I'm currently using Ubuntu 14.04 and I love the new update and everything, but I miss the old search method. Like if I needed to search for a file I could just start typing directly and the results would come. But after the update I have to click the search bar and only then can I search. Is there any way to get back the old search method
For this 14.04 Trusty release, the developers have backported much of the "old" nautilus 3.2/3.4 functionality that was found in 12.04 & 12.10. Many of the defaults are set for the 12.04 users so that they have a "seamless" transition to 14.04.
The feature you mentioned came in much later - probably 13.04 or 13.10. Luckily, the developers have retained this - but you'll need to delve into the terminal to re-enable this capability through the following terminal entry
gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.preferences enable-interactive-search false
Naturally - if after experimenting you want to go back to the tried and trusted 12.04 capability you can reset via:
gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.preferences enable-interactive-search true
