Jay Popup Panes fixes/update: 🤩😍🤗
Thank you so much for the option to open from RMB, and thanks for making the new popup not take on the source Pane’s filters! What do you think about also adding “open in popup” to the mirror/link “tally box” modal? That would really make my day!
BTW you’re using some of these icons inconsistently, which could confuse users (and sometimes trips me up, too):
box with diagonal arrow out icon is used both for RMB “move/copy/link/mirror” and for “open in popup” from the global search results. Also, it really looks like a typical “share” icon.magnifying glass with + icon is used for RMB “open in new pane” but in global search it’s just a plain +. Neither of these seem appropriate, honestly.
I don’t know if you’re choosing from a menu of pre-made icons or have to create them, so apologies if this is asking too much, but my suggestions are something like:
for “move”, “open in popup”, and “open in new pane”, respectively. These would be more consistent with each other as well as the “new pane” icon used on the Board Bar.
Jay What did you mean by “no way to transition from them to the main workflow”? Do you mean dragging into the active board? Or something else?
Yes, what I had in mind was dragging – or otherwise “sending” via another mechanism – popups onto the Board behind them. For those times when you start working in a Popup but then realize you shoulda opened a regular Pane instead. I don’t recall if I said that in the context of bugs or features, but that would surely be a new feature, not a bugfix. Albeit a very slick one 🤨
Jay Could you share a video of the pane drag handle being non-existant on narrow panes? It seems to be fine for me… It may be browser specific - is it in the app or in which browser?
This plagues me in windows desktop, but it’s not an issue of app behavior – the top row of the Pane Toolbar is just too crowded. If you name your pane with anything but a single word, and have more than 1-2 filters applied, the drag-space (which isn’t explicitly defined to start with) disappears – worse if the pane is narrower than “normal”, even by a little bit. IF you’re using Advanced Filters, it’s even worse. This is beyond a “friction” for me, as I’m unable to drag the vast majority of my Panes without first resizing them. I’ve taken to naming panes with emoji to help, but that’s limiting and not fully effective.
The root cause is that you’re trying to display two variable-width and potentially-long elements in the same space…along with 5 buttons. That’s a lot! So, some ideas about ways to address that, from “band-aid” all the way to “rearrange toolbar”:
1) A fixed “grab handle” element that can’t be shifted or erased by resizing other content. Where to put it without making the clutter worse? Maybe add a few pixels of grey buffer to the top of the toolbar and place a “bar” handle similar to how Apple does it in PadOS. The lost Pane real estate would be worth it.
2) Keyboard modifier for dragging Pane Toolbars; holding it down turns the toolbar grey or dim and causes the whole toolbar to become a grab handle. Unhelpful for mouse users.
3) Right-click drag anywhere on Pane toolbar.
4) “Arrange Panes” command in the kebab menu, which temporarily turns the entire area of all Panes into giant grab handles; they can then all be rearranged. Inelegant but effective, could be used for future “tiled” arrangements of Panes, but that’s not high on my personal list.
5) Move filters to the second row, replacing breadcrumbs. This is my strong favorite. It may seem extreme but I think it would have a number of positive effects, such as:
- Much more space for Pane names, even in narrow panes
- Room to fully display text of Advanced Filters – today I paste these into TextEdit to work with them!
- Cleaner UI without redundant breadcrumbs
- Allows right-justifying all the top-row buttons (back, expand-all, pane options) – and spreading them out a bit – making them easier to find and use because they’re bigger, and don’t slide around as the Filters change (so frustrating when doing multiple ‘back’ clicks).
- Opens the door for a future “hide filter toolbar” feature, which could give us some very tidy-looking Boards, indeed. Nice for templates and sharing.
Breadcrumbs are already present in the Zoom Header and need not be repeated here. If user really wants breadcrumbs in the Toolbar, just don’t name the pane. It’s a very reasonable tradeoff to ask users to make.
