Jamie Bullock wrote:
It is also one of the most frequent questions I get asked when I introduce new users to PD.
interestingly enough i never have been asked this. most likely it is not the initial design that a lot of paths are to be added.
Personally I think the entire 'search paths' window is badly designed.
nevertheless i agree with you.
I have a few ideas about how it might be improved:
1/ 'Save all settings' and 'Apply' should be removed.
2/ The path list should have a dynamically generated scrollbar, so that when the list exceeds a certain length (10), the scrollbar appears and the user can view the additional paths by scrolling up/down.
3/ It should not be possible to type directly into the path list, only select a list element or group of elements (paths).
4/ Two new buttons should be added directly underneath the path list: 'Add' and 'Remove'.
5/ 'Add' opens a new dialog ('Select path...') whereby the user can either enter a path or navigate to it using a filesystem browser widget. Once the path has been entered (or selected), clicking 'OK' adds the path to the path list and closes the 'Select path...' dialogue.
6/ Clicking 'Remove' in the main 'path list' window will remove the currently selected item(s) from the path list.
7/ Clicking 'OK' will commit changes to disk, apply them for the current session and close the window.
8/ Clicking 'Cancel' will discard the changes and close the window.
what i am dearly missing in your design is:
- buttons to re-order the paths
(since you cannot add change the paths directly, and i think it is very re-order paths in a way that involves opening several windows) in my work-cycle, path-order is a crucial thing when it comes to getting the "right" object.
- unify the path and startup dialogs into one single (possibly
multi-tab) dialog.
mf.ar IOhannes