InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by Jibz on 2010/05/10 03:31

I am not sure exactly what it is called .. in the context menu it appears as "Views ...", and in the View menu it's a detachable menu called "Grids", but I am talking about the vertical bar that is along the left side of the screen by default and which shows buttons for the calendar and all your grids for easy access.

Clicking any button opens that grid (or calendar) which is of course fine.

If you click the calendar button while the calendar is open it closes the calendar. I would like to have this behavior on the rest of the buttons as well. So if I am currently looking at the Inbox grid and I click the Inbox button on the bar, it should close that grid instead of doing nothing. To me it's easier to close a few grids that way than having to hit the little 'X' buttons on the tabs at the top.

As a side note, while playing with this I opened the right-click context menu for the toolbars and pressed the "Views ..." entry which disabled the bar on the left. To my surprise, opening the context menu again I found the "Views ..." entry to be gone. It took a while to scout through the documentation and finally realize I could drag the "Grids" sub-menu from the View menu out and fiddle it back into place, but now it is missing the calendar button.

Imho it should be an on/off thing like the properties or html panes, and at least there should be an obvious way to get it back.

Comments

Agreed, I mean to say I like your suggestions

It's odd the way 'Views' disappears from the toolbar list when closed (you can find it under customise but it shouldnt be necessary to go that far). I'll add that to Mantis unless anyone objects (?)

I tried customising the grid-menu-toolbar (not sure what it's called either) to restore the Calendar icon - but there's not calendar icon available. Another one for Mantis I think...

I gave up using the grid-list in that toolbar format when it was no longer able to show all my grids -

Ctrl+Shift+0 will show a drop down list of all grids (but NOT the calendar) - typing the grid's first letter will cycle through grids starting with that letter

[edit] I've set Ctrl+W to close focused grid (Right-click menu or toolbar >>customise >> keyboard >> etc) - I think this should be default - AFAIK it is default in browsers which sortof set the standards for tabs... [/edit]

Hi Jibz, take a look at reference -- link to nonexistent node ID 134 -- I threw this together a long time ago, in response to these types of observations.

Has anyone checked whether this easily restore views toolbar request might already be in Mantis?

[quote=KeithB]

Hi Jibz, take a look at reference -- link to nonexistent node ID 134 -- I threw this together a long time ago, in response to these types of observations.

[/quote]

Thanks, that was the page I found as well and which helped me get it back. This workaround restores the bar without the calendar button, and you have to adjust the toolbar and add it.

Again, this is a question of consistency. It should act like the other toolbars so it were possible to show it again from the context menu instead of it mysteriously disappearing and then you have to go through hoops with dragging menus around and putting buttons back in to get it back the way it was

Edit: Actually, it seems if you use this workaround to get the bar back without the calendar button, and then close IQ and open it again, the calendar button magically appears again.

(First : I agree with Toms new Mantis propositions. Thanks)

A few more comments on jibz observations :

> If you click the calendar button while the calendar is open it closes the calendar. I would like to have this behavior on the rest of the buttons as well.

I agree with the fact that it should be consistent, but I (respectfully) I think that the Calendar "table" should behave like the other grids, not the other way around (as tom suggest, maybe)

Actually, clicking on the grid button doesn't do nothing but brings the focus back on that grid if it was out of focus (inactive). This is actually very convenient when you have many grids opened at the same time and you're using the grid/view menu (shift-ctrl-o) instead of the "grids toolbar" -- as Tom explained.

Closing a grid is as simple as pressing ctrl-w or whatever shortcut key one assigns to the function. Hitting the X might be hard for some, but a browser-like double clicking on the tab could be implemented -- as Tom suggested to. In any case, the current behaviour is pretty conventional, and clicking on the grid buttons from the toolbar would be another of those "IQ peculiarities". Tabbed browsers don't work like that and IQ should probably not.

[If others think this could be a nice solution, I could add this one to Mantis too. (double clicking to close tab)]

>Imho it should be an on/off thing like the properties or html panes, and at least there should be an obvious way to get it back.

~~Yes, this would probably be helpful -- I'll put it in Mantis later..~~ If somebody else does it, I won't ! :)

As Tom explained too, I personally don't use this grids toolbar : I have about 50 grids and they wouldn't fit (in the future there might be a way to organize grids hierarchically, and the toolbar view wouldn't fit that conception at all)... The grid menu (ctrl-shift-o) is MUCH more convenient, and much quicker when you have many grids. 1-press ctrl-shift-o, 2-type the first letter of your grid (repeatedly if necessary) , 3- enter.

[quote=Armando]Actually, clicking on the grid button doesn't do nothing but brings the focus back on that grid if it was out of focus (inactive). This is actually very convenient when you have many grids opened at the same time and you're using the grid/view menu (shift-ctrl-o) instead of the "grids toolbar" -- as Tom explained.[/quote]

Oh I definately want it to bring focus back to the grid if it does not already have focus. What I was thinking was it would be convenient if clicking the button of the grid that currently has the focus would close it (like the calendar button).

[quote=Armando]Closing a grid is as simple as pressing ctrl-w or whatever shortcut key one assigns to the function. Hitting the X might be hard for some, but a browser-like double clicking on the tab could be implemented -- as Tom suggested to. In any case, the current behaviour is pretty conventional, and clicking on the grid buttons from the toolbar would be another of those "IQ peculiarities". Tabbed browsers don't work like that and IQ should probably not.[/quote]

I can see your point. I guess I was thinking of the grid bar as a toolbar with buttons that toggle the grids, rather than a tab bar with tabs (like the one already at the top of the window).

[quote=Armando]As Tom explained too, I personally don't use this grids toolbar : I have about 50 grids and they wouldn't fit (in the future there might be a way to organize grids hierarchically, and the toolbar view wouldn't fit that conception at all)... The grid menu (ctrl-shift-o) is MUCH more convenient, and much quicker when you have many grids. 1-press ctrl-shift-o, 2-type the first letter of your grid (repeatedly if necessary) , 3- enter.[/quote]

I can imagine. That's the kind of convenient shortcut usage that comes from using a piece of software extensively. Just have to make it intuitive enough for newcomers to get that far

[quote=Jibz]

[quote=Armando].. The grid menu (ctrl-shift-o) is MUCH more convenient, and much quicker when you have many grids. 1-press ctrl-shift-o, 2-type the first letter of your grid (repeatedly if necessary) , 3- enter.[/quote]

I can imagine. That's the kind of convenient shortcut usage that comes from using a piece of software extensively. Just have to make it intuitive enough for newcomers to get that far

[/quote]

Shortcuts should be shown more consistently in the tooltips & in the menu (one problem with the list of grids is that it is shown under 'View' in the menu & not under 'Grids' as new users would expect)

There is an icon for grids (two overlapping yellow squares) which shows the shortcut in it's tooltip.

[quote=Tom]

[quote=Jibz]

I can imagine. That's the kind of convenient shortcut usage that comes from using a piece of software extensively. Just have to make it intuitive enough for newcomers to get that far

[/quote]

There is an icon for grids (two overlapping yellow squares) which shows the shortcut in it's tooltip.

[/quote]

I agree that :

1- The "grids" sub-menu isn't obvious enough. I think that there should be either (...some suggestions) :

A- A main menu just for grids (allowing grid hierarchies)

B- A pane like the properties pane allowing grid hierarchies. (A shortcut key whould show the pane, etc. But maybe would that make too many panes ???)

2- Relevant shortcuts should all appear in the menus. I think those that don't are those that aren't configurable in the "customize" dialog.

Opinions ?

[quote=Armando]I agree that :

1- The "grids" sub-menu isn't obvious enough. I think that there should be either (...some suggestions) :

A- A main menu just for grids (allowing grid hierarchies)

B- A pane like the properties pane allowing grid hierarchies. (A shortcut key whould show the pane, etc. But maybe would that make too many panes ???)

2- Relevant shortcuts should all appear in the menus. I think those that don't are those that aren't configurable in the "customize" dialog.

Opinions ?

[/quote]

I think you are right the current placement of the grids menu is a bit strange, as I also noted in Drag and drop in the Manage Grids dialog, I think it would be more consistent if the View menu contained Manage Grids as a top level item where the grids menu is now. I don't know where would be a good place to put the menu though, and once you have a certain number of grids it might be better to have a more organized means to access them.

Mantis 970 - mantis.sqlnotes.net/view.php

Close 'Views' toolbar - it then disappears from toolbar context menu & from Customise>>Toolbars

Mantis 971 - mantis.sqlnotes.net/view.php

Calendar Icon is not available under Customise >>Commands >>Calendar

Mantis 972 - mantis.sqlnotes.net/view.php

Remove & restore the 'Views' (Grids) toolbar, the Calendar icon disappears

[quote=Tom]

Mantis 971 - mantis.sqlnotes.net/view.php

Calendar Icon is not available under Customise >>Commands >>Calendar[/quote]

I managed to find it under Customize->Commands. If you set the Category to View it will show up in the command window. Would probably make more sense if it were in the Calendar Category.

[quote=Jibz]

[/quote]

Thanks for the suggestion! It is now implemented (0.9.25pre-rel24)

Great

I don't know if this is useful, but this was my first-time experience with trying to reorder the buttons on the "grid bar" after having added multiple grids:

First I tried simply dragging the buttons to reorder the grids, this did nothing.

Next I right-clicked the bar and chose Customize. This allows moving other buttons around, but not the grid buttons on that bar.

I then opened the Manage Grids dialog and moved the grids around there, pressed Save and closed the dialog, nothing.

I opened it again, and realized there was an extra save button to save the order of grids, I rearranged them again and pressed that, and it finally worked.

I don't know if that would be your average users experience, but it might suggest there could be something made easier .. at least the special button to save the order appears superfluous, since the normal Save button could do it.

Thanks for this feedback,

The reason for the "save grid order" button is that the list of grids is sortable, so you can sort them by Alt-Key, Last opened, etc, but you don't want the toolbar to reflect this order.

Idealy, it should be possible to move the buttons on the toolbar. You can add it as a feature request !

[quote=Pierre_Admin]The reason for the "save grid order" button is that the list of grids is sortable, so you can sort them by Alt-Key, Last opened, etc, but you don't want the toolbar to reflect this order.[/quote]

Ah, that makes sense, thanks for the explanation.

[quote=Pierre_Admin]Idealy, it should be possible to move the buttons on the toolbar. You can add it as a feature request ![/quote]

That would be nice. Thinking about it, and the comments Armando made in this thread about having 50 or more grids, I was wondering if the "grids bar" would be more useful as a kind of "favorites" bar.

So you could choose what grids it should show buttons for (and rearrange them by simple drag), and there could be a button to show a list of all grids. I guess a bit like the Windows start menu.

>So you could choose what grids it should show buttons

You already can do this Grid Properties >> Options >> Show in toolbar

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

>So you could choose what grids it should show buttons

You already can do this Grid Properties >> Options >> Show in toolbar

[/quote]

Marvelous! .. perhaps not the first place I would have looked for it, but at least I can make it work.

[quote=Jibz]

So you could choose what grids it should show buttons for (and rearrange them by simple drag), and there could be a button to show a list of all grids. I guess a bit like the Windows start menu.

[/quote]

Good idea! [Yes, Pierre, it's already possible. Except for the dragging part and the button-->list...]

([off topic] I know that this option is complementary, but the advantages it would provide would probably be minor compared to the implementation a truly hierarchical grid menu : the more things users will want to do with IQ, the more they'll want to be able to group grids pertaining to a specific subject -- i.e. Minutes grids, Project grids, Personnal grids, etc. My 2¢ [/off topic])