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 Post subject: Mutliple columns in start menu and how to get autocollapse
PostPosted: Tue Jun 01, 2004 3:14 pm 
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Joined: Mon May 31, 2004 10:27 pm
Posts: 13
I'm sure these are covered somewhere in the docs so pardon for such a quick post to the forum, but I can't seem to get multiple columns for my program files in my start menu using NextSTART? On XP I can go to classic set up and have multiple columns so that I don't have to scroll. (Scrolling takes time when if I can see all the columns I can just go right to what I want).

I also can't seem to get the nextSTART menu to close when I leave focus off the menu.

TIA for any help.


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 Post subject: Re: Mutliple columns in start menu and how to get autocollap
PostPosted: Wed Jun 02, 2004 5:41 pm 
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rickcr wrote:
I'm sure these are covered somewhere in the docs so pardon for such a quick post to the forum, but I can't seem to get multiple columns for my program files in my start menu using NextSTART? On XP I can go to classic set up and have multiple columns so that I don't have to scroll. (Scrolling takes time when if I can see all the columns I can just go right to what I want).


Well, NextSTART does not provide this feature and for a good reason: NextSTART menus can be used to display the entire contents of a hard drive. Now imagine you have this feature turned on and decide to open a menu displaying the contents of your Windows System folder - with thousands of files in it (requiring tens of menus open at the same time to display at once), it is easy to imagine the ensuing chaos.

So, what I just did for the next version (and therefore why I didn't reply immediately) is to use a similar NextSTART feature, Max.Items per Menu, in which the user can specify the maximum number of items that are displayed in a menu, as the base to solve this problem.

When you set Max.Items per Menu to, say, 10, each menu only displays a maximum of 10 items. If the Menu has more than 10 items, the last entry in the menu displays 'More...'. Clicking on 'More...' will display another menu with the following 10 items and so on...

So, for the feature I just implemented, instead of displaying scroll arrows in a large menu NextSTART displays a 'More...' item instead. Clicking on 'More...' will display another menu with the remaining items, or as many will fit on the screen - and so on...

Since you still have to manually click on the 'More...' button to get another menu with more items, you don't run the risk of flooding the screen with countless menus all at once - and clicking on that 'More...' button is still a thousand times faster than scrolling though a menu. So I guess we get a good compromise here, no?

rickcr wrote:
I also can't seem to get the nextSTART menu to close when I leave focus off the menu.


Open the Hotspots Preferences tab and, in the Menu Name section, select 'Close Menus Automatically' from the pull up menu. This way, clicking anywhere else other than the menu will automatically close it.

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http://www.winstep.net - Winstep Software Technologies


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 Post subject: Re: Mutliple columns in start menu and how to get autocollap
PostPosted: Wed Jun 02, 2004 7:57 pm 
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Joined: Mon May 31, 2004 10:27 pm
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winstep wrote:
Since you still have to manually click on the 'More...' button to get another menu with more items, you don't run the risk of flooding the screen with countless menus all at once - and clicking on that 'More...' button is still a thousand times faster than scrolling though a menu. So I guess we get a good compromise here, no?


Well sort of:) Personally I'd really rather not have to click more 'most' of the time. In other words, take a typical example the windows programs menu option. I'd rather be able to see all the programs at once in as many columns as necessary. If using the 'more' option, if I needed to get a program like XteqSetup I'd have to hit more a bunch of times just to get to the menu item. Since their listed alphabetically it's not too difficult to get to what I need when they are all listed in columns. What I think might be a good compromise could be:

1) By default, directory views would be set up with the 'more' option (or the regular scrollable option).
2) When a user creates a new submenu he/she can set how they want to view the submenu. Also the user could of course edit any submenu to display scrollable, columns, or 'more'
3) This one might be more difficult to implement, but if the user decides to use columns and it does get to big for the screen, set the 'more' option on the last menu column when the max screen size is reached. (More than likely, a user seeing such a huge column list, will then want go in and edit that menu item to use 'more' by default or set it scrollable or better yet create some more submenus which is what I should do for my program files then we wouldn't even be talking about this issue:).


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