Adam B.'s dashboard

Adam B. replied on September 25, 2008 19:33 to the discussion "Comic Sans = bad reception from designers" in Balsamiq:

As users, we of course want everything done as the top priority! :)

I would personally rank those three items this way:

1. Image Upload - This is so important to allow for controls and concepts that the program does not currently have, as well as customer logos.


2. Font Chooser - Fix the font so the designers stop yelling at me


3. Native Printing - I am assuming it would still print a "bitmap" version of the mockup. If it somehow printed a version that was not pixelated like the PNG, I would rank this ahead of the font chooser. Native printing seems most helpful once you get the concept of a "collection" of mockups implemented, so we can print all of them at once.

Adam B. started following the idea "Making Trees smaller" in Balsamiq.

Adam B. started following the idea "Making Trees smaller" in Balsamiq.

Adam B. replied on September 25, 2008 19:19 to the discussion "Comic Sans = bad reception from designers" in Balsamiq:

That would work for my needs. A systemwide setting would be helpful because I would not have to set it for each new mockup.

You may have a problem with the idea of "it will show up in the font of their choosing", however. Each font has unique letter widths, kerning, etc, so something that looks great in Arial Narrow would be way too wide in many other fonts and may not display correctly when the next user opens it. The option of asking the user what font they want to use when they open a BMML with a custom font set sounds too complex, however.

You may want to store the font that the BMML was created with in the file for future use, but not act on it at the moment. I would much prefer the systemwide option sooner rather than a perfect feature later - I can always tell others to use a specific font if it is very important.

Adam B. started a conversation in Balsamiq on September 25, 2008 01:12:

Comic Sans = bad reception from designers

I did a search on Balsamiq Mockups and Comic Sans before starting this discussion thread up, and found an extremely informative post from you, Peldi:
http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/?p=235

I did not have a bad reaction to Comic Sans, personally, but *every* designer I showed some mockups to had the first initial reaction: "Oh god, its Comic Sans". I had to spend a few minutes convincing them to look at the rest of the page!

I was wondering if any additional thought had gone into this since the blog post? The "Use System Font" option from the menus appears to get me Arial, which is a start. I have a number of other fonts from other projects which might fit the need for me, but I can't see how I might select a different system font. It also seems to remove the bold option.

A comment on the idea "Shortcut to start editing text" in Balsamiq:

I agree, I see the "slight movement" glitch as well on occasion, and this simple addition of "enter to edit" would mitigate that issue. – Adam B., on September 24, 2008 00:00

Adam B. shared an idea in Balsamiq on September 23, 2008 23:26:

Shortcut to start editing text

It would be great if I could start editing the "text" associated with a widget without having to double click. Maybe there is a hidden keyboard shortcut? I did not see one in the help.

I am going through this process quite often:
1) Use quick add to add a new widget (Using keyboard)
2) Double click on the widget (Using mouse)
3) Type in text (Using keyboard)
4) Move object (Keyboard or mouse)

I was hoping I could hit enter, or something similar, to do #2, so I don't have to move my hands back and forth for every widget I add. It'd also be great when you duplicate an object with Alt-Drag, since the new object is already highlighted.

Adam B. replied on September 23, 2008 07:21 to the discussion "Shell Scripts to Export Multiple Mockups" in Balsamiq:

Very helpful! It is a bit slow in Windows as the app loads repeatedly, but a heck of a lot better than doing it manually.

A comment on the problem "Underline cannot be turned off in Link Bars" in Balsamiq:

Works great, couldn't be easier to update the desktop app. Close and click on the installer, and off it goes! – Adam B., on September 23, 2008 06:49

Adam B. marked one of Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni's replies in Balsamiq as useful. Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni replied to the problem "Underline cannot be turned off in Link Bars".

Adam B. reported a problem in Balsamiq on September 23, 2008 01:35:

Underline cannot be turned off in Link Bars

After adding a Link Bar element to a Mockup, I tried to turn off the link underlining. This works great on the normal "Link" element, but does not affect the Link Bar element. The underlining appears regardless of the selection state of the underline button.

Not the biggest issue but I had to use a number of links instead of the easier to use Link Bar to get it right.

Adam B. started following the idea "Storyboard mode" in Balsamiq.

Adam B. replied on September 23, 2008 00:41 to the idea "Storyboard mode" in Balsamiq:

Once you have figured out a "collection" of mockups, I think the simple functionality of allowing a button or text item to "link" to another mockup in the collection would get me to 90% of what we need.

The concept of a presentation mode or output to HTML would be needed to allow people to click through. I'd be fine with straight HTML with no adornment as we could put it in a frame or add some header code somehow quickly.