Another simple wish

rbuser

Hey, i'm talking as my customers... all changes and features are always
*simple* hehe
Well, it'll be nice to have the hability to lock the controls on it's
positions as you do in Delphi IDE.
thans
--
Guillermo Castaño Acevedo
Gerente de Sistemas - Grupo Millennium Ltda
GuillermoC@GrupoMillennium.com
www.GrupoMillennium.com
Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum viditur

rbuser

> Hey, i'm talking as my customers... all changes and features are always

I asked the same thing some time ago in the End Users designer
newsgroup, but never got a response to that. At least I think we mean
the same thing. Correct me if you meant something else.

The problem is that RB snaps to the absolute grid or every 8th pixel
while Delphi snaps to a grid relative to the current control position.

Snapping to the absolute grid is fine as long as one does not nudge. The
problem starts with nudging. For example say someone nudges a RB
component to the 7th pixel. Now she selects it and moves it a little
while holding the mouse. Releasing it will now snap it to the 8th pixel
instead of the original 7th one. This is very confusing and one has to
nudge it again to repair the difficult to see one pixel off error.

Borland noticed this problem and repaired it by using a relative grid.
When moving a component located at the 7th pixel it should snap at the
original position (7) and at the 15th pixel (7+8).

This would make moving nudged components a much more user friendly
experience. To get the component back to the original absolute grid a
"Align to Grid" option should be added (again just like Delphi does).

My customers using the End Users Designer will be eternally gratefull if
this feature was implemented. Right now we get a lot of "the component
magically changed position" complaints.

Jan Derk

rbuser

Actually i'm asking a more simple feature. Just to be able to lock the
control positions in order to can't accidentally move them when you're
selecting them to change it's properties.


--
Guillermo Castaño Acevedo
Gerente de Sistemas - Grupo Millennium Ltda
GuillermoC@GrupoMillennium.com
www.GrupoMillennium.com
Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum viditur

digitalmetaphors

Yes, the "Component Lock" is on our ToDo list. I think this would be a cool
feature, too.


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors Corp

rbuser

> Actually i'm asking a more simple feature. Just to be able to lock the


OK I see. Should have thought twice.

JD

rbuser

> Yes, the "Component Lock" is on our ToDo list. I think this would be a cool

Any comments on a Delphi like relative snap grid? I would like to know
your guys' opinion on that. Even if you think it's a useless waste of
time

JD

digitalmetaphors

If you go into the report designer's View menu, you'll see a Grid Options...
item. We introduced it, but took it back out of the product because of
bugs. The menu item was left in place, and it doens't do anything right
now. We are planning on adding this again, in the future.


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors Corp

rbuser

>>Any comments on a Delphi like relative snap grid? I would like to know


Hi Jim,

I know that the View Grid option is disabled, but that's not what I mean
with snap to a relative grid. Please reread my previous post carefully.
It's somewhat geeky, but it shows a clear problem. To try it yourself
please do the following with Grid snap on in ReportBuilder:

- Place two label components on a report. Put the second one on the
right of the first one so they are vertically aligned (Two labels are
not necessary, but it more clearly shows the alignment problem)

- Nudge them both 2 pixels down (they should still be vertically aligned)

- Now select the second one with your mouse and move it to the right.

The second label will now snap back to the old grid instead of relative
to it's current position. Even worse, if you select the second label and
start moving, then decide that you don't want to move it, you can't put
it back at it's position. You have to release it and again nudge it to
get it alignment right again. Delphi does not do this. It snaps the
control back to the last position.

If you try this in both RB and Delphi and you'll see why the Delphi
relative snapping is much user friendly than the current absolute
ReportBuilder snapping. IMHO if there was Delphi type snapping in
ReportBuilder, less users would ask for a control lock feature.

Fuzzy as it sounds, I hope you don't ignore this post but check this one
out carefully, as it really would improve the user friendlyness in
creating reports a lot.

Jan Derk

digitalmetaphors

Ok, I did what you said, but it just snaps to the grid, as I would expect
it. It seems to be the correct behavior, if not the desired one. I do like
the idea that it should be able to snap to the relative position so that it
would be reurned to its relative position, so you don't have to reshift it
by a pixel or two. Thanks for the suggestion.

Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors Corp

rbuser

> Ok, I did what you said, but it just snaps to the grid, as I would expect

Thanks for trying. I love the way you guys provide customer support. Yes
I agree, it's a feature, not a bug However, one which could be improved.


Glad you like it. It's my experience that most report designers notice
that moving components around in ReportBuilder is a little more awkward
than it is in Delphi, but most of them do not know why. I had the same
experience, and decided to find out why. That's when I discovered that
Delphi snapped relative.

JD