Clicking 'New Pane' opens two

Question

Go Hamburger Menu > New Pane and two new green windows open. Click X to close one of them and they both close.
I would use Submit Feedback, but I get an Internal Error:
“Exception: PTLite 8.1.3.36 SharedNonPortable.JSException
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke”
Which is another issue itself…

Answer 1

“New Pane…” is designed to show you where the empty pane’s are.
(If you look at the menu again, you will see the menu option now says “Hide empty panes”)
It is be design that clicking on 'X" after clicking “New Pane…” performs “Hide empty panes”)

Perhaps if “New Pane…” said - “Show empty panes” it would be clearer?

Paul:

I would use Submit Feedback, but I get an Internal Error:
“Exception: PTLite 8.1.3.36 SharedNonPortable.JSException
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke”
Which is another issue itself…

The Submit Feedback issue will be fixed in 8.1.3.38 (The beta version should get an update in a few days)

Comments

Hi hindlemail,

I would submit that “empty panes” aren’t an intuitive idea. They might be to developers (who know they’re “hiding” until invoked), but to users an empty space is a
non-entity–it doesn’t exist (ergo “empty”). I think the difficulty of the “empty panes” model is also demonstrated by my attempts to get resources in a side-by-side alignment rather than stacked. I tried toggling the view, dragging and dropping, everything I could think of, but I couldn’t make it happen. And then I opened another resource in a “empty pane” and it opened to the side. That was very unexpected! It means one has to be quite intentional about which resource one opens when and where… I don’t think changing the name (e.g., “Show empty panes”) would have helped me to understand the conceptual framework behind the “empty panes”. I’m still not sure that I do…

I would also suggest that going to the menu after clicking “New Pane…” isn’t a very likely move for most users (not this one, anyway). It’s nice that the menu option changes, but it’s rather hidden and doesn’t help to explain why clicking X on /one/ pane closes all of them… That’s behaviour I haven’t encountered before.

For what it’s worth,

Paul

Answer 2

Paul:

I tried toggling the view, dragging and dropping, everything I could think of, but I couldn’t make it happen. And then I opened another resource in a “empty pane” and it opened to the side. That was very unexpected! It means one has to be quite intentional about which resource one opens when and where

Are you are aware of the “Move pane…” option.
(Click the project menu (top left) -> Move pane…)

Comments

Nope, I wasn’t aware of the “Move pane…” option… Obviously not a place I would have expected to find something like that. Especially when other ‘pane’ related commands (“Toggle Layout”, “New pane…”) are in the upper right hamburger menu. But that’s a beef I have with PTHeavy as well–menu items not being grouped / where I would expect them to be (e.g., “Registration Information…” and “Checklists” under “Tools” rather than “Project” and “Checking” respectively).

Paul