Michael Matti's dashboard

Michael Matti replied on December 02, 2008 13:38 to the idea "Need "disabled" state option for numeric stepper" in Balsamiq:

Michael, mighty ingenious ... I just about smacked my head for not thinking of that, since translucent rectangles are one of my favorite new features.

Peldi, thanks for the multitasking. Most guys in your position would have been Christmas shopping at Amazon, or worse.

Michael Matti shared an idea in Balsamiq on December 01, 2008 23:58:

Need "disabled" state option for numeric stepper

Was working on a design this afternoon that had a pair of controls where you first select a labeled checkbox and then set a value with a numeric stepper. The stepper is meant to be dependent on the checkbox: it is visible-but-disabled if the parent isn't selected.

So, dropped in a stepper, reached for its properties panel, and ... what's this ... no "state" control to set to "disabled'?

Argh. And since the stepper panel doesn't offer a color control either, can't fake what I need by switching to gray.

Could we have the state control added to steppers?

A comment on the praise "Happy Thanksgiving..." in Balsamiq:

Alternate-row shading control! Gridline control! Woot! Break out the eggnog! – Michael Matti, on November 26, 2008 15:05

Michael Matti replied on November 26, 2008 14:57 to the praise "Happy Thanksgiving..." in Balsamiq:

Yes, this Michael is thankful too, since Mockups has become, over the last few months, the one indispensable tool for my design work. The time and sanity savings really can't be calculated. So, Peldi, here's a turkey+stuffing+gravy+cranberry toast to both you and Mariah.

A comment on the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

For what it's worth, after 20 or so reloads, NEXT.172 on my Mac never lost its settings, so whatever is going on is specific to Windows. – Michael Matti, on November 26, 2008 04:56

Michael Matti replied on November 26, 2008 00:29 to the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

Argh! Spoke too soon ... after a couple of hours of good behavior, NEXT.172 is once again forgetting the settings on every startup. No clue what the hell is going on. When I get home tonight, will install the same version on my Mac and try starting/closing maybe 20 times to see if platform makes a difference.

If anyone else is hitting this under AIR 1.5, please chime in. For that matter, if someone's done the AIR upgrade and hasn't seen this, that would also be a useful data point ...

Michael Matti started following the idea "Synchronize as png." in Balsamiq.

Michael Matti replied on November 25, 2008 21:42 to the idea "Would love a grid with a check box as a column." in Balsamiq:

Cowabunga!

Michael Matti replied on November 25, 2008 21:37 to the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

Whatever the bug was, it seems to have been swatted. The misbehavior persisted through NEXT.16x versions until today, when I upgraded to NEXT.169. Now both settings are being remembered again.

No clue what to make of that; I'm just glad the problem's gone. Sorry you wound up wasting any time on it.

Michael Matti replied on November 25, 2008 18:12 to the problem "Non Comic Sans fonts getting clipped in radio button and checkbox labels" in Balsamiq:

Grazie ... finally had a chance to reinstall, and all's well again.

A comment on the idea "Would love a grid with a check box as a column." in Balsamiq:

Yes. Not nearly as often as the checkboxes, but once in a while the buttons have been called for as well. – Michael Matti, on November 25, 2008 14:07

Michael Matti replied on November 25, 2008 13:50 to the idea "Would love a grid with a check box as a column." in Balsamiq:

Piling on with a "me, too". I've been faking this for a while with [x] and (o) in the cell contents, but would be _way_ cooler if solo x's and o's triggered graphical widgets in the cells.

Michael Matti started following the idea "Would love a grid with a check box as a column." in Balsamiq.

Michael Matti reported a problem in Balsamiq on November 24, 2008 20:09:

Non Comic Sans fonts getting clipped in radio button and checkbox labels

Here's another glitch that crept into a recent build; it wasn't a problem until today, when I caught up to NEXT.168. If you're using an alternative font by way of the config file option, radio button and checkbox labels are getting clipped from the bottom:



Several weeks ago, after the fontFace option was unveiled, I settled on Helvetica Rounded from the Adobe Font Folio collection. Aside from the quality of the font, it had the advantage of dropping into place as a Comic Sans replacement without element repositioning. But now, as you can see, Helvetica Rounded is getting whacked.

This might be related to a different problem with item selection in lists:



The selected item in that screenshot is actually Zeta, not Eta. There's a cumulative height offset difference that eventually leads to selection highlighting going completely off-track. I'd mentioned this problem some months ago and it was quickly fixed, but it looks like that was a Comic Sans-specific tuning. Looks like we need calculations based on the height of the currently installed font.

Right now, the show-stopper is that radio/checkbox label clipping, since I've got lots of those in use and they're pretty much wrecked. Have actually been forced, for the moment, to revert back to (shudder) Comic Sans.

A comment on the problem "Transparency lost when importing images" in Balsamiq:

Tried it on both a simple and sketch-ified import, and transparency looks perfect for both. That's pretty good mileage for a one-line tweak. :) Thanks a bunch. – Michael Matti, on November 23, 2008 02:47

A comment on the problem "Transparency lost when importing images" in Balsamiq:

It would be a pity not to have transparency in sketch mode, but if it's a least preserved for direct (non-sketch-ified) imports, that would be good. – Michael Matti, on November 21, 2008 13:49

Michael Matti reported a problem in Balsamiq on November 21, 2008 00:04:

Transparency lost when importing images

Just noticed this one, and figure it crept in with NEXT.160 or 161: when you import an image that has a transparent background, like an irregular-shaped icon, its background is now forced to opaque white. Instead of blending in cleanly, imported round icons are suddenly showing white corners on top of non-white mockup elements.

This definitely wasn't happening earlier. Can transparency-preservation be restored?

Thanks ...

A comment on the idea "How to pull black-and-white photos from Flickr" in Balsamiq:

That's bloody brilliant! But when did that sneak in ... seems like I was using NEXT.160 when playing with the "bw" tag trick, so was this added in 161? Just tried it on a variety of different images, and it's working well across the board. Thanks much. – Michael Matti, on November 19, 2008 17:58

Michael Matti shared an idea in Balsamiq on November 19, 2008 17:32:

How to pull black-and-white photos from Flickr

Just a quick tip that might be obvious to some, but dawned on me only yesterday. The new image import tool has Flickr support, which is terrific for mockups that feature photos: catalogs, address books, etc. The problem is that imported full-color photos will overwhelm most any mockup: placed inside those black-and-white hand-drawn widgets, they look out of place and are awfully distracting.

Fortunately, the image import tool uses tag-based queries, and on Flickr it's an unofficial standard to add a "bw" tag to black-and-white photos. So, include a "bw" as one of the keywords in the Flickr import field, and you'll get a set of shots that play nice with the rest of the mockup's design.

Michael Matti reported a problem in Balsamiq on November 19, 2008 16:59:

After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences

Post hoc ergo propter hoc? Upgraded to AIR 1.5 this morning, then Mockups NEXT.161, and suddenly Mockups keeps forgetting that I don't want to see the UI Library and notebook background.

Even worse, when I turn off both features, Mockups keeps forgetting the settings when I close and restart the application. (Actually, after several tries, it finally remembered the Library setting but still keeps displaying the notebook background.)

Did AIR 1.5 change the way application settings get stored? This is happening on Windows so far; will check it out on the Mac at home this evening. Anyone else do the AIR upgrade and experience this?