Jeff Godfrey's dashboard

Jeff Godfrey replied on September 24, 2009 17:54 to the idea "Snapshot without Markups" in Balsamiq:

Hi Steffen,

See this related post also...

http://getsatisfaction.com/balsamiq/t...

Jeff

Jeff Godfrey reported a problem in Balsamiq on September 21, 2009 18:56:

Tree Pane - selected item problem

There seems to be a problem with the selected node in a tree pane. To reproduce:

- Insert a tree pane
- Using the property panel, set the selection to the first item
- Click outside of the property panel and notice that the first item is properly selected
- Select the tree again
- In the property panel, notice that the selection is now listed as "None"

From here, it's confusing to reset the tree to actually having *nothing* selected. You must first select some other valid element as the selected element, then you can successfully select "None" to turn off the selection.

Using Balsamiq Mockups Desktop - 1.6.33

Jeff

Jeff Godfrey replied on September 17, 2009 21:29 to the question "escape in menu" in Balsamiq:

Ahhh, I see - that make sense. Well, the \ is not documented to work on a comma, but I i agree, it probably should. Sorry for all the noise... ;^)

Jeff

Jeff Godfrey replied on September 17, 2009 21:21 to the question "escape in menu" in Balsamiq:

Hi Eva,

You may be way ahead of me here, but what is the special meaning of the comma? According to the docs, the \ can be used to escape the asterisk, underscore, left-bracket, and right-bracket chars (*, _, [, and ]).

What should it do in the case of a comma?

Jeff

Jeff Godfrey replied on September 17, 2009 20:57 to the question "escape in menu" in Balsamiq:

Hmmm... Are you sure? What version of mockups are you using? The "\" escape seems to work as expected for me in a menu (using versions 1.6.33). What exactly happens when you use it?

Jeff Godfrey shared an idea in Balsamiq on September 17, 2009 15:16:

Optionally remove markup items when exporting to PNG

I'd like the option to not export "Markup" items when using the "export to PNG" functions. Many times, I post markup items around a mockup as reminders to myself. When I export to PNG, I'd like those items to be (optionally) removed from the export. Currently, we have that choice at presentation time - it'd be good to have it at export time also.

Thanks,

Jeff Godfrey

Jeff Godfrey replied on September 17, 2009 13:41 to the problem "After pasting an element, can't always move it with arrow keys" in Balsamiq:

Hi Matty,

Is this just a focus-related issue? For instance, I can reproduce something that's at least similar to what you describe like this:

- In the "Quick Add" entry, type "button"
- Press [Enter] to accept the matched item (a button)

At this point, the new button is on the screen and *is* selected (it has a selection rectangle and some drag handles), but it can't be moved with the arrow keys. That's because the application's focus is still in the "Quick Add" entry box.

In order to change focus to the just-inserted button, and thereby make it movable via the arrow keys, you must first click on the inserted element.

Does that possibly explain your case, or is the above completely different?

Jeff Godfrey

Jeff Godfrey shared an idea in Balsamiq on September 16, 2009 13:52:

Zoom to *visible* extents in presentation mode

When in presentation mode, I'd like mockups to zoom to the *visible* extents instead of the extents of the entire mockup, which may have some elements turned off...

Explanation:

When I create screen designs in mockups, I tend to scatter design-related "notes" around the edges of the layout (using the "sticky note" UI element). When in presentation mode, I generally hide those notes (via the "show markup" item). When the notes are hidden, I'd like the resulting mockup to be zoomed as large as possible on the screen. Otherwise, during the presentation, some screens are much smaller than others, due to the hidden notes.

Thanks for your consideration.

Jeff Godfrey

Jeff Godfrey started following the question "Insert a mockup by reference instead of copy..." in Balsamiq.

A comment on the idea "Allow me to use linked mockups in edit mode" in Balsamiq:

Peldi - I just grabbed the new build and it works as expected now. Thanks!

Jeff – Jeff Godfrey, on August 11, 2009 15:39

Jeff Godfrey reported a problem in Balsamiq on August 11, 2009 15:21:

Moving "live" files isn't handled properly

Hi,

I'm using the desktop version of mockups (version Next205). I just noticed (an admittedly odd) file management issue that could probably be handled better...

I had about 5 mockup files opened from the same folder. Now, using Win Explorer, I moved them into a different folder. Not a great idea, I know - I forgot that I still had Mockups open.

Anyway, back in Mockups, the file tabs can no longer be closed. That is, I can right-click a tab and select "Close", but the tab doesn't go away.

Now, I close Mockups and reopen it. For each file I originally had opened (and later moved), I (correctly) get a message that the file can't be loaded. But, for each failed file open, I get an additional "New Mockup" tab at the bottom of the UI.

So, the things I think could be handled better in the above are:

- I probably shouldn't have been able to move the (open) files in the first place. Typically, I think most apps would have the opened files locked at the OS level.
- After moving the files, I should have still been able to close the tabs in Mockups
- After restarting Mockups, I don't think I should get a "New Mockup" tab for each missing file.

Thanks,

Jeff Godfrey

A comment on the idea "Allow me to use linked mockups in edit mode" in Balsamiq:

Peldi - I just emailed the mockups in question.

Thanks,

Jeff – Jeff Godfrey, on August 11, 2009 13:43

A comment on the idea "Allow me to use linked mockups in edit mode" in Balsamiq:

Sorry I my searches didn't locate this existing topic... Anyway, glad to see this feature has been implemented. I just installed the preview build to test it out. While it seems to work as expected, I am having trouble with a single mockup file. In this single file, I can't get an Alt+Click to follow the link.

The mockup is just a simple "sticky note" with two buttons (Yes and No). I can't follow either of those links while in design mode, but all other links in all other mockups in this "set" work as expected.

The set even contains another similar mockup (a sticky note with one button) that works correctly. I can't figure out what's wrong with the single mockup file.

Thanks,

Jeff – Jeff Godfrey, on August 10, 2009 19:44

Jeff Godfrey replied on August 10, 2009 17:11 to the idea "Allow me to use linked mockups in edit mode" in Balsamiq:

Currently, while in design mode, it's easy to see what controls have links as they all display a small blue arrow. I'd like to somehow follow a selected link to another (possibly not-yet opened) mockup file - probably by holding down a modifier key while clicking the linked control.


Typically, I'd expect this type of functionality to be accessed by a "Ctrl+Click", though I know Balsamiq already uses that combo for something else. With that in mind, whatever combo makes sense is good by me...


Thanks,


Jeff Godfrey

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Follow links in design mode.

Jeff Godfrey posted a topic that has since been removed from Balsamiq. see the change log

Jeff Godfrey replied on April 21, 2009 16:26 to the problem "Filenames misparsed for new "Link" menu" in Balsamiq:

Peldi,

I just grabbed the update and I can confirm that this issue is fixed. Thanks!

Jeff

Jeff Godfrey replied on April 21, 2009 13:42 to the problem "Filenames misparsed for new "Link" menu" in Balsamiq:

Thanks Peldi - that's great!

Jeff Godfrey reported a problem in Balsamiq on April 21, 2009 13:28:

Filenames misparsed for new "Link" menu

I just upgraded to 1.6.6 after (excitedly) reading about the new "link" functionality. In my test folder, I have the following BMML files:

ViewMSI_2.0.bmml
ViewMSI_2.0_2.bmml
ViewMSI_2.0_3.bmml

In the new "Link" menu, these show up like this:

ViewMSI_2
ViewMSI_2
ViewMSI_2

Obviously, the software is attempting to remove the file extension for presentation in the dialog, but is not properly handling multiple period characters in the file name. It should find the file extension by locating *last* period character in the name, not the first.

Anyway, thanks for what I'm sure is going to be a *great* addition to an already fantastic package.

Jeff

A comment on the question "Color palette ordering method?" in Balsamiq:

Peldi,

Thanks. That explains it - I guess... Though I have no idea what the above image is.... ;)

I will say that the palette looks more organized in the above image since each successive row is interleaved with the surrounding rows. For instance, the two basic yellows in the image don't really look out of place there, but look strange to me in Mockups as (without the interleaving) they have a green between them (in the same column).

Anyway, no big deal - thanks. – Jeff Godfrey, on April 02, 2009 21:03

Jeff Godfrey asked a question in Balsamiq on April 02, 2009 20:22:

Color palette ordering method?

As I'm not a graphic designer by trade, this may just be my ignorance shining through, but what is the ordering scheme used by the color palette?

I find it strange that pure black and pure white are in the right-most 2 columns of the 2nd row from the bottom. I guess I expect them to be in a more prominent position. More generally, looking from left to right in the palette, I see some some general sense of going from reds to yellows to greens to blues to violets to grays, and yet there seems to be an odd randomness to the whole thing.

It's not really a problem, more a curiosity than anything...

Thanks,

Jeff