4 ms·

chrome, mac 10.5 : i wish i could scroll horizontally using my macbook's mousepad (two fingers moving horizontally). i assume this doesn't work with a mouse whe

by diN0bot 17y ago

chrome, mac 10.5 : i wish i could scroll horizontally using my macbook's mousepad (two fingers moving horizontally). i assume this doesn't work with a mouse wheel either, but i'm not sure. the click-and-drag method is less good, plus whenever my mouse leaves the square, unclicking does nothing...

matt1 17y ago
Thanks, that's a good idea. I'll see what I can do.
- diN0bot 17y ago
  cool. i'm really digging this tool. more usability requests: * automatic scale adjustment, or at least continuous or more fine grained scale adjustment. i'd like to see all events at once...somewhere between years and decades. * reordering of events, or automatically ordering based on start times. this only matters when i view a large time scale and the titles don't fit on the bars, thus the events from a single layer cause the events to be laid out on different rows. i suppose abbreviating the titles so they do fit in the bars would be another solution.
  - matt1 17y ago
    Someone else recommended a "fit" zoom level, which would place them all on your screen at once at just the right resolution. I think it's a good idea too. Reordering events so that you can change the order they are rendered might be possible. Again, I worry about feature creep, since I don't know if this is something that will matter to a lot of people.
diN0bot 17y ago
also, it would be great if i could edit each event right on the timeline. that is, i want a single page for quick edits. the form could be below the timeline, activated whenever i click on an event or layer. whatever. if things take to long to edit to make right, this will waste too much time. ps - i do like it. always a pleasure playing with data viz. API? would love to incorporate this in my own time tracking projects.
- matt1 17y ago
  Don't worry about it. Your feedback is perfect. The fact you're thinking about these types of things is a really good thing. A few other folks have mentioned editing right on the timeline too. My question in response is: how often are you going to be editing an event? If the answer is not often, I think that the clutter that will result from integrating it directly into the timeline will outweigh the benefits from being able to edit it a bit quicker. That being said, it may be possible to do it in a clean, simple way that doesn't confuse people. API -- in the future, definitely.
  - diN0bot 17y ago
    true, but what happened to me was that i was off by a bit on my times and i wanted to change that.... and then i had to change all four events. what if i wanted to go back and change colors for everything. you know, being a nerd i want everything to be exact and meaningful ;-) it's not a big deal, but you do want to reduce activation energy as much as possible for your users. also, i wanted to see the times of events already up there to help me enter new event times. i only know this is important because i went from using project management tools like xplanner http://www.xplanner.org/ http://www.xplanner.org/ to pivotal tracker pivotaltracker.com/ i had to use the xplanner, etc tools for a few months to realize how much they sucked. i immediately loved pivotal tracker, wrote rave reviews, and recommended it to all my friends (i even got my sister using it for thesis writing, which isn't a dev project management use at all). one big win for PT is putting the view and editing all on a single page. i didn't realize how great that was until i used it. might not be right for you, and you definitely have to work out how to make it not confusing.
    - matt1 17y ago
      i wanted to see the times of events already up there to help me enter new event times. I want the same thing. I was waiting for someone else to validate it. Thank you. I'm not sure if its a good or a bad thing, but I haven't played with any other timeline software yet. I'll check those out, note the strengths, and go from there. Appreciate it.

by diN0bot 17y ago

matt1 17y ago

Thanks, that's a good idea. I'll see what I can do.

diN0bot 17y ago
cool. i'm really digging this tool. more usability requests: * automatic scale adjustment, or at least continuous or more fine grained scale adjustment. i'd like to see all events at once...somewhere between years and decades. * reordering of events, or automatically ordering based on start times. this only matters when i view a large time scale and the titles don't fit on the bars, thus the events from a single layer cause the events to be laid out on different rows. i suppose abbreviating the titles so they do fit in the bars would be another solution.
- matt1 17y ago
  Someone else recommended a "fit" zoom level, which would place them all on your screen at once at just the right resolution. I think it's a good idea too. Reordering events so that you can change the order they are rendered might be possible. Again, I worry about feature creep, since I don't know if this is something that will matter to a lot of people.

diN0bot 17y ago

also, it would be great if i could edit each event right on the timeline. that is, i want a single page for quick edits. the form could be below the timeline, activated whenever i click on an event or layer. whatever. if things take to long to edit to make right, this will waste too much time. ps - i do like it. always a pleasure playing with data viz. API? would love to incorporate this in my own time tracking projects.

matt1 17y ago
Don't worry about it. Your feedback is perfect. The fact you're thinking about these types of things is a really good thing. A few other folks have mentioned editing right on the timeline too. My question in response is: how often are you going to be editing an event? If the answer is not often, I think that the clutter that will result from integrating it directly into the timeline will outweigh the benefits from being able to edit it a bit quicker. That being said, it may be possible to do it in a clean, simple way that doesn't confuse people. API -- in the future, definitely.
- diN0bot 17y ago
  true, but what happened to me was that i was off by a bit on my times and i wanted to change that.... and then i had to change all four events. what if i wanted to go back and change colors for everything. you know, being a nerd i want everything to be exact and meaningful ;-) it's not a big deal, but you do want to reduce activation energy as much as possible for your users. also, i wanted to see the times of events already up there to help me enter new event times. i only know this is important because i went from using project management tools like xplanner http://www.xplanner.org/ http://www.xplanner.org/ to pivotal tracker pivotaltracker.com/ i had to use the xplanner, etc tools for a few months to realize how much they sucked. i immediately loved pivotal tracker, wrote rave reviews, and recommended it to all my friends (i even got my sister using it for thesis writing, which isn't a dev project management use at all). one big win for PT is putting the view and editing all on a single page. i didn't realize how great that was until i used it. might not be right for you, and you definitely have to work out how to make it not confusing.
  - matt1 17y ago
    i wanted to see the times of events already up there to help me enter new event times. I want the same thing. I was waiting for someone else to validate it. Thank you. I'm not sure if its a good or a bad thing, but I haven't played with any other timeline software yet. I'll check those out, note the strengths, and go from there. Appreciate it.