Close icon editor with enter key

[jacemdom]

Hello,

Use "tab" to tab through the text fields and map enter to the ok button.

This would streamline the dev process when creating lots of vis. It allows to double-click icon --> enter first line --> hit tab --> enter second line --> hit enter --> voilà.

As both my hands are on the keyboard at that point, this would prevent me from reaching for the the mouse all the way at the far end of the keyboard to click ok.

Pushing LabVIEW efficiency further and further, one second at a time!

As it takes on average 1 second to hit the ok button, if that feature is ever added, i will have to create approximately 300 VIs in order to make that posting profitable...but that is just for myself, think of the millions of seconds that will be saved every year on the planet!

[TCPlomp]

And when you are implementing this, use 'Escape' to close the editor when nothing has focus.

Ton

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Curiously, these two keys (escape and enter) were linked to the buttons until after the second beta of LV2009 when usability feedback convinced us to remove them. Too many people used escape to cancel the current drag operation or to clear the current selection and they were accidentally quitting the icon editor and losing their work. With the enter key, they would hit it when they didn't need to, thinking it did something, and thus committing their work.

[RavensFan]

I vote for not having the enter key automatically save and close the icon.

I would also like to see that hitting the X in the upper right hand corner not close out the icon editor without saving changes or asking you to save or cancel any changes you've made.

Many times I'll hit that X (perhaps trying to close out other windows on my screen) and have all the changes I just made to the icon get wiped out.

[jacemdom]

The escape part is understandable but the suggestion is about hitting the enter key for ok, and the part about "they would hit it when they didn't need to, thinking it did something" is much more cryptic and does not seem to be a valid argument...

[AristosQueue (NI)]

LV Style says that any dialog that has a Cancel button has the [X] enabled and the [X] and the Cancel should do the same thing. This policy makes it clearwhat the [X] means, because otherwise it is a bit ambiguous what happens when you click it. Disabling the [X] would annoy many people who expect that the top-right corner is always available for Cancel.

Breaking the rule is generally a big deal with lots of furrowed brows and heated opinions.

Adding an "are you ok with losing changes?" dialog would be acceptable, but only if that dialog were behind not only the [X] but also the Cancel button.  There is an entire discussion forum (not just a single thread)  dedicated to improving the Icon Editor here:

http://decibel.ni.com/content/groups/enhanced-icon-editor-2009

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Also, there's already an update for the LV 2009 icon editor available here:

http://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-6301

This update incorporates many suggestions that we got right off the bat from users and fixes a number of reported bugs. 

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Oh... and the Idea Exchange thread to have a confirm dialog for the icon editor is here:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Optional-quot-confirm-quot-on-icon-editor-cancel/idc-p...

[RavensFan]

I think a confirmation would be just fine.  I remember that other thread (I had made the same or similar comment there).  I understand the comments that ThaSa made that the Icon Editor is a dialog box and normally dialog boxes don't ask you to confirm if you want.  However, I would disagree with the LV style statement and argue that the Icon Editor is more than just a dialog box.  It is actually a document editor and that the document is actually the icon that is stored within the VI.

You say that "Disabling the [X] would annoy many people who expect that the top-right corner is always available for Cancel.".  I contend that the X does not stand for Cancel, it actually stands for Close and it should be up to the application to determine what is the best way to handle the Close Event, whether it needs to close and cancel without confirmation.  Or Close and cancel with confirmation.

Even LabVIEW considers the X a Close.  If you create an event structure in a VI, you can setup a Panel Close or Panel Close? event.  It isn't called a Cancel event. 😉

[jacemdom]

thanks

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Ravens Fan: A panel doesn't have a Cancel button. If it did, I would expect the [X] to have the same functionality as that button. You're right that the [X] means close, but there are many flavors of close, and for consistency -- so that everyone knows what kind of close the [X] is at the moment -- we make the [X] always the same as the Cancel button, if such exists.

The other option, favored by many, is to eliminate both the OK and the Cancel buttons from the icon editor and only have the [X] button, which would then trigger the equivalent of a Save Changes dialog if you had made any edits.