why can i not get to the search area on the left side of the screen unless I hit f11?
Is it possible that your screen resolution is not large enough? If you resize the browser window (for me it’s to about 1/2 my screen res, 2880 x 1800 / 2 = ~ 1440 x 900) it changes into what looks to be tablet view. Up the top right is a … (rotated 90 degrees). If you click that you can access the search feature.