search for gmail, it would not be great if 1Password simply suggests all items that have yourname@gmail.com in the username field (I have over 700 of them):

    Instead, 1Password 8 tries to show the items that might be more relevant and gives you a fallback to filtering with ⌘+Return:

  • tiltowaitt
    tiltowaitt
    Community Member

    @roustem Thank you, I did not notice Show all matching items. This does indeed give me the filtering method I prefer. I don't like that it's an extra step, but I doubt that's going to change.

    As for the rest of your comment, it looks like I use 1Password differently than you (not surprising, given I only have 350 or so items in my primary vault). When I use search, I only really care about the title of the items.

    Discussing this has brought up another point: I wish there was a way to limit the search to only the currently selected vault, like in 1Password 7. The ability for scoped searches like that is the only reason I have multiple vaults in the first place.

  • woodmeister50
    woodmeister50
    Community Member

    Another vote for categories in the side bar again as well.

  • mikebore
    mikebore
    Community Member

    Another one for Categories in Sidebar please. It has been mentioned in other threads, so hope all the votes get added together!

    Don't think I have heard anyone say they actually prefer the drop down.

  • Thanks, @mikebore. We are taking note of the conversation, and appreciate you sharing your feedback!

  • Thanks for the feedback everyone. 🤗

    We've been doing some experimentation on enabling categories to be added to the sidebar. Be sure to check out the exploring sidebar categories thread for details and add your thoughts and 👍🏻 if it's what you were hoping for.

    Take care,

    ++dave;
    1Password Founder

  • Hi @yfan7 @robothor @tiltowaitt @dougl @KirkMcPike @spyderdsn @jnd @OAW @slessardjr @cyberskier @woodmeister50 !

    Some news for you: in the latest Beta of 1Password 8, you can select an option to show Categories permanently in the sidebar if you so choose. Here's how it works!

    1. Download (or update to) the 8.6.0-6 Beta on MacOS, Windows, or Linux.
    2. Go to Settings > Appearance, then check the Categories option under "Always Show in Sidebar"

    We'd welcome any feedback you'd like to offer on this. Thanks for your thoughtful discussion so far!

  • yfan7
    yfan7
    Community Member

    Thank you!!!

  • On behalf of Peter (and the entire development team :smile:), you're very welcome @yfan7! 😀

    Jack

  • cyberskier
    cyberskier
    Community Member

    Awesome! Thank you! Works so much better for how I work, since I switch categories frequently and vaults rarely. I'll report in if I run into any issues.

This discussion has been closed.