madprops
Alphabetize the settings list?
Hello! A small remark, but each time I see it it bothers a bit my common sense, and I just suppose it could help find quicker a setting.
So the Settings list doesn't seem to have any order, I don't see resaon for an item to be in place 3 or another in place 4. Just alphabetizing this list could be better? There are 26 (+ More), that is not so quick to read. And of course also maybe for instance "General" could yet be kept on top, but "More" of course on the bottom. One can also imagine 2 or 3 big categories, like a one concerning the tabs/items list in itself (Close, Zones, Pinline...) idk.
Yes the order is somewhat arbitrary. Maybe you're right. I'll check to see how it looks with alphabetical order.
I just read them this way in new release, yes I found it better! Not enormous interface difference/improvement, but now finding a setting should be quicker normally...
And: -This is a shorter list, but for tidying and also for an addon "rules coherence", I guess that the settings appearing with right-click on a tab could be alphabetized too? But Mute/Unmute is a special case, as they should better be near each other... But not alphabetizing under a certain number of elements can also maybe be a rule... -Still the possibility to make also 2 or 3 big categories in the 26 Settings (one possibly being "misc"). But not sure at all.
Much talking for small details but an addon is also an addition of small details for interface I guess!
Just another place, that would probably benefit yet more of alphabetizing.
That is Settings > Favorites > Several items of Favorites Menu (Add etc). I counted ~490 choices. So alphabetizing could be yet more helping than in the 26 settings.
Also, I just wanted to add Windows in Favorites, ~500 items would have been long to read, fortunately the "window" icon helped, so I found it "not too slow" by scrolling with the "bottom" arrow of my keyboard. But it would surely have been much faster with alphabetizing (or with a filter maybe, or both). But also, in this specific case, it was called "Focus window", so alphabetizing wouldn't have worked. So even if less good for hearing/reading, it should probalbly better be called something like "Window focus" or "Window: focus" (but I'm not english speaker...), and probably several other should be renamed to work with alphabetizing if it is adopted in this place...
I'll add a setting to alphabetize commands.
But please I hope you know you can filter commands by typing when the menu with the commands appears. You just press letters and it starts filtering. It's the only sane way to pick commands.
Also counting commands manually is too much work. Here's a tip, in the About window, if you hover the grasshopper, you will see some information in the tooltip, including the amount of available commands and settings.
2 new settings in General to control how the palette is sorted and how menus are sorted.
The palette is what you can open with ctrl+ctrl or Cmd...
Menus are what you use to select commands like in Favorites.
None uses the normal sorting as defined by myself.
Recent is sorted by recent use, last used at the top.
Alpha sorts commands alphabetically.
I see, then sorry for the mistake (no I didn't know this way to filter), and thank you for explanation, and for new settings. Indeed digging manually through 500 items is not a very "sane way"!
Yet (always something to add...):
- For me, to set Command Menu Sort on [Recent] or on [Alpha] doesn't apply in Favorites commands menu, I restarted FF to see if the update was better applied but same result. I use sidebar (not tried on popup), I tried under FF ESR and FF Snap, and in fact I saw that a choice is taken into account when I close and reopen the sidebar (Ctrl+Shift+Space shortcut).
- Maybe (?) my mistake was a bit "normal", I don't say it to excuse myself, but to point out that maybe other users risk to make the same mistake (?). As on this addon, to filter I am a bit used to fields that look like a more usual filter/search field, but in this case I only see a field [--Separator--], that must be useful to show this interesting line possible to add (it must be the goal for this?), but which lost me, and maybe then could loose other users. So my opinion would be that maybe the typing feature to filter the commands should be a more common [Filter] field for more simplicity and less risks for a user to be lost like I have been. But it is just what I think in my head, idk, maybe other users will be more clever than me when coming to this feature. But I thought it is possible enough to be worth mentioning.
Oh you mean sort the Favorite commands you already added.
I'll add a setting to Favorites to control sort.
Btw you can also re-order items in the menu, in the setting if you click List, you can click-hold and move the items up and down. But i'll also add some sorting setting.
Command Menu Sort now is used to to sort menus. This includes the Favorites menu. You can set it to alpha.
It is me who is sorry for the misunderstandings! So (if I understood!!):
- No I wasn't talking at all about the Favorites menu/panel in itself, the one where you can add commands on the vertical bar, personnally I have only 10 for the moment, and I sort them manually, so I didn't have thought about alphabetizing them, but probably a user can like it. But also, this setting, Settings > General > Command Menu Sort, it doesn't work on my FF (ESR 128.6, under Lubuntu 22.04 OS). And it doesn't apply at all now in Favorites menus (~490 commands), even after close/open the sidebar.
- I think I had understood and followed what you had answered to me yes, I try to resume: I was gone to Settings > Favorites > Favorites Menu > Add to add a windows list command to the Favorites panel. It had been long to find it with scrolling because there are ~490 commands, the window icon had helped me to find quicker, but I asked if possible to aphabetize them so in my case I could have found windows list command yet quicker (in fact in this specific case it didn't work as name was "Focus window", so F). In your answer you added this alphabetizng feature, but said also that filtering was the only sane way to find a command in here. So I answered 2 things: -Thank you for the alphabetizing feature but it seems buggy (and now yet more). -In this place (still the same place, NOT the Favorites panel), yes for sure I agreed that filtering is saner than scrolling, with ~490 items, even with alphabetizing (it being yet probably a useful new feature too). But I didn't have though about doing it because, I guess, there wasn't a usual Filter field, but instead an item showing [--Separator--] in its place, that left me without the idea of searching by filtering. So I imagined that maybe I will not be the only one trapped by this, so maybe to avoid it, it would be better to put here a more common Filter field aspect, like [Filter] or [Command] like in the palette (grayed), or a tooltip explaining "You can filter", etc... At least it was really my personnal impression, if I open the Palette I know right away that I can find a command by filtering, while when opening the Favorites menu I didn't see something telling me this.
A bit too long text! I think I will give up if not OK this time or I will end up with writing a book.
Maybe an explanation, that is that I didn'nt explain clearly enough what I have seen, and in fact it is simply a bug, it shouldn't be this way (?):
- Ctrl+Ctrl: first item I see on top of the popup is [| Command (239) ]. Cursor blinking and text grayed, so I automatically see I can filter by typing text.
- Settings > Favorites > Favorites Menu > Add: first item I see on top of the popup is [ --Separator-- ]. Not grayed, when I saw this strange item I haven't had the idea that I could filter like in the first example.
ctrl+ctrl is the command palette. This is a special popup to run commands.
When you add commands to a menu like favorites, it uses another thing. They won't be sorted, but you can filter by typing, as you now now.
Command Menu Sort should now sort the other menus that appears, like when you right click the favorites bar.
I'll add a Sort option that you will be able to access on Data, on the menu settings.
OK thank you I tried it, so it sorts them well in alphabetic order. I think that alphabetizing (and/or making categories) is yes useful to find quick an element when you have 20+ or even 8+, appreciated esp. if you do it several times a day.
For the previous answer, then I was mistaking sorry, so it was normal if the Favorites item list "in itself" isn't sorted when new setting put to recent or alpha (or now with newer Data > Sort), it is the menus of these items, coming with a right click, that are sorted.
According to my tests when modifying Command Menu Sort options:
- /Previously/ At first editing of your addon, it applied (with close/reopen the sidebar to make it work) on Settings > Favorites > Favorites Menu > Add, but "accidentally"? as it wasn't supposed to, if you say "it uses another thing. They won't be sorted". /Today/ At second and third editing it doesn't work at all, which is supposed to be the normal result then...
- /Today/ Right-click on Favorites panel: [Alpha] and [None] worked (without need to close/reopen the sidebar), but not [Recent]. Maybe you already noticed it and it is why the newer sorting feature only sorts "alpha" and not "recent".
Still the [--Separator--] that I find possibly misleading and best replaced by sth showing that filtering can be used, but I won't insist anymore! (better esp. if what I say is wrong :D ). And I think I found half of why it is then written --Separator--, maybe because the first item coming under is a... separator.
Recent sort should work on right click of favorites panel.
The recent sorts works by saving last used date of commands through the palette and some menus.
When you use a command, it should appear at the top.
-- Separator -- is simply a separator, a horizontal line, that appears on menus, like when right clicking the favorites panel. You add them and re-order them to where you want.
When you add a command, it appears as the first item selected, but you can change it to another command.
Also, when menus are sorted in any way (recent, or alpha) the separators get removed because they don't make sense there.