SUGGESTION: Where guides are opened

I know there's been a lot of discussion since L4 came out about where new tabs/panels are opened. There have been recent enhancements to try to make it more predictable and, perhaps, logical.

Yet there is still some arbitrariness about what is opened where. Case in point: Last night, I was using a one window layout (one "Windows" window) with two panels of equivalent size split vertically in that window. At the bottom of the left panel was a smaller one where I have an "Information" tab. That Information tab was perhaps 150px high total with a content area maybe 120px high. (Sorry I don't have a screenshot handy.)

I selected "Topic Guide" from the Guides menu. I didn't see it appear anywhere. Maybe I didn't click the menu item after all, so I select it again. Nothing. No topic guide in either of my large panes. Then I happen to look down and see that the guides had been opened as new tabs in the panel with my Information tab - a very small panel meant for the 3-5 sentences that usually show up in "Information."

Surely this can be improved. Given all the sections that make up the guides, a panel with a minimum vertical height should be chosen in which to open one, if such a panel is already open. With two other panels of significantly greater vertical real estate available, it seems that Logos ought to be able to choose one of those, rather than the small one where not even one section of the guide would be fully visible if expanded.

Hope this makes sense. Thanks,

Donnie

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Doc B

Surely this can be improved.

It can't. And don't call me Shirley.

[rimshot] [H]

More seriously, one easy fix (easy is relative, I know) would be to allow the user to turn off 'open on click'. Thus, something like the Topic Guide would not open when you clicked on it, but it would make you drag it to where you wanted it. That would solve the problem.

I realize that some (many) might see this as a backwards step in terms of features, so I understand why it hasn't been implemented universally. But if the user could turn the 'open on click' on and off, then I think everybody would be happy.

I almost always open a new panel by dragging something to where I want it. This saves a step, because if I click, it is almost never where I want it and I have to drag it anyway. Thus the logic of my thoughts.

Donnie Hale

Bump. Would appreciate a reply from Logos.

Donnie

Graham Criddle

Hi Donnie

Just trying to clarify

Did your layout look something like the screenshot below?

When I set this up and clicked on Topic Guide the Guide appeared as a tab in the top left panel as shown

Is what you described consistently repeatable or is it random?

Graham

Donnie Hale

Graham,

Thanks for the reply. That is pretty much the exact layout I was using. When I clicked the Topic Guide, it came up in the lower right panel alongside "Information." It did that several times. I'd have to go back and try again to see if it was consistent or intermittent. My argument is that it never makes sense for a guide to open in a panel with such limited vertical screen real estate.

Thanks again,

Donnie

Donnie Hale

Bump.

This is still a major problem with L6. Factbook, Exegetical Guide, Passage Guide, etc. still come up much (most? all?) of the time in a window that's way too small. Those multi-section guides and tools really need to come up in the tallest window available if there's no other hint as to where it ought to go (e.g. a window where there's already a guide or equivalent tool).

Thanks,

Donnie