Key preferences not adhered to

Hi,

Just trailing your product :-) Like it so far...

I am a Mac user, who has come from windows, so like things like the end and home keys to work like I am used to, that is, going to the end or beginning of the line rather than the end or beginning of the text field.

I have set these keyboard shortcuts up in Eclipse before, so thought, oh good, I can do the same with WireframeSketcher... and I can... but they don't take effect.

For example, double clicking a table and pressing the home and end keys take me to the beginning and end of the text rather than the beginning and end of the line.

Not sure if it is supposed to do this.

I could list another couple of things that would be nice... but shall leave it to another post perhaps.

Regards Colin

Colin, you are right, text entry field does not respect key preferences for text editing. Preferences that you see actually apply only to Eclipse text editors, the ones that you open in their own tab. I'll see if I can take these preferences into account.

For now keys that do what you need are Cmd+Left Arrow and Cmd+Right Arrow.

Let me know what other things you'd like to see added or fixed.

Thanks for that update... be good if you can manage to make the key settings work :-)

In your reply you mentioned something about adding a couple of other things I would like see added or fixed...

Well, you asked for it :-)

The below is a bit of 'brain dump' of thoughts for using the product for a couple of days...

Note, I list a few things, but still like the product and am planning to purchase.

• When placing a component (the ones that links to another screen), it would be cool to be able to choose (i.e. a property) if you wanted to include/display the annotations of the added component… that way I can annotate like crazy, but easily show the screen without the annotations in other places.

• Setting width of table column/cells seems to set the minimum width. If the content of the cell is long, it will expand the column... I would like it to truncate the text instead (now I need to make sure that all my cells content shows truncated text so all my columns are visible).

• Still with tables, if you could resize the columns on the UI, that would be real nice.

• And Still with tables, a horizontal scroll bar option (like the vertical) for a table would be good, particularly if wire framing a resizable window that is shown small (yes, you can put one on manually already).

• For text fields, it would be cool if you could say which way you want it to stretch to accommodate content. For example, No Auto Stretch (current behaviour), Auto Stretch Vertically, and Auto Stretch Horizontally. When editing the text it auto sizes the editor, but then when jumping back the control is not resized to fit all the lines. I have had a couple of occurrences where I have not noticed that I have hidden some lines in some annotation text.

• Some things can't have links, e.g. tables, so you have to put something on top that can have links like a hotspot just to simulate for example where you would go on a double click of a table item. Links like in the Tree component for tables would be nice.

--- tbc

... still going :-)

• Quick Add… would be nice if the new object appeared close to the mouse location.

• I am a bad speller… spell checking would be nice :-)

• Getting minor now… a more square'ish tab style option would be nice. (Can make a component easy enough, but the adding of the comma text field into tabs is nice.)

• I was wanting to be able to set items as Annotations (to avoid export) and was looking for some type of annotation checkbox property in the properties, a little while later I noticed the popup menu item called 'Mark as Annotation'… aha, that does the trick - would it be good to include this in the properties too?

That is it for now, was saving up this post till I got a chance to use it a bit, but been tied down with other things.

I have tried other similar priced products, one or two of which have more functionality in the event handling area, almost like a prototype rather than a wireframe, that could be an area for future development (?), but you would loose the ability to have simply an easy to print layout of all your screens… like I said, I have tried some of these others, but much prefer the layout and feel of your product :-)

So, thanks for that!

Hope all of the above is somewhat useful from a new user's point of view.

Regards Colin

Colin, thanks for the list. Find my comments below.

When placing a component (the ones that links to another screen), it would be cool to be able to choose (i.e. a property) if you wanted to include/display the annotations of the added component… that way I can annotate like crazy, but easily show the screen without the annotations in other places.

This is already possible, although not in design mode. Full-screen viewer and export dialogs have "Hide annotations" option that does what you are looking for. This option also applies to components.

Note that with components you need to take extra care to ensure that hiding annotations doesn't change the origin and the size of the component. Otherwise the component will "jump" out of place in screens that use it.

Let me know if this is what you were looking for.

Setting width of table column/cells seems to set the minimum width. If the content of the cell is long, it will expand the column... I would like it to truncate the text instead (now I need to make sure that all my cells content shows truncated text so all my columns are visible).

I'll think about this although it might be tricky.

Still with tables, if you could resize the columns on the UI, that would be real nice.

I have this on my todo list. I added your vote to it.

And Still with tables, a horizontal scroll bar option (like the vertical) for a table would be good, particularly if wire framing a resizable window that is shown small (yes, you can put one on manually already).

Noted. However, could you give me more details about the UI you are wireframing? Truncating text and adding horizontal scroll bars looks like an UI design that should be used with caution, only in exceptional cases. This is why horizontal bar in tables is not an explicit option.

For text fields, it would be cool if you could say which way you want it to stretch to accommodate content. For example, No Auto Stretch (current behaviour), Auto Stretch Vertically, and Auto Stretch Horizontally. When editing the text it auto sizes the editor, but then when jumping back the control is not resized to fit all the lines. I have had a couple of occurrences where I have not noticed that I have hidden some lines in some annotation text.

You are right. Text auto-sizing is not something we handle very well. I'll see if we can do something about it.

Some things can't have links, e.g. tables, so you have to put something on top that can have links like a hotspot just to simulate for example where you would go on a double click of a table item. Links like in the Tree component for tables would be nice.

I have a similar request on my list. Are you looking to place links on entire rows? Or just on individual table cells?

Thanks Peter,

Shall try and reply with comments

...placing component... option to hide annotations...

This is already possible, although not in design mode. Full-screen viewer and export dialogs have "Hide annotations" option that does what you are looking for. This option also applies to components.

Thanks, I shall have a look at this... I think it still would be nice to have the option of being able to hide the annotations on a component view. For example, I have a dialog box annotated quite excessively, almost more for my own use. When I 'display' this dialog in a component over another wireframe (also another component) it would be nice to hide the annotations.

Currently I use another handy feature which seems to be called 'override properties', I go "into" the component, delete the annotations, and all is well. Updates made to the source of the component are still propagated to the component, so that is good, I am not sure on any other ramifications of deleting the annotations in the component view yet, but seems OK.

And Still with tables, a horizontal scroll bar option ... for a table would be good...

Noted. However, could you give me more details about the UI you are wireframing? Truncating text and adding horizontal scroll bars looks like an UI design that should be used with caution, only in exceptional cases. This is why horizontal bar in tables is not an explicit option.

Granted, not the greatest UI design if it was the default size, I mainly use it to show that a horizontal scroll bar would be visible if the user chose to resize the window to a small size

Some things can't have links, e.g. tables, ... Links like in the Tree component for tables would be nice.

I have a similar request on my list. Are you looking to place links on entire rows? Or just on individual table cells?.

In this situation, I was wanting to link the rows... the table is mimicking a list view type control.

Thanks for your feedback on my feedback :-)

Regards

Colin

Hi Colin,

Sorry, I missed the second part of your post to our spam filter. See my replies below.

Quick Add… would be nice if the new object appeared close to the mouse

Hm, taking in account mouse location can be tricky. How about zooming in on the region that you want to add the object to? There is also another trick that works although it might not be very intuitive. In Quick Add dialog, instead of pressing Enter to add the object, you can click on it and then place it with the mouse. Let me know if this works for you.

I am a bad speller… spell checking would be nice

This is on our list. I added your vote to it.

a more square'ish tab style option would be nice.

I was actually thinking about a better default style for tabs. Could you send me a screenshot with what you have in mind?

I was wanting to be able to set items as Annotations (to avoid export) and was looking for some type of annotation checkbox property in the properties, a little while later I noticed the popup menu item called 'Mark as Annotation'… aha, that does the trick - would it be good to include this in the properties too?

It's a good idea and I'll think about it. Since it's a property that applies to every object it needs to be always visible. So it potentially can make the properties view appear too crowded.

I have tried other similar priced products, one or two of which have more functionality in the event handling area, almost like a prototype rather than a wireframe, that could be an area for future development (?), but you would loose the ability to have simply an easy to print layout of all your screens… like I said, I have tried some of these others, but much prefer the layout and feel of your product :-)

Thank you for your kind words. You are not the first to ask for more prototyping options. We are considering it as a possibility although we want to be careful not to sacrifice current simplicity.

Quick Add… would be nice if the new object appeared close to the mouse

Hm, taking in account mouse location can be tricky. How about zooming in on the region that you want to add the object to? There is also another trick that works although it might not be very intuitive. In Quick Add dialog, instead of pressing Enter to add the object, you can click on it and then place it with the mouse. Let me know if this works for you.

Yes, I think knowing that does help :-)

a more square'ish tab style option would be nice.

I was actually thinking about a better default style for tabs. Could you send me a screenshot with what you have in mind?

Created an image with a few possibilities, quite like the properties tab layout as an option...

Wasn't sure where to send the image, so have attached it using the tinypic url you mention on the page below...

In the preview it doesn't look like it worked, so here is a link: link text (just in case)...

Colin, thanks for the image. It's a little overwhelming. Are you using all these tab styles in your wireframes? Side tabs (like in properties) are on my list.

Colin, thanks for the image. It's a little overwhelming. Are you using all these tab styles in your wireframes? Side tabs (like in properties) are on my list.

Sorry for that, just jotted some ideas down... have I used them all yet? No, not yet, only just getting started with WireframeSketcher :-)

I have only used the standard tabs so far, but for other projects I have sketched up the Eclipse property style tabs and the 90 degree text tabs in a prior drawing tool (the 90 degree text tabs were thought up by a web designer, but they got cut in the end... not sure if that is saying something about the 90 degree tabs :-) ).

Glad to here the Property style tabs are on the todo list, I think I will use (or at least sketch) these up in the future :-)

Regards Colin

Colin, I added support for left and right tab orientation. I also temporarily changed the look of tabs to square instead of angled. Here what it looks like:

Both of this changed are available in the development version here: http://wireframesketcher.com/staging

It would be great if you could give it a try and let me know how it works for you. I'd also like to hear whether square tab style works better for you or not.

Vertical tabs were finally added in version 3.8.1.