Submitted by Jon on 2012/02/28 15:36
I have a grid that has several check box columns. Several items have been ticked under column A, but most have not. I now want to untick the few items in column A and tick all of the items in column B. Unless the last selected item in one that has column A ticked, column a does not appear to be ticked at all (not grayed as in Windows convention, but blank) in the properties pane. Unless I have column A displayed in the grid and visually examine it, I will not know its correct status. Under this and similar conditions, the property pane provides incorrect information. This makes it useless if I want the grid to display the item only.
 
What gives?
 
Jon 

Comments

The properties pane show the values for the currently focused item (the one inside the dotted cell). There is always one and only one focused item, even when you have many selected items.
 
If yes/no fields could be shown in grey (when to show that selected items don't all have the same value), what would be shown for other field types (date, text, numbers) ?
 
The key thing is that the property pane always shows the information for the currently focused item.
 
It can nevertheless be used to make bolk changes to fields. Select multiple items and simply make changes in the Properties pane !
 

Jon

2012/02/28 17:28

In reply to by Pierre_Admin

Thanks for the explanation Pierre.  My point is that in the absence of columns, it would be nice to have some sort of indicator that either the columns contain all the same data, multiple values, or no data. Something to indicate that at least one field is populated.
 
Just my opinion.
 
Jon

Armando

2012/02/28 17:40

In reply to by Jon

[quote=Jon]
Thanks for the explanation Pierre.  My point is that in the absence of columns, it would be nice to have some sort of indicator that either the columns contain all the same data, multiple values, or no data. Something to indicate that at least one field is populated.
 
Just my opinion.
 
Jon
[/quote]
 
Yes +1.
I haven't really been bothered by that, but it's true that it would make the UI more user friendly and more consistent with other windows apps.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows XP Home Edition, Service pack 3
Dell Vostro 1500, Ram:3gb, CPU: Intel Core2Duo T7500 2.2ghz

[quote]
I have a grid that has several check box columns. Several items have been ticked under column A, but most have not. I now want to untick the few items in column A and tick all of the items in column B.
Unless the last selected item in one that has column A ticked, column a does not appear to be ticked at all (not grayed as in Windows convention, but blank) in the properties pane. Unless I have column A displayed in the grid and visually examine it, I will not know its correct status. Under this and similar conditions, the property pane provides incorrect information. This makes it useless if I want the grid to display the item only.
[/quote]
 
Using windows convention could be an improvement : when multiple items are selected in a grid, greying properties (in the properties pane) which don't have the same values... but still allowing edition.
 
Apart from that,  as Pierre said, the properties pane can only show one item at a time...
 
If you want to "tick" all items for column A, just select all items in the grid and then tick the corresponding field in the properties pane. Now, if you happened to have focused last on an an item which has the the column "A" checked, then you can either :
 
1- make sure your last selected item doesn't have column A checked (OR just "CTRL click" to unselect/select an item which doesn't have the column A checked), this is usually super simple to do.
2- OR first check all items and then uncheck them (it's usually not a problem to do that unless you have fancy equations linked to a particular field) !
 
I do #2 frequently when I don't want to bother... Check and uncheck, or uncheck and check. Nothing to examin in the grid or whatever. Checking checks, unchecking... unchecks. And the properties pane displays correct info -- for the currently focused item.
 
In any case, you ask "what gives" and I'd be curious to hear what other solutions -- apart from the greyed properties -- you'd propose to make the situation better, especially concerning the values appearing in the properties pane when several items are selected.
 
 

 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows XP Home Edition, Service pack 3
Dell Vostro 1500, Ram:3gb, CPU: Intel Core2Duo T7500 2.2ghz