Improving clarity of dropdown list

[math]

As I wrote in a different posting, I defined quite a number of years, groups and subgroups. From the technical perspective this fine structured approach is working perfectly and makes my activities much more clear and less error prone.

In some dialogs however, the "large" number of years, groups and subgroups becomes a problem. For instance the dialog Time -> Students -> Max days per week for a students set -> Add:

This dialog shows a dropdown box at the top of the dialog. When I press the dropdown button, I see a list of all years, groups and subgroups. Since the total number of years, groups and subgroups is quite big, I need to scroll up and down the list for finding the appropriate entry. Scrolling is not the problem.

The problem is that all entries of the dropdown list are aligned in the same way. There is no way of differentiating between years, groups and subgroups in this dialog but deducing the type from the name. So I have to read the list quite carefully for finding the right entry.

Would it be possible to change the dropdown list so that it becomes more clearly and easier to find the right entry.

I'm thinking of two approaches:

1) Indenting of entries
One could modify the list by indenting groups and subgroups. For instance, groups may be indented by two spaces, while subgroups are indented by four spaces. This would make it quite easy to differentiate between years, groups and subgroups.

2) Categorizing
At the moment the structure defined in Data -> Students is simply mapped to this dropdown list. This means that subgroups, that are member of multiple groups, also do appear multiple times in the dropdown list. I think that this makes little sense.
If I'm selecting a group in that dialog that appears multiple times in the dropdown list, it makes no difference which of the entries I'm selecting (this means: in which year context the selected group is). The same holds valid for subgroups.
So wouldn't it make more sense to structure the dropdown list in the following way:
- The first entries represent all years of the current configuration
- The next entry is a horizontal line or an empty line or something else
- Then the dropdown list contains a line for each group defined in the current configuration
- Again some separation line
- Followed by a line for each subgroup defined in the current configuration

This suggestion applies to all dialogs where a student set dropdown box is shown (i.e. nearly each dialog in Time -> Students or Space -> Students)

[Liviu Lalescu]

I will look over the code to see if there is a quick solution. If not, I will only add in the TODO list, for now.

Did you know that in the settings you can choose to hide subgroups in the combo boxes?

[Volker Dirr]

maybe you can check if it helps to use the keyboard. so if you press on the dropdown box you can use your keyboard and write the name. you must be careful, since there is a "timer". so if you are typing pretty slow it will always think you rewrite the fist letter again and want to search the next word that starts with that letter. If you are writing fast you can find the "longer" string match.

[Liviu Lalescu]

I did something, using tricks. Please get a test version from https://lalescu.ro/liviu/Backup-fet/ and let me know what you think of it. The change is only in add students set not available times, for now.

Volker and others, please also let me know.

I would be interested into the answers soon.

[Volker Dirr]

i agree, icons can help to see the difference faster.

just 2 (minor) points:

- i am not sure, maybe the year also need an icon?

- i am not sure about the exact icon. maybe other guys can design nicer ones? in my opinion years is more than groups. so the years icon should be "larger". groups is more than a subgroup. so groups should be "larger" than subgroups. maybe subgroups only with one head (torso), group icon with 2 heads (torsos) and year icon with 3 heads (torsos)?

maybe some graphic designers can give us nicer icons.

[Liviu Lalescu]

I prefer to design myself.

I will also add a setting to enable/disable this option.

[math]

Sorry that I didn't reply so far. I tried to execute the EXE in a virtual machine running Windows XP, but that failed. I guess XP is not supported anymore. Then I tried to compile it with OSX, but that didn't succeed either.

I'll install Windows 10 to a VM this evening and give it another try.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your support!

[Liviu Lalescu]

Indeed, XP and Vista is not supported. But you can get https://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/download/old/fet-5.33.3-xp-vista.exe and use the dll's from there. Overwrite them over the snapshot dll's.

[Liviu Lalescu]

I managed to take a screenshot, attached, please let me know what you think. I need your answer, because I solved the other suggestions and would like to know how to proceed with this one.

[rodolforg]

I like the icons.

What about to add a single space/tab before subgroup names?

[Volker Dirr]

i don't like tab before subgroup names.

subgroup names are (normally) the longest names. so an additional tab will make longer. don't forget that that is very very small subgroup name in that example screenshot. many users have go much longer subgroup names.

[math]

Copying the XP-version's DLL over the current snapshot is not working. I'll try to get Windows 10 running this evening.

Thanks for the screenshot. The symbols for group and subgroup are making the dropdown box much clearer. But what about groups that are member of multiple years, resp. subgroups that are member of multiple groups? Are they appearing multiple times in the dialog?

Personally I would prefer something like I attached to this message. First all the years, then a separation line, then all the groups, again a separator line, and finally all the subgroups.

[Liviu Lalescu]

I will try now to add years, groups with 2 spaces before, and subgroups with 4 spaces before, just to see how it looks.

I cannot say I like the idea to list firstly years, then groups, then subgroups. But if more people like it, I'll think of it.

[math]

Windows 10 is now running in a VM, so I was able to start the FET snapshot.

I really like the symbols before the names. Much better than the spaces that I suggested.

However I can see that it is still the same list as before, i.e. a subgroup is listed multiple times if it is member of multiple groups. From my point of view this makes the dropdown list longer than it needs to be.

As you mentioned, it is possible to exclude subgroups from these lists. (Settings -> Interface -> Show Subgroups in Combo Boxes) How about adding another checkbox to this Settings -> Interface dialog? For instance "Compress Years, Groups, Subgroups in ComboBoxes".

If that checkbox is unchecked, the current design you just implemented for the snapshot would be used.
If that checkbox is checked, the design that I suggested in my faked screenshot would be used.

[Liviu Lalescu]

I like the icons.

What about to add a single space/tab before subgroup names?

Sorry, but I think this is too complicated (from the coding point of view). I'll think about it. Thank you for your opinion!