[whalt]

What about if on hold projects matched at a lower priority than active projects ? That way when there were a lot of possible completions (i.e. one or two letters typed) they would sink to the bottom of the results. They would be less visible and less in your way but still accessible by either scrolling down further or providing enough text to make the match less ambiguous. Perhaps the name could be shaded a little lighter as well in the results list to indicate their on-hold status.