?? Why, Oh WHy must Documents be Maximized ??

General questions about using TextPad

Moderators: AmigoJack, bbadmin, helios, Bob Hansen, MudGuard

afoxmore
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:46 am

?? Why, Oh WHy must Documents be Maximized ??

Post by afoxmore »

Hello,

I've been using TP for many years and I've just "upgraded" to version 5.0.2.

It seems that every document I open appears maximized within the TP window. I'm not saying TP itself is maximized but the document within TP is maximized. I can only see one document at a time.

I have to say I really hate this behavior. Why can't I, the user, decide if I want the documents maximized? Unless I'm missing some configuration options, I'm going back to v4.7.3.

On an unrelated issue, I would like to see TP update those ugly Win 95 icons. Maybe they can think about usiing the free Silk icons at
http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/

Thanks
ak47wong
Posts: 703
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2003 9:37 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Post by ak47wong »

Turn off Document Tabs on the View menu and you can control the size of the document windows.

Andrew
ben_josephs
Posts: 2461
Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2003 9:22 pm

Post by ben_josephs »

You can unmaximise the document windows with <Alt+Minus> | Restore, whether document tabs are on or off. Unfortunately, all the document windows are maximised whenever you switch the tabs on or off, so you have to restore them again afterwards. This is extremely irritating.
afoxmore
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:46 am

Post by afoxmore »

ben_josephs wrote:You can unmaximise the document windows with <Alt+Minus> | Restore, whether document tabs are on or off. Unfortunately, all the document windows are maximised whenever you switch the tabs on or off, so you have to restore them again afterwards. This is extremely irritating.
ak47wong wrote:Turn off Document Tabs on the View menu and you can control the size of the document windows.

Andrew

Thanks for the tip. The <Alt+Minus> | Restore works and gives me what I want but I wish I didn't have to do. The default maximized behavior is annoying.

Version 5.0.2 seems to be an irritating step backward, removing a nice UI feature. It's too bad. I actually liked v4.7.3 better.
User avatar
Nicholas Jordan
Posts: 124
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2004 12:33 am
Location: Central Texas ISO Latin-1
Contact:

Re: ?? Why, Oh WHy must Documents be Maximized ??

Post by Nicholas Jordan »

afoxmore wrote: .... On an unrelated issue, I would like to see TP update those ugly Win 95 icons.
So you are not the only one ? I doubt bbadmin will let us run a poll on the aesthetics of infantile look & feel user interfaces.
The only dumb question is one you should have asked and didn't.
User avatar
morteda
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:51 pm
Location: Minneapolis

Please make it easier to view non-maximized 'Document Tabs'

Post by morteda »

ak47wong wrote:Turn off Document Tabs on the View menu and you can control the size of the document windows.

Andrew
I totally agree with this thread. To me here is the solution (or a thought toward the path to the solution):

When 'Document Tabs' is deselected you have two buttons in the upper right just under the main minimize/maximize/close program buttons. They are titled 'Restore Window' and 'Close Window'. When you select 'Document Tabs' these two buttons go away which is not optimal. You lose functionality by using 'Document Tabs' that you do not lose when you use the 'Document Selector' (but I prefer tabs, even though the selector floats and has that nice auto-hide feature). You should allow maximum (no pun intended) functionality for both styles of viewing.

I prefer to use 'Document Tabs' but with the files not maximized within the window so I can view them side by side or arrange as I see fit. Sometimes I will have four text files open and looking at things within each of them. This forces me to not want to use a view funciton that I prefer; 'Document Tabs'. This may sound trivial but it's huge to me. I realize that I could use the 'Document Selector' but I simply don't like it as much. It's more intrusive to the view to me but at the moment it's more functional. I think the goal should be to have both the selector and the tabs views be as functional as possible. It gives the user two ways to look things that function the same way. This is currently not an even playing field.

If you could keep those two buttons in there and allow for non maximized files within the main window with 'Document Tabs' on I would LOVE it. My only complaint to otherwise fabulous upgrades. I will still condone usage and purchase of this program to all peers and friends and I am thankful I found this great program. I'm betting lots of other people are confused by this forced maximization with the 'Document Tabs' function. You can work around it but having that little 'Restore Window' or a non-maximized function built in (you could minimize them to the bottom previously as well so maybe keeping minimize/restore/maximize there for documents within the main window would be a good reversion.

Thanks for your consideration on what I feel is a very important topic.
beychae
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:30 am

Post by beychae »

Just want to second morteda's comments above -- still love Textpad, and being able to drag and drop tabs is nice, but would very much like the "Restore" icon to be restored!

Also, when you select two documents in the Document Selector and right click on them, it gives you the option to "Tile vertically" or "Tile horizontally" -- this option is now not there if you have the tabs visible.
lynn
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Oct 16, 2003 8:01 pm

Post by lynn »

I'm repeating myself with this post - but I want to use document tabs and tiled or cascaded windows, as was available in 4.7. Helios, please bring it back!!!
Renata
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:52 pm

Post by Renata »

Turning off document tabs was a step in the right direction, but ever since I "upgraded" to 5.0.x, I feel like I am fighting the environment. The document tabs are turned off, but I am still having a problem with the search box overlaying the opened file, so it's hard to scroll the opened file without accidentally jarring the search box. It used to be that the open document was in a window above the search box, and now it's behind and I can't seem to fix it.

I really am considering going back to 4.7.3. I was happy with that build.

...Ren
stabby
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 4:21 pm

Post by stabby »

I want the minimize restored, please!

Don't force us to work in an unnatural fashion. It I wanted my tools to tell me what to do and how to do it, I'd use microsoft's editor.

:evil:
ccollins
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:54 pm
Location: Ohio USA

Post by ccollins »

I'd like the "Document Tabs" to have a "new vertical tab group" like other editors do.
ccollins
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:54 pm
Location: Ohio USA

Post by ccollins »

I suppose a "work around" is to allow multiple instances of TP to run, open some docs in one instance and others is a second instance, and then tile the two instances of TP.
jrw88
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:19 pm

Post by jrw88 »

I agree, the old MDI way shouldn't have been taken away without warning.
A tab area and the MDI (multiple document interface) don't need to be mutually exclusive. I've spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to get Textpad 5 back to the the way I am used to it working for the last decade or so. Thanks to those in this post who came up with "Turn off Document Tabs".
NewWorldMan
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2008 3:32 pm

Post by NewWorldMan »

The new UI is essentially a copy of the Visual Studio IDE. In it you can have either tabs or cascading windows but not both. The best workaround is to use the Tab Groups feature that they've just added.

When I first used the new Visual Studio .NET IDEs after moving from VC++ 6 I too disliked the either-or paradigm but I've now just got used to it. (VC++ 6 didn't support tabs but there was an excellent add-in that gave you tabs plus traditional MDI and more besides.)
DonBabbage
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:31 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

<Alt+Minus> | Restore not working with Document Tabs

Post by DonBabbage »

Hi, with Textpad 5.2, the behavior described by an earlier poster
to restore a document window with <Alt+Minus> | Restore
is disabled when Document Tabs are displayed.
With Textpad 5.1, it was possible to restore the
document windows even when the Document
Tabs were shown.
Any idea how to enable <Alt+Minus> | Restore
when Document Tabs are enabled?
Thanks
Don B.
Post Reply