Michael Matti's dashboard

Michael Matti started following the idea "Radio buttons and checkboxes: Default value" in EaSynth.

A comment on the idea "Feature request: Control over table row alternate-row shading" in EaSynth:

Just tried it out, and it works great. Thank you. – Michael Matti, on November 19, 2009 04:51

A comment on the idea "Synchronize as png." in Balsamiq:

Just tried it, and it works, and it covers most of the requests I get to see UI interactions (on machines other than my own). This is terrific. – Michael Matti, on November 10, 2009 17:25

A comment on the idea "Synchronize as png." in Balsamiq:

Was all excited until I tried that link. Copy 'n' paste glitch? – Michael Matti, on November 10, 2009 14:19

A comment on the idea "Border for image component" in Balsamiq:

Agree with Andi ... better to resize the source image than bump out the size of the image component. When I place and size an image component, I expect those dimensions to stick (unless, of course, I hit that "autosize" button). – Michael Matti, on November 09, 2009 15:34

Michael Matti replied on November 04, 2009 05:22 to the idea "Feature request: Control over table column alignment" in EaSynth:

Glad you like this and think it's do-able. My first thought was to use angle-brackets as the markup, but I wasn't sure they would survive the text editing field. :)

A comment on the idea "Feature request: Control over table row alternate-row shading" in EaSynth:

Love the creativity of that two-table header trick, but having a shade color property sounds like a good solution. – Michael Matti, on November 04, 2009 05:16

Michael Matti started following the question "Insert a mockup by reference instead of copy..." in Balsamiq.

Michael Matti shared an idea in EaSynth on November 03, 2009 18:11:

Feature request: Control over table column alignment

This might be tricky to implement, but I figure there's no harm in asking: would it be possible to add right and center alignment to table columns?

I use a lot of tables in my screens, and most of them hold numeric values, and those columns are supposed to be right-aligned according to the design spec, to ensure clarity when scanning through values. But there's no way to show that in the rendered tables, which means my screenshots and demos are contradicting the spec.

I'm imagining a bit of markup in the first line of the table's text content, something like:

Alpha,Beta,]Gamma,]Delta
text,text,number,number

Where the "]" or maybe a right-angle-bracket would be the cue to right-align the column's content. Presumably, style statements would do the dirty work in the HTML.

Is this practical? It would make the tables a lot more realistic.

Thanks.

Michael Matti shared an idea in EaSynth on November 03, 2009 17:58:

Feature request: Control over table row alternate-row shading

This is closely related to the earlier request for setting individual table row colors:

getsatisfaction.com/easynth/topics/is_it_possible_to_set_an_individual_table_row_color

Our in-house standards call for the first table row to be white, then the second one shaded, and so on. ForeUI shades the first row, then makes the second one white, etc. That's fine, except there's no way in the table's properties panel to switch the order (let alone control row colors, which would also be a solution).

As a result, I've started passing around mockups that contradict our design standards, and it has led to a little confusion. If control over row colors isn't practical at this point, could we at least have a checkbox to reverse the row shading order?

Thanks much.

Michael Matti reported a problem in EaSynth on November 03, 2009 04:29:

Windows desktop: Double-clicking .4ui file opens new app, not new tab

It's nice to have multiple tabs for keeping plots open in ForeUI, so I was surprised to find that double-clicking filename.4ui in a desktop folder doesn't open it in a new tab, but opens an entire new ForeUI session -- you wind up with two (or more) instances of the entire application.

For some reason this doesn't happen under Mac OS X (just checked). Can you have the Windows build behave the same way, and make .4ui files opened from the desktop load as multiple tabs in a single application session?

A comment on the idea "Border for image component" in Balsamiq:

Ahh ... glad to see this wasn't forgotten. Looks great, but there's one glitch: by default, an imported image isn't given a border, but the "show border" checkbox is checked in its property panel. If you uncheck it, then recheck it, the image border is shown. Just looks like the default state for that checkbox should be flipped.

Thanks! – Michael Matti, on November 02, 2009 13:59

Michael Matti started following the idea "Element request: Side Tab bar" in EaSynth.

A comment on the problem "Button size is reset if I edit the button text" in EaSynth:

Yes, I can see it as a global option. Maybe under Edit in the settings, where "Auto adjust Z value" is controlled. – Michael Matti, on October 29, 2009 03:42

Michael Matti gave praise in EaSynth on October 28, 2009 18:25:

New chart elements are superb

Just had a chance, for the first time, to try out the chart elements that I'd asked about a few weeks back. Thanks for adding them so quickly to ForeUI, and for the way they've been built: that "Shuffle" button is a bit of genius.

Since the whole point is to create vaguely realistic dummy charts, the ability to click that button once or twice to get a randomized result saves a whole lot of work. One of my projects is a dashboard application design, so you can see how helpful this can be.

Much appreciated.

Michael Matti shared an idea in EaSynth on October 28, 2009 17:24:

Feature request: Sticky settings in Export Image dialog

Thanks again for the recent addition of "use page title in file name" as an export image option -- it really helps with workflow and keeping track of where screenshots came from.

Like most people, my workflow habits are consistent, which means I'd like to use the same output methodology each time. However, the export dialog defaults to "export current page only" as the selected button and "use page index in file name" as the pulldown once I switch to "export all pages".

Would save a lot of repetitive clicking (and mistakes) if the button and pulldown settings were retained between export actions. At the very least during the same ForeUI session, and ideally even between sessions. Would also like to retain the last-used file name stem, since that's another area of repetition.

Michael Matti shared an idea in EaSynth on October 28, 2009 17:10:

Feature request: Scrollbars as container element attributes

As I've settled into daily use of ForeUI, have started to notice the little details that add up to wasted time. Right now, adding scrollbars to a table, tab set, tree, or text area is a manual process of dragging-in, re-orienting, and careful positioning -- all of which has to be repeated whenever the parent element is moved or resized.

This gets old real quick. Could horizontal and vertical controls be added as optional attributes for containers, so that they move and resize with the container automatically? Would be nice to include a thickness stepper, but I mostly want a set-and-forget checkbox to have a scrollbar render as needed.

Michael Matti started following the question "Feature Request: accordian style ui element" in EaSynth.

A comment on the problem "Button size is reset if I edit the button text" in EaSynth:

Hmm ... a surprisingly subtle subject. I almost always change the text first and then resize from the auto-sized result, since the calculated button height is generally higher than I want. This is true of both buttons and comboboxes. Then, when the inevitable relabeling is needed, I wind up having to correct (every single time) the auto-sizing that ForeUI applies.

Could the program keep an internal flag for these elements that indicates whether manual resizing has been applied? From that point on, no more auto-resizing, but the user can still click that little Auto Size button. In fact -- now that I think about it -- maybe Auto Size could be a sticky toggle like Position Lock, with the default set to "on" but switch-off-able by the user for that element. Wouldn't that be the best of both worlds? – Michael Matti, on October 28, 2009 15:24

A comment on the idea "Feature request: Viewable/editable opacity values" in EaSynth:

In fact, that's exactly what I was thinking. I'm assuming the slider and stepper are bound to each other, so any change in one is real-time reflected in the other. This will save a lot of trouble ... much appreciated. – Michael Matti, on October 28, 2009 15:10