This is one of the rare cases where I don't care how or where, I just want to be able to do this. By that I mean it can be either on Google Sheets or Online Excel (because I don't have the MS Suite, I would prefer GSheets since every time I search for help on Excel, I get solutions for the Program version that uses features not in the Online one)
Basically, I want to re-create the web page of a forum... but on a spreadsheet. The reason for that is because I want to create a catalog of sorts that is related to that forum, without being restricted to the forum and to be more organized. Since I only care about the body, I just took a screenshot and essential cut a hole where the "body text" is (ideally I would like all the buttons to be images you can click and would take you the actual forum, but I'm not concerned now).
Right now, what I want to do is to preferable create a button that can hide/show text like a Spoiler button. And I don't mean the type that changes the text color to be the same as the background making it unreadable, I mean the ability to collapse/expand the text.
My current solution is using Google Sheets and I'm grouping rows and using the +/- button on the left side. That has worked pretty well so far but it has 2 glaring issues:
#1 The +/- button is all the way to the left side
#2 And that button is inaccessible to people that have "viewing only" rights to the sheet, making this kind of a pain to use for people.
For #1 I have created a "drawing" that's just a straight line going all the way to the button to the side.
And for #2, because I want to make this sheet as dumbproof as possible, I'll have to write that they'll have to duplicate the sheet in order to use it. Which is going to take me a couple of days until I make a dumbproof "guide" on how to do that.
Ultimately, currently the best solution would be to create "buttons" where each one can collapse/expand a specific grouping of rows. But even just to create buttons I have to learn scripts, which I don't know how to... I don't even know where you're supposed to write the scripts to begin with.
Currently I'm pretty satisfied with what I've made so I'm not too pressed if I don't find a better solution. No you can't look at it because it's pretty sensitive.
Working on an app on which I have a few buttons at the top of the window, Hitting one of these buttons brings up a specific set of UI Elements (such as additional buttons or text fields). I was told during my Google travels searching for an answer, a best way to do this would be using more views, like showing a specific view when Button A was hit, or showing a specific view when Button B was hit. That works greatly, but it worries me. If I wanna have 20 buttons or so, would 20 different views be a problem performance wise? I just feel like thats a lot of views..
Is there a better way to go about this?
Thanks, Joe
In general the views will not be a performance problem.
Also in general don't optimize until you have a test that shows a performance problem. The key to writing good code it to write simple code that is easily understood. Later if there are performance problems investigate, find them and eliminate them. Xcode provides reasonably good tools for this in Instruments.
From Donald Knuth Premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming.
Views are the primary building block for UI in iOS. Having a lot of views is not likely to be a problem.
However, a UI with 20 buttons is likely to be cluttered and hard to use.
I want to send some log data to the ios app settings menu. I have dynamic text fields that I can change from that app working, but I need a text block now.
What I need to do is have a menu item that has a child view. That part too I have working. You click on View Logs from my app settings menu and it takes me to a blank page right now. How can I add a large dynamic text block? I have tried adding a Group and setting the Key to FooterText which I think is what I need to do. I can specify static text in there right now.
I don't know how to make it dynamic though. Any ideas?
Not exactly clear on what you are trying to do here (maybe clarify?). If you need a large text view then why not consider UITextView. You can jam essentially as much text in there as you want.
Settings is really not meant to serve as a read-write repository in the manner you describe. It is really focused on write infrequently, read many (think LDAP). However, you can make a lot of text data available through settings if that's what you want. Since the fields in settings don't support large quantities of text data, you might consider this approach. Even though it talks about 'licenses and attribution' you could apply this to logfiles as well.
best way to add license section to iOS settings bundle
I am developing a dashboard system which I need to split the app's screen into 4 blocks. Each block needs to have a page/tab control with different tabs such as day, month, week, etc
Is this not supported in xcode? I can only see references to a tab control where the tabs are at the bottom of the app's screen
Can you please try one of the control here in http://www.cocoacontrols.com/tags/tab?
I strongly recommend sticking with the tabs at the bottom. If you want them at the top you will have to implement your own solution or find one by someone else.
I need your suggestions how to organize and make a nice, graphical user interface.
Now I have something like this:
There is a tree view (it takes a big space...) as a menu with assigned frames to each item. All frames have control buttons (a tool bar) and something from this list: list views, string grids, progress bars, memos, rich edits, web browser, color pickers, list boxes, labels, edits etc.
I don't have enough experience to create a good, easy and graphical UI, and I do not have any ideas what to make.
The most hard thing for me is I need to create a nice SDI, but the present UI is similar to a MDI (frames with lots controls are instead of windows).
So I'm trying to copy an UI from other soft: http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/150-best-windows-applications-of-year-2010-editors-pick/ + SCREEN SHOTS. But I cannot find something appropriate for me :(
Added:
I have an idea to use a glass effect (a "menu" instead of a tree view on the left), but it looks complicatedly: buttons on a glass and buttons below (a tool bar).
Another version:
Please, advice me what to do or give me a direction. Thanks!
Consider that most monitors are now 16/10 or 16/9, i.e. not in 4/3 aspect ratio any more.
Therefore, it's not a loss of space to put a tree on the left, or even the commands toolbar on the left side instead of the top of the window. Your first screenshot was not the worse, in this aspect. I just write a log viewer with this design: the log events has the full application height.
Office 2007/2010 ribbon for instance is nice looking, but takes too much vertical space IMHO on daily use. Some users (among me) are frustrated by this ribbon. For instance, I don't find it very usable in a notebook. Greatest user interfaces gives full space to content, not commands. Chrome is a good example of this. And mobile applications tend to maximize the available space use.
Just my 2 cents.
Personally speaking, about your first screen shot, the toolbar buttons are too big. They are much too strong a presence, even at second glance.
I would reduce their size. Or, when this program targets children or touching devices, the other controls and font sizes should be enlarged.
You are trying to create a tabbed application, So I'd suggest using some sort of tab-control.
Even the Delphi default one allows you to add pictures to the tabs.
Something like this:
A few considerations:
How often is the app used?
If the app will be used very daily by your users, try to maximize usable space, i.e. make the controls as small as need be.
If the app is used rarely by your users, make the controls big and bright, label every button so things are clear, and time figuring out where is what is minimized, this also means using familiar user interface elements.
Are you targeting elephants or mice?
If you audience is computer savvy (mice), you can get away with more experiments and bling; if you are dealing with perpetual beginners you will need to stick to basic stuff.
Remember, the user interface is a contract
Make sure the controls behave as advertised. If something looks like a button make it behave like a button. Don't disguise a menu to look like a listbox/treeview.
A menu does an action (it's a hidden button), a listbox selects one item that can be acted upon.
My opinion
I dislike your initial screenshot because it tries to force a tabsheet/pagecontrol into the format of a treeview, whilst naming the items menus. This makes for a clumsy interface.
I've never seen a menu be used to switch between views, and the treeview makes for a mighty small target to hid. On top of that it allows for multiple nesting.
The tree is a concept that every programmer understands, but very few people outside that group grok, IMHO, don't use a tree in your application! and avoid the treeview.
It's a poor control to work with because:
It allows nesting > 2 a NONO in my book;
It is too small to hit with a mouse, even worse with a touchpad;
What's up with the [>] sign in front, why would I want to collapse a tree with just 1 level of nesting and when I do and the [+] is visible in front of "main menu" where on earth have my submenu items gone?
I love your last version, but
It needs text labels for every button;
Make the vertical pagecontrol, look like some sort of tabbed sheet, this will make your intent instantly clear;
I would love to see a statusbar;
Glass may look cool, but having the junk from screens below shine through your app sure makes everything look busy, not a good thing if you're trying to focus on this particular app;
Make sure to put splitters between all panels, and make sure to visually highlight the splitter by setting beveled:= true and width/height:= 5 so you can actually hit that splitter
The info panel has its own caption, a huge waste of space. It's bad enough that every window has a title bar that does almost nothing, don't multiply non-interactive space.
Finally
Do as David says and buy a copy of about face, it's the best book on UI design I've seen by far. http://www.cooper.com/#about:books
First picture is the best version for standard desktops with mouse.
Third picture will be good for tablets with their touch screens. But it needs some improvements. Currently I can't see on which page I am now, even more: there are no signs that those buttons actually switch pages. I think, you need some sort of tabcontrol here.