From: Alex T. <al...@tw...> - 2005-04-02 17:22:38
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Kevin Altis wrote: >Under the Options menu in the resourceEditor, there >are menu items to move the components up, down, front, >and back. Since this issue comes up periodically, I >guess this needs to be made clearer in the >resourceEditor or some documentation, and I'm open to >suggestions. > > Yeah, documentation, yeah .... Within the Resource Editor itself, I have a few suggestions (one small, one medium, two larger). 1.(small) The menu items have shortcuts (ctrl+1, ctrl+2, etc.) but those only work when the main window has focus. I always want to re-order the components by clicking on the name in the component list box, and then using one of those shortcut - and nothing happens - need to click on the main window to give it focus first. (Or, of course, click on the actual component in the main window rather than its name - but sometimes that's less convenient - e.g. if you have a number of invisible components). 2. (medium) It might be good to have buttons within the property window for moving the currently selected component (i.e. visible reminders that the order is easily changeable - but functionally a duplicate of making the shortcuts operate in that window). 3. (larger) It may just be my style - but I have a lot of "Static Text" components, which are not focusable, and so don't need to be considered in the tab order. It would be handy for me if there was a quick way to move them all to the end of the order list, so I could focus on the ones I care about. 4. (larger) The whole mechanism of defining tab order by selecting components and moving them back / forward in the order list seems like a poor UI (I know it's common and traditional, but it just seems a bit weak). I find this works OK for "fine-tuning" - if I add a new field and want to get it in the right place, or if I change my mind about when one or two fields should come in the order - but it breaks down when I want to change the order completely (usually when I've been building / adding / moving components for a while, and finally got to the point of thinking about tab order. I think there might be a couple of other methods which would handle these re-organizations better, leaving the "move back / forwards" for fine tuning only. 4a. Sort all (focusable ?) components into "reading order" (i.e. left-to-right, top-to-bottom) based on either top-left corner or centre position. 4b Same thing, but in column reading order (i.e. top--to-bottom, left-to-right). 4c. Point-and-click mode. You use some menu item to enter "tab order definition", and then each click on a component (or selection of its name in the component list box) adds it to the end of the tab order; continue until you're done (either all components have been selected in turn, or when you explicitly exit the mode). I think I'll have a go at 1, 2 and maybe 4a or 4c and see how using them feels. -- Alex Tweedly http://www.tweedly.net -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.8.6 - Release Date: 30/03/2005 |