Michael Matti's dashboard

A comment on the idea "Love the list color controls -- can they be added to tables?" in Balsamiq:

Oops. Makes me think of Moliere's character, startled to discover he'd been speaking prose all his life. I really should set aside some time to just browse through all those property panels ... no telling what other gems I'll unearth. – Michael Matti, on October 29, 2008 13:18

Michael Matti shared an idea in Balsamiq on October 28, 2008 22:10:

Love the list color controls -- can they be added to tables?

So, I'm working with NEXT.127 today, and happen to add a list component to my mockup. Lo and behold, there's a new set of background and alternate-row color selectors in the properties panel, right next to the line-height slider.

New to me, anyway ... when did those sneak in?

More to the point, can the same set of controls be added to the datagrid/table component, where they'd be just as useful? Among the problems that would solve is getting alternate-row shading to start on the second row, since the pair of color palettes lets you achieve that result.

A comment on the problem "Imported images don't survive command line export" in Balsamiq:

Based on a first try, with five icon-sized images imported, command line export is working just fine. Whatever that risk was, it doesn't seem to have broken anything. Would it be possible to extend this to button, icon, and icon-and-text-label, since icons will be the focus of this feature for some of us? As always, thanks very much ... this struck me as a tricky one to fix. – Michael Matti, on October 28, 2008 17:50

A comment on the idea "More arrows styles..." in Balsamiq:

Chiming in late on this, but for what it's worth, excessive thickness was the main problem -- those arrows were overpowering the primary content. This new slimmed-down version, with color and transparency, hits the spot. Thanks ... – Michael Matti, on October 24, 2008 02:03

Michael Matti started following the idea "More arrows styles..." in Balsamiq.

Michael Matti reported a problem in Balsamiq on October 21, 2008 16:49:

Imported images don't survive command line export

Screenshot below shows what's going on. Imported four icon images for a toolbar in my mockup, which went fine and rendered correctly. They also looked fine after an "export PNG snapshot" from the Mockups menu.

However, when I launched my standard command line script workflow, the resulting images had this where the icons were supposed to be:



Looks like the PNG icons either don't have time to render or cannot be found.

A comment on the discussion "The Font Saga Continues: I need your input!" in Balsamiq:

Hey, cheers me up, too -- both of these are immediately useful. A quick suggestion for each: Arrows could use a color selector and thickness control, and that neat Lorem trick should be available in TextArea as well. Thanks! – Michael Matti, on October 10, 2008 14:22

Michael Matti replied to "The Font Saga Continues: I need your input!", but it was removed. see the change log

Michael Matti started following the idea "Can we get a new UI component: fieldset?" in Balsamiq.

A comment on the idea "Can we get a new UI component: fieldset?" in Balsamiq:

I'm pretty sure Adam means the rectangular container. It's a widget I've also wanted now and then, and would really just be the existing "rectangle/canvas" component with a title attribute that would place the text in-line with the border at the top left. For a little extra polish, it should render with gently rounded corners (that's how IE and most Windows apps render fieldset borders). – Michael Matti, on October 02, 2008 19:06

Michael Matti replied on October 01, 2008 21:36 to the idea "Help me design the "Import Image" feature!" in Balsamiq:

Woot! Great to see this coming along. A few observations/suggestions:

1. Preview forces the image to expand to the preview size, which makes a small icon turn into a blocky mess. Preview should shrink-to-fit, but not grow-to-fit.

2. When exporting to PNG, the resulting image shows a gray-ghosty "X" paceholder behind the image wherever the imported image was using a transparent background.

3. Right now, import functionality is by way of the image component, but would also like to have it via button, icon, and icon-and-text-label. Basically, would like to have an import option everywhere you currently support icons, since external icons were my main reason for wanting this feature.

4. The last-used quick-select is a really nice touch.

Michael Matti replied on October 01, 2008 16:01 to the question "Tables: header colouring for first column?" in Balsamiq:

Peldi, if you're planning to dive into table controls to handle row versus column headings, could you work in the shading/gridline request from a month or so back?

request_shading_and_gridline_options_for_datagrid_table

Thanks very much.

A comment on the problem "Command line PNG export ignores vertical curly braces color" in Balsamiq:

Yeah, this one is so bizarre that, when I first noticed it, I sat sort of dumbfounded for a moment. As you said, it makes no sense whatsoever. Glad you noticed that a size change locks the color ... will apply that for the time being. – Michael Matti, on September 27, 2008 14:04

Michael Matti reported a problem in Balsamiq on September 27, 2008 04:34:

Command line PNG export ignores vertical curly braces color

Title pretty much explains the problem, but I'll provide a little context:

I've been heavily leveraging the command-line PNG export feature, setting up a batch script in combination with ImageMagick, PHP, and an Ajax lightbox library to spawn browse-and-zoom-able mockups galleries with a single click. Was very happy with the new workflow (and so were my colleagues) until I noticed an odd variation today.

On command line export only -- not during an "in app" PNG export -- vertical curly braces loose any applied text color. I always do the text of my curly brace annotations in deep purple, to help them jump out from the mockup itself. Horizontal curly brace text retains its color, but vertical ones always revert to black.

Not exactly crippling, but the inconsistency makes my output look careless.

Hope that's an easy one to swat.

As always, thanks much. (And just for the record, that command line feature has turned out to be an enormous benefit -- it wound up boosting my throughput significantly, and led to a semi-automated system for sharing works-in-progress.)

Michael Matti replied on September 15, 2008 15:43 to the question "Enhancement: Precise drag (ignore automatic snap)" in Balsamiq:

Reloaded Mockups this morning for the first time in a few days, and was very happy to see this added. Snap-on-resize was one of those things that, while usually a nice feature, was sometimes a maddening nuisance. Thanks a bunch for the simple bypass.

Michael Matti started following the problem "Switching between tabs resets scroll position" in Balsamiq.

A comment on the problem "Horizontal curly brace text alignment bug" in Balsamiq:

Be sure to mail in your ballot ... he's trailing by a few, according to Gallup this week. – Michael Matti, on September 09, 2008 22:33

Michael Matti reported a problem in Balsamiq on September 09, 2008 20:32:

Horizontal curly brace text alignment bug

A month back I reported a problem with text positioning in the curly braces. This is a different problem -- it has to do with left/center/right alignment with horizontal curly braces:



For all practical purposes, horizontal curly brace text is available as center/right/lunatic-fringe instead of left/center/right. (I'm struggling to avoid a political analogy.) Vertical curly brace text aligns correctly.

Not a biggie ... just surprised I hadn't come across this 'til now.

Michael Matti replied on September 09, 2008 13:36 to the problem "Large mockup can't be exported as PNG" in Balsamiq:

Bummer.

But as you noticed in that file, the length is mostly due to annotated variations of a couple basic screens. If you have something in the works that supports such scenarios, terrific.

Meanwhile, it's clear that a Mockups-enforced limit is required. Really is a shame, in that the expand-as-needed aspect of the workspace is a feature I'd come to love, since I didn't have to worry about repositioning earlier elements as I grew the design in any direction.

Anyway, thanks for solving the mystery. Will divvy-up the file.

A comment on the problem "Large mockup can't be exported as PNG" in Balsamiq:

Just sent it via direct e-mail. Biggest mockup I've attempted, and first time I've seen this problem, which suggests a correlation. – Michael Matti, on September 09, 2008 12:50