Placement of GUI elements
Posted: 20 Oct 2009, 09:24
This is not a request for new features since I didn't come up with useful suggestions yet, but maybe my observations will inspire others.
I have some trouble with the GUI elements in TVP, not because they're not working, but because the way how they are to be used collide with their screen placement. I'll give you just two examples.
1. Popping palettes versus project window view controls: After the last upgrade I had the right column of palettes in the mode that they only appeared when the cursor reached the right screen border, then vanished again when I left it. Now this might be comfortable and allows for a bigger project window, but I found that changing the view options is more difficult now. I have to place the cursor exactly over the little "F" or "1" field and not a pixel further to the right, otherwise the palettes open and I click one of their buttons accidentially.
2. Numerical sliders: once I got the idea to click-and-drag into the numbers field, I noticed that the standard placement of palettes at the left or right borders of the screen causes the following problem: when I drag to the center of the screen, the numbers follow up to infinity, if I want. But when I drag to the border, I can only change the numbers a certain range, and have to repeat that drag movement several times.
I was irritated when Adobe introduced sliders for opacity etc, but at least the whole range of a slider is always within the borders of the screen, so it's easy to set max and min values and anything in between. Now TVP has a different concept, especially because in many places there's no real max or min value.
I have some trouble with the GUI elements in TVP, not because they're not working, but because the way how they are to be used collide with their screen placement. I'll give you just two examples.
1. Popping palettes versus project window view controls: After the last upgrade I had the right column of palettes in the mode that they only appeared when the cursor reached the right screen border, then vanished again when I left it. Now this might be comfortable and allows for a bigger project window, but I found that changing the view options is more difficult now. I have to place the cursor exactly over the little "F" or "1" field and not a pixel further to the right, otherwise the palettes open and I click one of their buttons accidentially.
2. Numerical sliders: once I got the idea to click-and-drag into the numbers field, I noticed that the standard placement of palettes at the left or right borders of the screen causes the following problem: when I drag to the center of the screen, the numbers follow up to infinity, if I want. But when I drag to the border, I can only change the numbers a certain range, and have to repeat that drag movement several times.
I was irritated when Adobe introduced sliders for opacity etc, but at least the whole range of a slider is always within the borders of the screen, so it's easy to set max and min values and anything in between. Now TVP has a different concept, especially because in many places there's no real max or min value.