Submit form on enter without focus

Question

I have a search form on my site. I would like other people's thoughts on this idea.

The flow goes like this: The user will type in the search field with the checkbox selected by default, and then click Enter to submit the form. However, if someone does not want the checkbox ticked, they will lose focus on the form by unchecking it, causing them to either:

• Click the magnifying glass or
• Refocus on the form and click Enter.

Would it be better to have Enter submit the form regardless of focus?

Answer 1

I don't know your concept but how often is the "Translate my search" used? Anyway set the most popular option as default, move it below the search field and add a button for "Search". Then there's little room for misunderstanding how to perform the search.

Answer 2

How about moving the focus back to the input field when state is changed on the checkbox? Like so (jQuery):

$("#checkbox").change(function() {
    $( "#search-field" ).focus();
});

Demo: JSFiddle

The difference from your suggestion (if I understood it correctly) would be that Enter works as desired also after using the checkbox, but other parts of the page layout would keep its default behaviour as far as Enter is concerned. E.g. if people use Tab and Enter to select other links, this would not undesirably trigger the search.