archimatetool / archi

Archi: ArchiMate Modelling Tool
https://www.archimatetool.com
MIT License
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UX of element appearance settings in Properties window #904

Closed Yame12 closed 1 year ago

Yame12 commented 1 year ago

Hi, I use this tool almost for 2 years now. It's a great help for my daily work. But I find the order of the controls in the Properties/Appearance window still confusing/unnatural.

image

The fill settings are distributed on multiple places - Fill Colour on top, Gradient in the middle, Fill Opacity at bottom. Same goes for Line settings - Colour in line 2 and the related Opacity setting at the bottom right. Out would be a more natural workflow to have it grouped together, eg.

Second suggestion: While a "correct" order of the settings might be subjective, the fixed 2-column layout is somewhat impractical - especially on smaller screens where space is limited.

If the Properties Window is docked to the side with limited width - I need to scroll horizontally to get to the settings on the right: image

If properties are docked to the bottom, I need to scroll vertically. Although in this case at least you can use the mouse wheel, but there is also big empty space which is practically unused. image

Would it be possible to have the number of columns used responsive to the window size, similar to the Palette?

Best regards, Enrico

Phillipus commented 1 year ago

If the Properties Window is docked to the side with limited width - I need to scroll horizontally to get to the settings on the right:

There is a setting in the local menu "Single Column Layout" (User Guide page 51) that might help.

Would it be possible to have the column layout responsive to the window size, similar to the Palette?

For technical reasons, no.

Yame12 commented 1 year ago

Hi Philipus, thanks for the quick hint - I never noticed this setting. It solves at least the horizontal scrolling issue ;-)