Suggestion:: White Space Only For Two Lines At buttom

[Jobol]

Hi,
Here is a suggestion that would be usefull for me, and I hope for others as well.

A "Visible Whitespace" option for two bottom line horizontal compare only!

That would be really useful in non cluttering the main view, but when you need more details in the bottom of the views, they are available.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Interesting idea... maybe in the right-click context menu right next to the ruler toggle?

[Jobol]

Excellent Idea. Could be at in the context menu, just below the ruler. And toggling On and Off the "Visible Whitespace" from the menu bar only affects the 2 main panes.

[Jobol]

I would love to hear Scooter Soft on this issue. What do you guys make of it?

[Tim]

I'm thinking about it.

[Michael Bulgrien]

And toggling On and Off the "Visible Whitespace" from the menu bar only affects the 2 main panes.

I would expect the functionality to be one of the two options below:

1) The visible whitespace toggle on the toolbar toggles white space on or off everywhere, and the Text Details toggle to only toggle visible whitespace in the text details. Not all users will want to change whitespace one place and not the other. Nor will they want to have to toggle two places to get visible whitespace both places. Advanced users that want to use the Text Details visible whitespaces toggle will probably be the minority.

In other words, if Text Details has whitespace showing and the main compare panels do not, then the visible whitespace toggle on the main toolbar would turn on visible whitespace for the main panels and turn it off for the text details. Clicking it again would turn off visible whitespace in the main panels and turn it back on in the Text Details.

or

2) The Text compare toggle is an override. If it is on, then whitespace in the Text Details is always stays on even if the user toggles the visible whitespace from the toolbar. If it is off, then the visible whitespace in the text details toggles along with everything else when the toolbar toggle is used.

[Tim]

Thanks, guys. We had settled on something like Michael's #2 suggestion.

[Jobol]

I would expect the functionality to be one of the two options below:

1) The visible whitespace toggle on the toolbar toggles white space on or off everywhere, and the Text Details toggle to only toggle visible whitespace in the text details. Not all users will want to change whitespace one place and not the other. Nor will they want to have to toggle two places to get visible whitespace both places. Advanced users that want to use the Text Details visible whitespaces toggle will probably be the minority.

In other words, if Text Details has whitespace showing and the main compare panels do not, then the visible whitespace toggle on the main toolbar would turn on visible whitespace for the main panels and turn it off for the text details. Clicking it again would turn off visible whitespace in the main panels and turn it back on in the Text Details.

or

2) The Text compare toggle is an override. If it is on, then whitespace in the Text Details is always stays on even if the user toggles the visible whitespace from the tool bar. If it is off, then the visible whitespace in the text details toggles along with everything else when the toolbar toggle is used.

IF I absolutely had to choose from these 2 choices, number 2 is my favorite, although I don't like either.

I would have had personally 2 independent toggles, because I will NOT see myself turning off the visible space in the bottom text compare pane often but a lot more often in the main panes, and this toggle independence give me the flexibility to toggle the main 2 panes to my hearts contents without affecting the bottom panes space visibility.

Or, here is another idea that should make all users happy, a button next to the toggle white space tool bar entry that will allow you to "link" toggable behavior of both the details and the main view together, so the toggle behave like it does now. You unlink the two, and you have the option of toggeling either seperatly. In that link, the main view toggle is the master and the details is the slave.

So for example, you set them up as "unlinked visible whitespace" (the link button is not active), and the bottom text is showing spaces and the main windows not showing spaces, hitting the "link" button, will remove the white spaces from the bottom view, since the main pane's visibility status is the master and it is turned off.

On the other hand, if you had the link button not selected, and the details are not showing white spaces, but the main views are, "linking them" (hitting link button) will add spaces to the details view, since the master's state is Space Visible = true.

When the visibile white spaces is linked ("link whitespace visibility" button selected), the additional "white space toggle" entry in the contextual menu of the two lines detail view at the bottom would be grayed out.

Now if you "unlink" them, there is 2 options, either that the line details pane remember the last setting before the link and comes back to it, or assumes the visibility status of the current toolbar visible white space status. The second way is less confusing, the first is more "flexible". It is no biggie really and either way will do.

The application starts with the link button selected, so the behavior is exactly like it is now


Here is what I am talking about. Pardon my paint skills.



Tell me what you think!

[Jobol]

Hey guys, no reply on my suggestion above?

Is it my picaso-like skilles that turned you off?

[Tim]

Sorry I wasn't more definitive in my last post -- We had already changed the behavior Friday morning. I appreciate your suggestion, but I think adding another toolbutton would be over-designing the issue.

[Jobol]

Sorry I wasn't more definitive in my last post -- We had already changed the behavior Friday morning. I appreciate your suggestion, but I think adding another toolbutton would be over-designing the issue.

All right, can't wait to see what you guys designed.

[ron]

Where's the Text Compare toggle?

[Tim]

As I mentioned, it will be in the next release. (We haven't had a release since 12/17.)

[ron]

Ok. This will be very handy and I intend to leave it on as the single line view is always where I go when I want to know 'exactly' what makes this line different.

[Jobol]

Yeah, I am still waiting for that release too.

I think this feature will make a great addition. It doesn't clutter the main view, but it still gives you the max details on the line by line compare.