Udostępnij za pośrednictwem

When dragging is a big drag

  • Artykuł

Nicholas Allen wrote to me to comment on a piece of UI in our October CTP:

I'm trying out putting an existing domain language into the editor and I'm having some frustration with creating nested concepts and inheritance to existing elements. I have to drag between two elements that are physically far apart and the scrolling is very slow. If I zoom out until the two nodes are on the screen at the same time, I can't read the text to make the connection. Is there an easier way to create relationships between two existing elements?

There's an inherent issue with a tree-layout like ours that sometimes things you want to relate semantically can be spatially distant.  We've tried to compensate for this by providing two modes in all of our link-creation tools, drag-link and click-click.

In drag-link mode, you mouse-down on the source of the link and drag to the target where you let go. If your target is currently off screen then you can drag to the edge of the screen and it will gradually "bump-scroll" until you get to where you need to be.  As Nicholas found out, if the distance is great then this can be tedious.

In click-click mode, you click on the source of the link and then click again on the target.  Whilst between the two clicks you are free to use the scrollbars on the diagram as normal which is a lot easier when it comes to making a large movement.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    December 15, 2004
    Thanks again for the help! I've finished up entering my list of issues into the bug tracker now as well.

  • Anonymous
    December 15, 2004
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 16, 2004
    Thanks Peter,
    In Visual Studio, you can usually use the toolbox in just this manner, i.e. drag something to it and later go and grab it. (Although it stays on the toolbox until you explicitly delete it as we assume you might want to use something more than once - I'm not sure if that's the same as the Shelf you describe).

    We haven't implemented toolbox support for our designer yet, so this won't work at present in our tools.

    How would you see a Shelf/Toolbox concept working for a link?

    Would the shelf contain half a link?(i.e. source -> nothing) What would be the experience if the source was deleted? Would the shelf-item disappear?

  • Anonymous
    December 16, 2004
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 16, 2004
    Great ideas Peter.
    I'll put them into the mix when we're reviewing link tool usability.

  • Anonymous
    June 01, 2009
    PingBack from http://woodtvstand.info/story.php?id=11422

  • Anonymous
    June 08, 2009
    PingBack from http://quickdietsite.info/story.php?id=5997

  • Anonymous
    June 18, 2009
    PingBack from http://fancyporchswing.info/story.php?id=3287

  • Anonymous
    June 18, 2009
    PingBack from http://thestoragebench.info/story.php?id=8261