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Guides Manager


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As a long-time InDesign user (and QuarkXPress before that) I have been hugely impressed with Publisher. If I may make a suggestion, it would be about how the Guides Manager works.

The process of adding guides is a bit odd. It would be simpler to enter a value and  then click on an ‘add’ button rather than adding a guide, trying to find it in the list (especially if there are a lot of guides on the page), double-clicking to select and then changing it.

Also in the Guides Manager,  it would be useful to be able to click to adjust the number of columns (as in the context bar) and gutter rather than use a slider, especially when trying to set the gutter. I usually give up and just type it in.

Apologies if these have been raised before, but I checked and couldn't find anything.

Patrick

 

 

 

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PatC: Entering a value and pressing “Add” sounds like a good way to add guides. There’s easily enough space to allow for that. I agree that the current workflow is less than optimum. Also, why does the “Add Guide” icon look like a page?
I don’t get sliders for number of columns and gutter on Windows. I have spinners and I can enter a value by double-clicking the existing value, which sounds like what you want. Can you attach an image/GIF showing what you mean?

MickRose: Double-clicking a guide to bring up the Guide Manager doesn’t sound like a bad thing to me. I haven't put a lot of thought into it though.

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GarryP: I'm not sure what a spinner is, but on a Mac when you click on the down arrow beside the number of columns and gutter width in the Guides Manager you get a slider. Setting a gutter using this is at best pot luck. As I said I now just type in the value.

Here is what I mean. The first image shows the context bar when a text frame is selected. The two arrows beside 'columns' lets you increase the number with a simple click. The second and third images show what you get if you click the arrow beside the value in columns and gutter width in the Guides Manager.

It would be much better if the method used in the context tool bar was also used in the Guides Manager.

Context Bar.png

Guides Manager Columns.png

Guides Manager Gutter.png

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Thanks MEB. I didn't know about using the arrow keys, but I think my point is still valid. If I use the arrow keys to go up and down I have to use the keyboard. I might as well just enter a value, which would be quicker than using the arrows.

 Most (?) Mac users use the Magic mouse, which doesn't have a scroll-wheel. I tend to use a Wacom tablet, which doesn't have a scroll wheel either :)

Adopting the same method as the context toolbar to increase/decrease the values would be better, and keep the UX consistent. 

 

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58 minutes ago, PatC said:

the Magic mouse, which doesn't have a scroll-wheel

The Magic mouse simulates a scroll wheel, but also lets you scroll side-to-side, using gestures on the surface of the mouse.  Modern Wacom tablets with the "touch" functionality let you use gestures like those on a laptop's trackpad (but a more extensive range of them) including gestures that simulate the functionality of a scroll wheel.

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fde101: Thanks.  I know you can scroll with a Magic Mouse, but it's not the same as a scroll wheel and it doesn't work for changing values in the Guides Manager. Wacom gestures can be used if you have a touch-enabled version,  and I suspect a trackpad would do the same. However, Wacom's touch feature can be a bit flaky and neither works as well as the already implemented up/down arrows on the context tool bar..

Anyway, it is just a suggestion of something to maybe look at. Perhaps a different way of doing things in the Guides Manager could be better, but I can live with typing.  

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PatC: I’ve attached an image of what the columns and gutter controls look like on Windows. They both use a spinner, the same as in the context bar.
And here – just for completeness, and if anyone else was wondering – is the definition of a spinner: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinner_(computing)

A lot of the existing sliders could be made more useful if they were bound to reasonable limits – e.g. for columns maybe 1 to 8 – and they had ‘magnetic stops’ on them like the Navigator zoom slider (see attached, where the indicator snaps to the stops). Entering a value could override the limits if necessary but most users would just be able to use the slider.

P.S. I still don’t know why the “Add Guide” button looks like a page.

windows-columns.png

navigator-zoom-magnetic-stops.png

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GarryP: Perfect, that's exactly what I was suggesting. Why can't I have that on my Mac. I wonder if the Windows version ever had the slider.

 

P.S. I can only assume it's because guides are used on a page. If you entered a value and clicked an add button you wouldn't need the page icon :)

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