FEEDBACK WANTED: New Resource Toolbar on Desktop

Robert M. Warren said:

...  it doesn't seem to be a Manhattan-Project-level task to enable subscribers to opt-out.

Maybe a Newark-level.

I suspect they're married to that toolbar. For some reason Faithlife hates user-customizing choices. Years ago, the Tools menu was made customizable, abd rumor has it, .... well, someone's career plateau'd.

I just hope the new toolbar doesn't leak into non-subscribers' UI. 

Mark Barnes (Logos) said:

Can you help me understand your difficulties better?

Too many clicks. For example, multiple book view is three clicks vs. the former one click. Too many options to read through vs. the old toolbar was a simple icon to click.

The ability to customize the toolbar would be ideal. The option of text+icon, text-only, or icon only with hover description would be great. Rearranging the order of the menu or your own custom menu panel with frequently used options.

Until then, a settings option to toggle subscription toolbar vs. non-subscription toolbar works. As a subscriber, I would prefer to have the old one back.

Totally agree with Dave. The new toolbar is a cluttered mess!

I like the new toolbar quite a bit! Takes some time to learn where things are, but I think it's a fairly short learning curve.

MJ. Smith said:

• I keep guessing wrong whether something is in Formatting or View.
• I really miss the ability to toggle the interlinear which is a feature I frequently use.
• The Find still being on the resource menu rather than under search confounded me as a blatant design inconsistency. 
• there are still a few bugs e.g. factbook that affected me.

MJ, although I do like the new toolbar, I agree with your points here. Especially your second point.

After using it for a bit now, I agree with the feedback here. I suggest:

• Combine Formatting and View into View
• Make "Show Footnotes" its own option under View
• Remove "Find" on the 3-vertical-dots menu
• Provide some personalization options
• Do something to reduce the visual busyness and crowdedness (shorten some of the verbose labels e.g. "Add parallel text" => "Parallel view"; "Start reading plan" => "Reading plan"; reduce vertical space if possible; provide Icon Only option; etc)
• For ebooks that aren't indexed and have no page numbers, get rid of the non-functional empty text box in front of "Home"

In general I think the new toolbar is much easier to understand especially for new users. But it will take a bit of getting-used to for long-time users.

I don't think offering both the old and new is a good idea. It will be confusing and will create a support nightmare even in forum discussions.

This is akin to when Microsoft introduced the "ribbon" to MS Office.

It's already there, under the Search tab, right?

PL said:

• Provide some personalization options
• Do something to reduce the visual distraction (shorten some of the verbose labels e.g. "Add parallel text" => "Parallel view"; "Start reading plan" => "Reading plan"; reduce vertical space if possible, etc)

Aaron Hamilton said:

Why is "Print/Export" listed both under the tools and the share tab? I feel like the share tab is more fitting, and I don't see why it needs to be duplicated.

I imagine it's because I might want to “share” by printing or generating a file to be sent.

Thank you!

Ali Pope said:

So, try out the new toolbar and let us know what you think in this forum thread.

I’m not a beta tester, so my feedback and requests reflected below are based only on what I have seen on the Webb app and read in this thread:

(1)  I’m very glad that Logos primarily uses blue colors, but it is disappointing to see they apparently are planning to continue using the same extreme bright shade of blue in this toolbar and throughout the program that was originally introduced in software version 26.

Within the new resource panel toolbar, this uncomfortably bright blue is used in the top toolbar’s active category tab underline and the secondary toolbar’s active category tab icons.  The accompanying blue highlights are also too bright. 

This reading distraction related to the new toolbar which is also found in other parts of the resource panel could be resolved through a Feedback suggestion I’ve submitted which suggests adding an option for a user to change all UI elements currently using the extreme bright blue color back to the more comfortable blue color used at the time Logos 10 was initially released and prior to software version 26.

https://feedback.logos.com/boards/logos-desktop-app/posts/add-an-option-to-change-all-ui-elements-currently-using-the-extreme-bright-blue-color-back-to-the-more-comfortable-blue-used-prior-to-version-26

However, some users may wish to see no bolding or highlighting of active category tabs in the new toolbar regardless of what blue color shade is used.  For that purpose, I propose an additional option (perhaps in system settings) to turn off the blue bolding and highlighting of active category tabs.

(2)  As others have already suggested in this thread, please allow an option for experienced users to create our own custom toolbar, removing functions we rarely use and adding those we frequently use, while maintaining a default toolbar with standard options for inexperienced users.

I personally would prefer this option on the top toolbar with the ability to toggle back and forth between custom and standard toolbars.  However, if that is not possible or it is more logical to add this option to the secondary toolbar, then in order to reduce clutter, I would request the ability to temporarily hide the top toolbar while the custom secondary toolbar is open.

In this circumstance, hiding the top toolbar would be especially important if no option is added to either change the extreme bright blue used for active category tabs to a more comfortable shade of blue or to turn off the blue bolding and highlighting of active category tabs. 

(3)  In addition to (not instead of) the customizable toolbar options suggested above, adding additional keyboard shortcuts for frequently used features would be great.

(4)  Please add an option within the system settings for resource panels to open by default with the secondary toolbar hidden.  I request this because I use custom layouts with various opened resource panels.  In order to comfortably read text, I will need to keep the secondary toolbar hidden within each resource panel and “show” it only when needed.  It would be annoying if I have to hide the secondary toolbar of each resource panel every time I open a custom layout or new resource.

(5)  Regarding the up/down arrow button on the right side of the top toolbar used to temporarily show/hide the secondary toolbar, please mute or soften its grey color shade, or add an option to do this, so I may read the text below it with less distraction. 

Grey is an excellent toolbar color and this button’s minimal design is fine, but my eyes see its bolded shade as slightly overpowering most of the other top toolbar elements (except for the much more overpowering extreme bright blue active category tab).  An alternative idea would be an option to remove this button and simply click in the empty space to temporarily show/hide the secondary toolbar.

(6)  When the locator bar is open, it is currently hidden by clicking on the X tab on the right side of the bar.  In order to reduce clutter, please add an option to hide the X tab and close the locator bar by clicking anywhere in the open space within the bar.

Seems to be fixed in 37 beta 1 which only just installed. If its mentioned in the release notes I didn't see it.

sI 

My toolbar does not show on the NIV.

Thank you for including in v.37.0 beta 2 the count of the number of hits in the inline search, as well as the graphs.
_______
However, what I notice is that this now requires more clicks than in the old inline search.

To see the inline search count, I have to click once on the “Search” tab

To send the result to the chart, I now have to click twice: once on the “Send to” tab and once on the “Charts” option.

I can get used to it, but I don't like the extra difficulty that's been imposed.