Status area very bad...

[laudmusic]

What do you think about the new status bar/area in FM10. Honestly it would be fine if we, as developers, were able to totally customize and/or lock out user customization. Until we can do it, it's completely useless in my solutions. Boo FileMaker.

[LaRetta]

There have been many complaints about the inability of developer customization, such as here. I agree.

[Genx]

I agree that its completely useless as developer tool, but brings significant advantages to power users. I've resolved not to complain too much this release though, and i've never used the status area in a deployed solution so i'm a bit indifferent. I also agree though that it wouldn't have taken too much extra effort to actually make this a developer tool:

1) Make the content customizable like a menu set -> allow hiding of foundset counters, email etc.

2) Add a privilege to allow the user to customize the menu / not allow the user to customize the menu.

3) If icing on the cake was permitted, allow us to specify our own graphics, submenu's and scripts - now that would be powerful.

For my inhouse DB's though that I use for myself, it's a blessing to not have to look at the old status area any more.

[LaRetta]

All true, Alex! The Tool Bar is very pretty and, if FM would had added a BIT of developer control, we could have used it and left it displayed. As is, it will remain hidden for solutions. It takes a bit of getting used to, but I too like using it! :wink2:

[comment]

My petty peeve is this: OK, so I keep the status area locked - but I want to open it for Preview mode. Suddenly, the user sees a toolbar on top of my solution. The toolbar's look is quite different from the rest of the solution (which may have a simulated toolbar as part of its layouts), and it disappears after preview is over. This is not a good user interface. Users have become accustomed to toolbars at the top being CONSISTENT. The status area in previous versions is ugly, but at least it's on the side - so with some good will one could see it as a drawer.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Since you don't have to be in Preview mode any more to generate or to see subsummary reports, you may not need to open the status area at all.

Steven

[comment]

True, but usually my purpose is just to eyeball the output before wasting ink and paper.

[laudmusic]

You hit the nail on the head. Adding graphics and our own script/menus would be killer.

I would bet someone soon will come up with a plug-in. Well, I'm hoping so. Maybe FM will consider bestowing us a gift of the above in 10.1

I don't pray often, but I will in this case.

[joaocarlo]

I Agreeeeeee

[mlemmnapa]

I couldn't agree more the new status bar is terrible. Hard to understand what they were thinking here.

-Mark Lemm

[vi]

My biggest question is, why in the age of 16:9 displays they decide to move it to the top and waste even more of the evermore precious vertical screen-space, when there is sooo much room to the left and the right?

Edited January 23, 2009 by Guest

[Colin Keefe]

My biggest question is, why in the age of 16:9 displays they decide to move it to the top and waste even more of the evermore precious vertical screen-space, when there is sooo much room to the left and the right?

Nearly every other application in the world puts their toolbars on top, screen real estate be damned. It's a metaphor the rest of the world already uses, and users internalize the metaphor easily.

The same can't be said for the old Status Area.

For example:

How many times have you had to point a user new to FileMaker to the "Continue" button on the Status Area in 9 and earlier? Not exactly the most obvious place for a button critical to continuing a process, is it?

How many times have you had a user new to FileMaker enter 5 new records, thinking they were entering 5 find requests? Or vice versa? The new Status Area gives far better feedback to the user about Current Mode.

I look at the new Status Area and see lots of design decisions meant to make the app more consistent with user experience with other apps, and to make user experience more explicable out of the box.

- the user knows where s/he is in the record set more clearly

- the user knows what mode s/he is in

- the user what view type

- Operaters in Find Mode are a lot more obvious

- Omit checkbox has been replace with something much more clear

These are subtle differences that I think add a lot to user experience.

The downsides have all been noted here and elsewhere, I think, and I agree with them in large part. I also agree that it's an extremely poor use of aspect ratios. I just want to point out that it's not like FileMaker just decided to drag the status area to the top on a whim.

[Josh Ormond]

I agree and disagree...

Everyone complained about the old status area, it won't be any different with this one.

You could probably appease a great many people by implementing Alex's ideas here and also giving an option to move the thing around...top, bottom, left, right, and maybe even a floating area.

Heck, if you couple Alex/Laretta's suggestions and give it a floating option, I could see some pretty cool UI's coming out of it.

Edited January 23, 2009 by Guest

[tgilders]

I love the fact that there is progress, but I don't like the fact that I can't take advantage of v10 out of the gate, and must first redesign/reconsider my massive applications UI throughout.

How hard would it have been to leave the old status bar as an optional "classic" setting to ease the transition for legacy systems?

[LaRetta]

I just want to point out that it's not like FileMaker just decided to drag the status area to the top on a whim.

Absolutely. And I really like the improvements to it. All things aside that have been said (and that I've said) about what it lacks, doesn't diminish what has improved. It looks much more sophisticated and I'm tickled we have it.

But ... with just a bit more, it could be greatly improved! Floating tool bar? Now that is ROCKIN' HOT!!

LaRetta

[Josh Ormond]

But ... with just a bit more, it could be greatly improved! Floating tool bar? Now that is ROCKIN' HOT!!

No doubt, I almost get giddy just thinking about it.

I love the improvements too. Progress is always a good thing. It's better than what I have seen some companies do.

One example, not related to FileMaker, was Electronic Arts (EA). When they made the first Madden football game for the XBOX 360 video game system, they dropped what seemed to be half of the features they had added into the game over the previous 5 years.

Complain all you want, that isn't FileMaker. Decisions may not always make sense at first, but FM gets better every version. :beertime:

Edited January 23, 2009 by Guest

[Colin Keefe]

One example, not related to FileMaker, was Electronic Arts (EA). When they made the first Madden football game for the XBOX 360 video game system, they dropped what seemed to be half of the features they had added into the game over the previous 5 years.:

Not a bad idea, actually. I'm telling you, things were just so much easier in FileMaker 3. Sortable relationships are overrated.

Maybe we should just roll back to the 90's.

[anothersmurf]

The new status area is awful. It uses vertical space when most of the world has landscape-oriented monitors, which translates to users no longer being able to see a full page on screen. It's change for the sake of change, and despite the harm it does to usability.

Plenty of smaller problems too: It's got enormous buttons for seldom-used functions (new/delete record), which can easily be hit with stray clicks. If you hide/show it, the window doesn't resize properly. In layout mode part of it changes colours. Layout names in the dropdown menu are in an enormous font.

If customization could be used to put the status area on the side and I could control which if any buttons appear, that would be great. But as it stands, the new status area is a giant step backwards in both usability and aesthetics.

[RodSierra]

Way back when multiple windows were first introduced I played with a method of controlling a preview window via an adjacent window in Browse similar to the old status area, never thought I might have to use it after all this time, but perhaps the time has come. I'm awaiting the release of a Secure FM for 10, before proceeding, but bottom line at this point I will not proceed to 10 till I'm comfortable some alternatives, and again more work arounds, to the lack of control over this not well planned feature. Not only does it not resize properly, if only one page is viewed in preview mode the record slider and record number field are still active, grayed buttons for inactive view modes should not be shown at all.

[Conga]

[color:gray]I'm disappointed with the new toolbar / status area thing. Of course the status area must be on the sides, screens are mostly landscape now. What is that obsession with putting [add/delete records] buttons? If a user has trouble finding that in the menu, we should remove him from even touching the computer. Maybe the FM people should ask the apple guys to help them designing.

[color:brown]By the way, under my username, Conga, I find "Novice", while other posters have cool attributes. Where does one change that ? In control panel

[Lee Smith]

Here is a past thread on this topic.

Link

[transpower]

LaRetta: I agree. I was (finally) going to upgrade from FileMaker 7 Developer to FileMaker 10 Advanced, when I learned of this bizarre change in the Status Area. So I guess I'll now upgrade to just version 9 and wait until this problem with version 10 is fixed (say, as others have said, with a "classic" option). Now I just need to find the least expensive version 9 Advanced...

Edited April 1, 2009 by Guest

[mr_vodka]

I wouldn't hold my breath. I don't think FMI has any plans on bringing back the old status area anytime soon. Although I wouldn't rule out a possible floating palette perhaps in the future.

[rmanh]

This is a no-brainer, almost everyone agrees that the new status bar was poorly implemented, although the idea is good. But FM should take lessons from Autocad 09/Office and have a classic view. They "Filemaker" should do this quickly though a update, while they are working on fixing this problem with future updates. Its really of no use and a more of a hinderance, its the first new version of Filemaker that is a disappointment in this respect,IMHO!