clive@druhi.UUCP (04/15/87)
This is *really* a useful program. I just prepared a local network plan in an afternoon with it, and I'm impressed. The main reason I'm posting, is to clear up a confusion introduced by an otherwise very complimentary review a month or so back in MacUser. The writer complained that one couldn't move the 'active box' in the reduced view around, as in MacPaint. Well, it's true, you can't -- there isn't one! But the way this feature is clearly intended to be used is much, much superior to the way MacPaint works (though SuperPaint doesn't fit on 128k Macs, either, of course). When you ask for the reduced view, it's presented *at the same time* as the drawing window it's co-active with -- takes about a third of it. The pair, incidentally, can be asked to take over the entire screen, even the menu area; and each drawing window has its own reduced view. Then, you can work on a window of the drawing (paint or draw layer), and watch what is happening to the whole page, all the same time! No intermediate printouts; no need for a Radius to see what you're doing. Good stuff out, the first time! All the tools, grabber, etc., work smoothly and quickly with this mode; the auto-scroll at window edges particularly helps. It's an effective design. This is a feature *all* mac programs with presentation should have. Like the preview window in Word 3, except you can do everything and see the results. Maybe that one'll be an upgrade?? It'll certainly be in anything I design. It would be a very good candidate for inclusion in the Mac Interface Guidelines. Thank you, Silicon Beach. I've worked the other way, and I like this ever so much better. Clive Steward
mce@tc.fluke.COM (Brian McElhinney) (04/17/87)
The dual view concept is a good idea, but wouldn't it be even better if both views were active? I have watched several people, myself included, futilely try make the mouse do something, anything, in the reduced view. It is extremely non-intuitive as it stands, and that is a Bad Thing. Brian McElhinney mce@tc.fluke.com
clive@druhi.UUCP (Clive Steward) (04/20/87)
in article <767@sputnik.tc.fluke.COM>, mce@fluke.UUCP says: > > The dual view concept is a good idea, but wouldn't it be even better > if both views were active? I have watched several people, myself > included, futilely try make the mouse do something, anything, in the > reduced view. It is extremely non-intuitive as it stands, and that is > a Bad Thing. > > > Brian McElhinney > mce@tc.fluke.com Well, you've surely got a point, this is what I wanted to clarify that the reviewer misunderstood; but let's think about it. I don't think I really want to do picture adjustments at a reduced scale -- it would be too hard to separate and select items. Now, Word 3 uses a magnifying glass to show parts of the reduced view. Not at all sure I want the complications of navigating within a magnifying glass within a document, either. The way SuperPaint works, I do all operations on the active window, at full size. The 'reduced view' is just that -- a place to see what happens, as it happens, to the whole picture. Because of 2-d window scrolling, I can move freely from where I start, over the full drawing for large selections. For instance, selecting everything, and moving it to be pleasingly 'centered' on the page. The selection rectangle also shows up in the reduced view: I can see everything I'm doing two ways. I think the real problem (yes, I had it too), is communicating to all of us who only have experience with MacPaint, that a better way has been provided. Maybe making this approach a main feature of the documentation would be a start -- the how-to's could use it in their pictures. Points up the difficulties with standards which become the 'intuitive' and therefore the only way, when better ideas come along. An old story. SuperPaint's worth paying attention to the difference, to me at least. Clive Steward