Improved Navigator Panel Slider Bar and added Navigator Icon
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@vectoradmin
User Interface Improvement:
I would like to see three Improvements to Navigator.
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Add a Navigator Icon (A Magnifying Glass or similar) at the bottom right hand corner of of the Workspace where the Artboard vertical and horizontal “scroll” bars would meet. CorelDRAW (*see below) has this and it provides quick easy access without being Intrusive.
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Make the Proxy Preview Area Larger. Not only does the Proxy Preview viewing area seem small and therefore hard to see, there appears to be a lot of unused/wasted black border space around the viewable area. Seems like you could make the Artboard/proxy viewing area quite a bit larger without taking up any additional total panel space- and it would be so much easier to see and use.
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Improve the Navigator Slider Bar. Right now it is a little hard to control. I think it is because it has such a short horizontal traveling range, it can be sensitive and jump in large increments. Maybe you could relocate the Slider Bar to a place where you could have more horizontal space to allow a wider travel range. An alternative spot for it could be to place it between the Viewing Pane and the Rotating and Zooming drop-down controls.
One thing interesting is that in CorelDRAW, if you use the Shortcut Key to bring up the Navigator Panel, the Panel appears wherever your Cursor happens to be on the Artboard at that time you use the shortcut command.
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@vectoradmin,
Oops, this topic was accidentally originally posted in the "Bugs" section. I tried to delete it but it still shows up "dimmed/grayed out" there.
I re-posted it here in the correct Features and Ideas section.
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@vectoradmin,
Great job on the changes to Navigator Panel with the Larger proxy window preview and the Relocated zoom slider bar. You nailed points 2 & 3 of my suggestions in the original post. This is a SIGNIFICANT improvement. Thank you!
.Could you please make two further refinements to the Navigator Panel?
- Slightly Enlarge the minus (-) and plus (+) Magnifying Glass Icons found on each end of the Slider Bar so they are easier to see.
There appears to be room/space within the current “buttons” size to increase the Icon size a little bit; although it probably will require the “row” be made slightly taller in order to fit acceptable sized larger Buttons/Icons.
The Slider bar and ball handle size are just fine the way they currently are, so no need to change that.
- For the “box” position indicator (that shows where your zoom position is at), use a slightly Thicker Outline, in Red Color (instead of black). I think it would make it easier to see and use. Adobe Illustrator has it that way and it seems to be quite effective.
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Hopefully you can add a Navigator Icon the Workspace (shown in original post) to provide quick and easy access to the Panel without being Intrusive. This may already be in your backlog?
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@Vector-Rock said in Improved Navigator Panel Slider Bar and added Navigator Icon:
@vectoradmin,
There appears to be room/space within the current “buttons” size to increase the Icon size a little bit; although it probably will require the “row” be made slightly taller in order to fit acceptable sized larger Buttons/Icons.Yes, not by much if the icons would be like this — the loupe bigger than the (slightly thinner) handle:
Also: I think the slider (not the slider handle) should be darker than the panel background, and a 'Rotate' icon next to the canvas rotation field wouldn't hurt.
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Another variant would be a small zoom out loupe on the left and a bigger zoom in loupe on the right:
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@Vector-Rock Yes, the Navigator Icon in Workspace is still in the backlog, just prioritizing bugs first
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@vectoradmin,
I thought it might be helpful to list a Summary the of Suggested Improvements to the Navigator Panel:
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Increased button Row Height to accommodate Larger Minus (-) and Plus Magnifying Glass Icons (better visbility)
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Thicker Outline, in Red Color, for the “Zoom Position Indicator Box” (better visibility)
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Eliminate the “Shading” in the Panel (better visibility)
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Add a Rotation Icon to the Bottom Far Left Side of the Panel to the left of the Numerical Entry Field (new feature)
-- Icon used to toggle between Lock (Disable) and Unlock (Enable). Eliminate the Fly-out menu item for “Allow Rotating”.
-- Add a Dropdown Arrow Icon to the right of the Numerical Entry Field with preset options (15 degree increments)- (New suggestion) -
Hold down Shift Key while rotating Inside the Navigator Panel to Constrain rotation to 15 degree increments or Preference settings. (New suggestion)
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Left Click with the Black Arrow Key (anywhere Outside of the “Zoom Position Indicator Box”), to instantly Move to where the "Point" of the Black Arrow is "Positioned".
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Add a Navigator Icon in the Workspace for easy panel access.
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Bug Fixes:
- Black Arrow Icon changes to "Hand" Icon when "hovered over" the “Zoom Position Indicator Box” at high zoom levels, allowing left click and drag to reposition the box.
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*EDIT: Missed an item. Added another item to list.
- Rendering issues: Objects sometimes only partially render or not at all in Navigator Panel.
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@vectoradmin,
Really great job implementing improvements in the Navigator Panel. Fantastic job!! Thank you!:
Obviously I need more time testing, but a couple of initial observations:
- Love the Red Zoom Position Indicator Box” with No Shading. Much easier to see now!
- Clicking outside the Zoom Position Indicator Box with the Black Arrow and the Hand icon actually showing up when hovered over the box and being able to drag to pan makes the Navigator Panel usable now!
- Rotation Icon makes for a better UI. Nice improvement compared to being "hidden" in the fly-out menu.
- Shift (15 Degree increments) with Rotate seems to work very nicely.
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A couple of questions:
Navigator Icon:- Could you add the Option of Opening up the Navigator Panel by using a Double Click on the Navigator Icon ?
It would be a nice shortcut to getting to the panel compared to the using the Application Menu (Panel->Editing->Navigator).
- Is there a way you could make the Navigator Icon Larger ? Maybe about double the size.
This would be helpful for the newly added (and excellent) Scrolling Arrow Icon buttons you just added as well. Maybe make the horizontal (row) and vertical (column) wider to accommodate larger Navigator and Scrolling Arrow Icons.
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Would it much trouble/feasable in making the Magnifying Glass Icons any larger?
Maybe slightly shorten horizontally the Slider Bar area and make the Magnifying Glass/Slider Bar "row" a little taller to accommodate the larger size icon buttons. -
There seems some quite a bit of "lag" (latency?) between when you drag the slider bar and the box actually changing its size. It doesn't change size as you are dragging for a little while and then it kind of "jumps" and catches up. Do you think anything could be done to help that ?
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@Vector-Rock said in Improved Navigator Panel Slider Bar and added Navigator Icon:
@vectoradmin,
- Could you add the Option of Opening up the Navigator Panel by using a Double Click on the Navigator Icon ?
I agree, that would be nice.
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- Is there a way you could make the Navigator Icon Larger ? Maybe about double the size.
This would be helpful for the newly added (and excellent) Scrolling Arrow Icon buttons you just added as well. Maybe make the horizontal (row) and vertical (column) wider to accommodate larger Navigator and Scrolling Arrow Icons.
The scrollbars are at standard width, I think. Making them wider just so the Navigator button and icon can be bigger doesn't seem like a worthy compromise, IMO.
Assuming that only the icon of the button needs to look bigger (not the button itself), it can be made like this — a small but visible difference:
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- Would it much trouble/feasible in making the Magnifying Glass Icons any larger?
@vectoradmin They can be made a bit larger with (almost) no changes to the slider length — just make the loupe slightly larger than the handle.
To recap:
- loupe slightly bigger;
- handle a bit shorter AND thinner (make it filled but thinner).
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- Could you add the Option of Opening up the Navigator Panel by using a Double Click on the Navigator Icon ?
Yes, this can be added.
- Is there a way you could make the Navigator Icon Larger ? Maybe about double the size.
I would keep the scrollbar sizes, maybe making the icon a bit larger in the available space.
- Would it much trouble/feasable in making the Magnifying Glass Icons any larger?
Maybe slightly shorten horizontally the Slider Bar area and make the Magnifying Glass/Slider Bar "row" a little taller to accommodate the larger size icon buttons.
Will do so.
- There seems some quite a bit of "lag" (latency?) between when you drag the slider bar and the box actually changing its size. It doesn't change size as you are dragging for a little while and then it kind of "jumps" and catches up. Do you think anything could be done to help that ?
I will have to check the root cause of this. Added to the backlog.
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@vectoradmin said in Improved Navigator Panel Slider Bar and added Navigator Icon:
- Could you add the Option of Opening up the Navigator Panel by using a Double Click on the Navigator Icon ?
Yes, this can be added.
- Is there a way you could make the Navigator Icon Larger ? Maybe about double the size.
I would keep the scrollbar sizes, maybe making the icon a bit larger in the available space.
- Would it much trouble/feasable in making the Magnifying Glass Icons any larger?
Maybe slightly shorten horizontally the Slider Bar area and make the Magnifying Glass/Slider Bar "row" a little taller to accommodate the larger size icon buttons.
Will do so.
- There seems some quite a bit of "lag" (latency?) between when you drag the slider bar and the box actually changing its size. It doesn't change size as you are dragging for a little while and then it kind of "jumps" and catches up. Do you think anything could be done to help that ?
I will have to check the root cause of this. Added to the backlog.
@vectoradmin,
I really appreciate you accommodating these additional requests for improvement and refinement.
This is a tool that is undoubtedly used heavily as a day-to-day staple, so it's important that it is not an eye stain to use and operates at a high level.
Regarding increasing the Size of the Navigator Icon: Just to clarify, I wasn't recommending any significant increasing in the Scrollbar size, just a small amount If necessary. I figured if you did that, combined with making the Icon the maximum size in the available space, you could get a reasonably larger size. I know you'll do the best you can on this.
Of course, it will take more "use time" to make sure there are not any bugs, but just to reiterate, you really have done a fabulous job on this feature so far.
