15 replies to this topic

[Xillion]

When I'm working with the TNxPageControl it happens that there are more tabs than fit on the width of the PageControl. When that happens you can scroll trough the tabs with the two little arrows (if you have the pgScrollButton option enabled).

I often get the remark from users that they are "missing a tab". When I point out the scroll arrows the reaction usually is any variation of "oh, I haven't noticed!" The arrows don't really stand out, and it's escpecialy hard to notice when some tabs are out of the visible part (one of the arrows just colors black). Even when users know there are more tabs the the one visible on screen, they tend to forget about them after a while (*sigh*... users ;-) ).

Therefore I think it would be great to use multi-line tabs. When there are more tabs than can fit in the width of the PageControl, they "overflow" to a second line. More or less like word wrapping. You can get this behaviour in Delphi if you have GExperts installed and enable the "multiline tabs" option.

This way users have all the tabs visible at all times, and you only use the height of one line of tabs of usable form space. I think this is a very usefull feature which is more intuitive for users, and you will get less questions

As an intermediate solution it would be nice if you could use your own bitmaps for the buttons so you can make them stand out more and make it easyier to see.


Regards,

Stijn.

[Boki (Berg)]

Hello Stijn,

I have try to mimic Vistual Studio 2005+ tabs, and I have bring exact design to TNxPageControl. I will think about Multi-line tabs, but this require a lot of work. If I started on it, I will need some time to complete this feature.

But, it is a good idea to puth other (custom) glyphs for arrows. I will most probably add it.

Best regards

[Xillion]

I understand that this will be a lot of work. It's not the easiest thing to do neighter I think...
I am however convinced that the end users will greatly benifit from this. Just give it some tought.

In the meantime the custom glyphs could improve visibility of the precence of non visible tabs a lot, and will be less work for you

Thx for concidering the request.


Best regards.

[Boki (Berg)]

Hello Stijn,

I will definitelly need to think carefully first and then decide. But, adding custom glyphs is a quite simpler.

Best regards

[AIM]

What would probably make things much more clear for the end user is to display tabs partially which doesn't fully fit into view (between last fully displayed tab and scroll buttons).

I have try to mimic Vistual Studio 2005+ tabs, and I have bring exact design to TNxPageControl.

What doesn't mean that everything is better than in the default page control.

The feature above and full tab scrolling (instead of a-few-pixel-scrolling) would make the pagecontrol much handier than the current one if it comes to scrolling.

[Boki (Berg)]

Hello Aim,

You are correct, sometime 100% following MS's controls is not a good idea

I will think also about drawing Tab partially. This may be one more step before Multi-line tabs.

Best regards

[emailaya]

there are some old requests regarding nxPageControl

1) combo that contains all tabs for a quick switch
2) scrollers wont be visible unless needed (currently the scrollers are there even when not needed and users think they dont work)
3) clicking once on a scroller, should immediately show fully the next tab (which is out of view) instead of scrolling 1 pixel to the right/left

i think there were more, but those are the main ones that i remember

[Xillion]

The idea of the "quick switch combo" is a nice one. But also scrolling an entire tab is one I had on my list but forgot to mention This would also improve the usability for the end-user a lot.
About the scrolbtns beïng visible or not, if Boki implements custom glyphs for the scroll buttons it shouldn't be too hard to make a clear difference between an enabled button or a disabled button. We do the same with normal buttons don't we?

Another idea is to have an option to show the close button on the right side of the tabs itself (like firefox for example) and/or an option to close a tab on dubbleclick. The latter one I have implemented myself, but it would be less work to just set an option to true

[emailaya]

i already set doubleclick to close a tab
but a user of mine also wanted middle click to do so
so i added this one as well

a property to do so is a good idea, but since different users want different things (doubleclick/middleclick)
i guess having a property for all combinations might be too much

[Xillion]

Maybe, but as a good lazy programmer...

However doubleclick could help in most of the situations. People are already used to double clicking.

[emailaya]

that's what i thought
but that guy is used to middle clicking
and is sure that so is everybody else ;-)

[Xillion]

Lol, most people don't even know that there is a middle button, or what the heck the can do with it. But this is a bit off-topic. I'm curious what Boki's view is on all the idea's that are beïng tossed around.

[Boki (Berg)]

Hello,

Drop-down list with tab names is in developement, and it will be added

Best regards

[Boki (Berg)]

Hello,

I have allmost finish Drop-down list with tab names. I am planing to relase new version with minor updates and this feature in Monday.

Best regards

[Xillion]

The tabs popup is quite nice! Very handy.

If you promise to implement custom glyphs for the scrollbuttons (and the tabs popup button), I promise I'll shut up a while about the multiline tabs

[Boki (Berg)]

Hello Stijn,

This feature is next to add

Best regards