Jay BUGS Update:
@Jay The Usability issue Re: clearing filters is still an obstacle for me. See below to illustrate exactly how small the click-target is, if you want to place insertion point at end of filter-text (to add text) but not click the ‘x’ button (‘x’ button is highlighted via mouseover to show its edges):
I know originally I said my preference was to clear ALL filters with the ‘x’ button, but after real-world usage I’ve changed my mind. Being able to blow away all the text (basically toggle the text filter OFF, as if it were one of the other icons) but still leave other filters (especially hide: complete) would be a LOT more useful than clearing all filters. It made sense on principle, but in actual usage I see that I was wrong. It would be very cool if Ctrl+click on the ‘x’ did clear ALL filters, so we do have a quick option for doing that.
Re: size of filter dialog obscuring Pane results. What if the filter dialog box didn’t open when using Alt+F to move focus to the text box (but still opens when clicking)? If user’s intent is to enter text then they will be heading to the keyboard anyway. I like the current size of the dialog and buttons, as it makes the click-targets generous for fast clicking. I don’t generally need to see the Pane contents in detail while using the button-filters, but I do sometimes want better visibility when using text filters, as @andrew initially described.
andrew For the “back” button I do prefer that all my changes from a single invocation of the filter dialog are “backed”, rather than one-by-one. I am most often using this feature to return to a custom filter-state after clearing them all to hunt for an errant item. However it sounds like you’re describing expand/collapse operations getting rolled up into the filter’s changes as a single “back” event, which does sound undesirable.
