v10.5 Palette display fiasco

[jan15]

For those of us who don't use palette docking, the new palette display system introduced in version 10.5 is a disaster.

Under the old system, any palette can be window-shaded up by double-clicking on the top bar, leaving only the top bar visible until it's double-clicked again. So any rarely-used palette -- which for me is all of them except the Attributes palette -- doesn't have to clutter up the screen, and yet it can be opened when needed without searching through the pull-down menu.

Under the new system, a Tool palette can't be window-shaded at all. The choice is between cluttering up the screen in a fixed position, and cluttering up the screen in a movable position. And any palette which can be window-shaded, such as the Object Info palette, can only window-shade automatically. So now it flashes open accidentally, as the cursor strays over the top bar, and it feels more like a prank virus than an intentional program feature.

I assume the new system was designed for users who dock palettes, and who were always complaining about it in these forums. But when palette docking is disabled, there's no reason for the new system. Can't we have the old user-directed palette display system when palette docking is disabled?

[bc]

Hi, I'm running VW 10.5 ARCH/RW an I click on the yellow radio button at the top of each palette to roll them up.

[jan15]

bc: Thanks for the info. Those radio buttons must be a MacOS feature. My plain VectorWorks on Windows doesn't have any radio buttons on the palette title bars. There's only a push-pin icon that toggles between automatic window-shading and no window-shading at all.

Maybe that explains the change. Maybe window-shading was always a MacOS feature, a part of a larger routine that Diehl and later Nemetschek didn't write and couldn't alter, but could somehow cross over to Windows. And maybe now Apple has changed to a new window-shade procedure, with radio buttons, and it can't be translated to Windows. Or maybe Microsoft recently wrote the prank-virus window-shading routine for Windows programs, as a mutant version of Mac window-shading.

On a Mac you can window-shade main program windows and directories, can't you? I don't remember for sure. That's never been possible in Windows. And I don't know of any other Windows program that has window-shading. Photoshop has palettes, but they don't window-shade. AutoCad at some point started having tool palettes, but they only float or dock, they don't window-shade.

[bc]

jan15, I am pretty green to computors and cad programs and don't know much about any Windows or Mac OS below version 10. OSX 10 has a red,yellow and green radio buttons in the top bar of the window. If I click on the yellow (minimize) button, the window morphs into an icon which is placed in what is called the dock for easy one click retrieval. This is not always best as sometimes finding the file takes a little searching through the call outs,but it does clear the desktop of the file. Double clicking anywhere in the top bar of a window will also minimize it to the dock. There does not seem to be a true window shading feature to this OS however. It would be nice to have the option to window shade or minimize. It is really nice to be able to windowshade the VW palettes....sorry you don't seem to have this feature.

[jan15]

It sounds like Mac is copying from Windows now. Windows always had something like that "dock", called the "taskbar". Any open program is represented by an icon on the taskbar, and you can make the program's window disappear by clicking either on that icon or on the Minimize button in the top corner of the window. And then make it re-appear by clicking on the icon again. And next to the Minimize button there's a Maximize button, which makes the program's window completely fill the screen except for the taskbar. And then the Maximize button turns into a Restore button, which can return it to its smaller size and position.

But as you said, it's not the same as window-shading. It's great to be able to leave something where it is but temporarily hidden, and putting an icon for it somewhere else is not a substitute for that.

I think window-shading started out as a third-party add-on to MacOS, and it was so popular they incorporated it into the operating system, which I guess put the third party out of business.

Window-shading is especially important for floating palettes, which cover up part of the main program window. But the industry seems to be rejecting that approach and moving toward "docked" palettes, which reduce the drawing window down to a small fraction of the available screen area. We're buying bigger and bigger monitors, and the software companies are filling them up with visual clutter.