Permlink Replies: 8 - Pages: 1 - Last Post: 30 Jun 24, 16:50 Last Post By: davidekholm Threads: [ Previous | Next ]
davidekholm

Posts: 3,442
Registered: 18-Oct-2002
New behaviour for opening projects?
Posted: 28 Jun 24, 10:21
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When working with the project selector (old "recent projects" list) I feel that it's time to make it behave like an ordinary file list, i.e. instead of opening projects with a single click, it should take a double-click. This allows for selecting projects without opening them. I could then enable users to use a wide array of project-specific menu options without first opening the project. This would also allow for select-as-you-type, i.e. to select projects by typing the first few letters in the project's name.

What do you think? Would it backfire with existing users if they now need to double-click (or click+enter) to open projects? One can always make it another option, but I prefer to avoid options if we truly believe this is a better behaviour.
RobM

Posts: 3,784
Registered: 4-Aug-2006
Re: New behaviour for opening projects?
Posted: 28 Jun 24, 10:41   in response to: davidekholm in response to: davidekholm
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Not sure, I think it is something I would like to try first. I suspect it might initially cause some frustration for some people. Could a beta version be made, with just the double click function implemented?
davidekholm

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Registered: 18-Oct-2002
Re: New behaviour for opening projects?
Posted: 28 Jun 24, 12:15   in response to: RobM in response to: RobM
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Yes, I can make that available for testing before I implement everything.
JeffTucker

Posts: 8,182
Registered: 31-Jan-2006
Re: New behaviour for opening projects?
Posted: 28 Jun 24, 13:27   in response to: davidekholm in response to: davidekholm
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I like the idea. I've often been struck by the fact that, for example, I had to open a project in order to delete it. Since I do a lot of small, temporary test projects, that's always been a bit of an annoyance. And now with project groups, there are even more times when a user would want to do something with a project - moving it to another group, for example - without having to open it.

I agree that this shouldn't be yet another buried preferences option. That just complicates things, including providing users with instructions ("If you've chosen single-click opening, do this, but if you've stuck with the default double-click opening, do it this way...").

LibreOffice uses single-click opening from its launch screen, and even after all these years, I find myself double-clicking on the entries. Slow learner. ;)
RobM

Posts: 3,784
Registered: 4-Aug-2006
Re: New behaviour for opening projects?
Posted: 28 Jun 24, 17:46   in response to: davidekholm in response to: davidekholm
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Would it be better, or more confusing, if there was a toggle icon(triangle) at the right of the project name field. Clicking on the name selects the project, clicking on the icon opens it.
JeffTucker

Posts: 8,182
Registered: 31-Jan-2006
Re: New behaviour for opening projects?
Posted: 28 Jun 24, 23:42   in response to: RobM in response to: RobM
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More confusing, mostly because it doesn't really mimic any other UX that I can think of.

(Slightly off-topic, but that's often the problem with expanding menus. There are actually a few skins out there in which, if there's a Folder One that has a couple of sub-folders, you can't select Folder One itself. If you click on it, it opens the menu for its sub-folders. There's no way to go directly to Folder One. Developer has never noticed.)
davidekholm

Posts: 3,442
Registered: 18-Oct-2002
Re: New behaviour for opening projects?
Posted: 30 Jun 24, 14:22   in response to: JeffTucker in response to: JeffTucker
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When making this change, I also plan to use an ordinary List component for presenting the projects (I get a lot of good built-in behaviour that way). This would also imply that the currently opened project would no longer show up in the middle of the list, but would instead be pinned just above the project list. It would then no longer scroll away if you scroll down the list. The only downside by making that change would be that opened projects with many sub folders would consume much vertical space from the rest of the project list. Alternatively, I could allow the currently selected project to "scroll up" along with the project list if the user scrolls down the list, but I think it's better to have it pinned to the top, otherwise I'd need to scroll the list to the top when a user double-clicks to open a project. I think that behaviour would confuse users.
JeffTucker

Posts: 8,182
Registered: 31-Jan-2006
Re: New behaviour for opening projects?
Posted: 30 Jun 24, 14:34   in response to: davidekholm in response to: davidekholm
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Attachment ss012390.png (171.6 KB)
davidekholm wrote:
The only downside by making that change would be that opened projects with many sub folders would consume much vertical space from the rest of the project list.

It should be possible to collapse the view of the open project, rather than always showing all the folders. Unless I'm missing something, it's currently not possible to do this. Screenshot.
davidekholm

Posts: 3,442
Registered: 18-Oct-2002
Re: New behaviour for opening projects?
Posted: 30 Jun 24, 16:50   in response to: JeffTucker in response to: JeffTucker
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I could enable the collapsing of the opened project folder tree by introducing a root node for it
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