The main use for the tool for some users is with the Search mode, for finding and updating data. For this, the phpMyAdmin team has made it possible to define which sub-page is the starting page in Table view, with the $cfg['DefaultTabTable'] parameter. Setting it to 'tbl_select.php' defines the default sub-page to search.

With this mode, application developers can look for data in ways not expected by the interface they are building, adjusting and sometimes repairing data.

The Search sub-page can be accessed by clicking the Search link in the Table view. This has been done here for the book table:

The first panel facilitates a selection of the fields to be displayed in the results:

All fields are selected by default, but we can control-click other fields to make the necessary selections. Mac users would...