[softwarelist] Positioning of OPW dialog boxes, possibly a multi-screen issue - OPW 2.92 (12 Jan 2011)

  • From: Jeremy Nicoll - zf freelists <jn.fr.lsts.74@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: davidpilling@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:38:36 +0100

OPW 2.92 (12 Jan 2011)

I've never much liked the way the toolbox and info-palette get attached to
document windows so, with two document windows open, changed the application
choices to allow these to not to be attached.

I was using a three-monitor PC, but only had the main one (a widescreen) and
the lefthand one (trad 4:3 shape) turned on.  The righthand one is also a
4:3; both side screens are only turned on if I need the extra screen space.

I had the toolbox & info palette displayed on the lefthand screen, one
document window on there or the main screen (can't remember) and the other
document window shunted sideways to the right so that only its lefthand
border was on the main screen.

I closed the first document window.  I think I lost the toolbox and info
palette at that point (which I'd assumed would stay on screen until no
document windows remained, but it loos as if they were associated with the
first doc window only).  That in itself is odd because it had seemed to me
that having just one toolbox/info palette worked ok directing tool
selections to, and seeing status info of, whichever doc window had focus at
the time.  That would make sense if the toolbox window merely sends a msg to
any doc window that's listening, and doc windows send messages for display
by any active palette window...?  So I hoped they'd stay visible until the
last doc window closed.

I suppose in theory I could then have used View on the remaining document
window to open a new toolbox & palette, but didn't need to... and in fact
couldn't do so...

The second document window didn't have focus and I couldn't gain it by
clicking on its title bar.  I couldn't drag it back into the centre of the
main screen.  


Bear with me while I make a digression...

I've seen this sort of thing before (in the BBC iPlayer desktop client, an
AIR application) which on my laptop I rarely minimise because maximising its
display from minimised is very slow, so I tend to push its window nearly
off-screen.  Then if it suddenly has a problem it displays an error box, but
that seems to be a dynamic change of the pixels in its main/only window
rather than a modal or non-modal extra message window being popped up.  When
BBC iPlayer does this 'focus' seems to change to the pop-up (which isn't a
real window) but more to the point the main BBC iPlayer window loses focus. 
Anyway it's then impossible to click on its title bar and to drag it back. 
But I have found that right-clicking the taskbar button that represents BBC
iPlayer and choosing 'Move' then allows Windows to let me move the whole
window back so I can see and clear the error box. 



Anyway I tried the same with OPW; but selecting 'Move' didn't move the OPW
document window.  Now I was lucky, it was mainly off the main screen, but I
then turned on the rightmost screen to see if it held any clues.  It did -
there was an OPW dialog box displayed towards the righthand side of this
rightmost document window.  It was a SaveAs box.  I'm not sure why unless
somehow shutting the first OPW window had tried to shut the whole OPW
application, rather than just one document.  Unless I'd double clicked the
OPW icon at the top left of that window - maybe I had, as it was just an
experimental document... or maybe it was an autosave thing?

Dealing with the SaveAS dialog box made the OPW doc window moveable again;
that's not really what concerns me.  What is, is that I don't understand why
that document window's SaveAs dialog box was so far to the right relative to
its own document window.  Why not centered?  But even then if this window
had been mainly off-screen (eg even further to the right, and perhaps this
could happen on a single-monitor setup too) when OPW presented the dialog
box, would I have been totally unable to see and deal with that dialog box? 
It seems to me that OPW should be making sure that such boxes always appear
totally within the visible desktop area.  

In fact, I tend to think it'd be better if they were centered on the desktop
and/or its primary display, rather than vaguely positioned on their own
document window.

-- 
Jeremy C B Nicoll - my opinions are my own
To unsubscribe or subscribe goto: //www.freelists.org/list/davidpilling

Other related posts:

  • » [softwarelist] Positioning of OPW dialog boxes, possibly a multi-screen issue - OPW 2.92 (12 Jan 2011) - Jeremy Nicoll - zf freelists