Operation of windows, tiles and tabs.

Today’s tip (7/18/11) from Morris on the Logos Homepage hits on a topic I have been confused about ever since the release of Logos 4 and that is the titles of and commands controlling the desktop objects/spaces of Logos. I consider myself an “advanced” user but this area mystifies and frustrates me.

In your illustration you call the whole Logos 4 desktop a “window” which is divided into two “tiles” which are further divided into “tabs or panels” which contain the actual resources. You say that “You can open as many windows as you want and divide each window into as many tiles as you want and divide each tile into as many panels (tabs) as you want.” First off, I have never found a way to open multiple Logos 4 “windows.” This would be very useful but is impossible I believe. Also when you right click on a “tab/panel” in a tile containing several tabs and select the option “open all in a floating window” it actually opens a floating “tile” not a “window” using your nomenclature. (This ambiguity in names of objects is frequent in your online tips and videos.) Then when you are done with that and want to return it to your desktop layout as it was before “floating” it you cannot. If you right click and select the option “dock all tabs” it will force the taps into an existing open tile and not replace it as a separate tile like you had it originally. You must either manually rearrange it into its original layout or close the whole layout (without saving it) and reopen it.

What is going on here? Are these “bugs” in the program or am I doing something wrong? The behavior is very annoying because these are operations I do almost every time I use Logos 4 and the cleanup can become quite time consuming.

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Comments

DMB

I agree the nomenclature is confusing. At least Morris is careful with his usage (unlike me).

And I also agree on your overall conclusion. Pity the poor user that does a 'open in a floating window' only to then want it all returned to original position. Won't happen in Logos4. Have to do a duplicate-tab and then a floating-windows (which is a pain).

The functionality in Libronix3 to open windows first into an independent window, and also to do a max-window and back is not really implemented well in Logos4 at all. They try to kind of do it with the F11 full-screen.

For me the problem is most obvious when clicking on a resource in the search-box, or similarly in the right-click menu: the resource is going to mess up the layout no matter what. But Bob hates layered menuing and his programmers are not sure WHAT to do with the search box results.

I think your thinking is absolutely on-track.

steve clark

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/269463#Comment_269463

Yes, i wish tabs would remember where they came from.

But i usually use the drag and drop to move a tab(s) from a floating window directly into the tile from which it came. If the floating window is covering the main window, then if i drag the tab from the floating window over the main window's icon in the taskbar, the main window will be brought to the front. And while still dragging (holding the left mouse button down) i can then drop it into the tile from where it came.

BTW if you are trying to move more than one tab from your floating window, you can hold the Shift key down when you grab one of the tabs and the rest of the tabs which are in that tile will follow as you drag and drop.

EDIT: here is a short video Moving Tabs, which helps show how i do this. Sorry that the video does not accurately show the icons next to the cursor due to my cheap video capture software. But you will see them on your screen when you do this in your Logos 4.

Jerry M

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/269463#Comment_269463

the resource is going to mess up the layout no matter what

Try just left clicking and holding the link and dragging it where you want it to go. I seldom click on something and just let it go where it wants.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/269476#Comment_269476

Jerry ... that would make sense in yesterday's mouse-oriented computers. But not with touch. Drag and drop would be a disaster.

And even on the older mouse-interface designs with touch-pads, it presumes your sitting in a position that can carefully operate the touch-pad.

Much simpler to simply have Logos4 modernize their interface thinking, as Microsoft did (and they're in the same state too!).

Bradley Grainger (Logos)

In your illustration you call the whole Logos 4 desktop a “window” which is divided into two “tiles” which are further divided into “tabs or panels” which contain the actual resources. You say that “You can open as many windows as you want and divide each window into as many tiles as you want and divide each tile into as many panels (tabs) as you want.” First off, I have never found a way to open multiple Logos 4 “windows.” This would be very useful but is impossible I believe. Also when you right click on a “tab/panel” in a tile containing several tabs and select the option “open all in a floating window” it actually opens a floating “tile” not a “window” using your nomenclature. (This ambiguity in names of objects is frequent in your online tips and videos.)

"Open in floating window" does actually create a new window. This new window contains one tile, which contains one tab. You can drag-and-drop additional tabs into this window to a) stack up multiple tabs in the one tile, or b) subdivide the one tile into multiple separate tiles.

Only the main window has the Home, Library, and Search buttons and the shortcut bar. All other windows just contain one or more tiles.

Then when you are done with that and want to return it to your desktop layout as it was before “floating” it you cannot. If you right click and select the option “dock all tabs” it will force the taps into an existing open tile and not replace it as a separate tile like you had it originally.

I wasn't able to reproduce this problem as described. I right-clicked a tab (in a tile with two tabs), chose "Open all in a floating window" and got a new floating window with one tile and two tabs. I then right-clicked and chose "Dock all tabs" and they went back to where they came from. (This may have just been coincidence; see below.)

You must either manually rearrange it into its original layout or close the whole layout (without saving it) and reopen it.

What is going on here? Are these “bugs” in the program or am I doing something wrong? The behavior is very annoying because these are operations I do almost every time I use Logos 4 and the cleanup can become quite time consuming.

The program assumes that floating windows are long-lived, and doesn't track the location of tabs before you floated them; this is by design. We assume that the layout in the main window may have changed, and the original location that you floated the panels from may not even exist any more. The program doesn't have any special handling to make sure tabs go to the "right" place if you float and dock tabs in quick succession.

To temporarily make a window fill the screen, press F11 to enter reading mode.