What is an "auto-hide" panel

jeknepley · March 23, 2015, 12:54:26 PM

I read the recent post on auto-hide panels. It's a term I'm unfamiliar with - even after my subsequent search of Mario's superb help system. I searched for auto-hide ,which was mentioned just once (under Filter Panel - "... If the filter panel is closed or in auto-hide mode..."), but never explained that I could find.

Simple explanation, please.

(Sorry for starting a new post on this topic, but "reply" was no longer an option at the OP)

JohnZeman · March 23, 2015, 01:38:51 PM

If you dock a panel to the left, right, top or bottom of the screen it can have two states. Normal, meaning it just sits there. And auto-hide which means it normally slides closed so only the panel tab or icon is visible. At the top right corner of each panel next to the X close icon is a push-pin icon. When that pin is vertical, the panel is docked in a normal state. If you click that pin it changes to horizontal and the panel then will slide closed until you hover your mouse over the panel tab or icon for a second or so and then it will slide open. When it's open you can use the panel as you normally would but as soon as you click somewhere else outside of that panel, it slides closed again.

Attached are two screen shots. Normal shows my panels in a normal state, always visible (I circled the push-pins in red). On the right side of the Auto-hide image instead of the panels you see the panel icons.

[attachment deleted by admin]

Mario · March 23, 2015, 02:36:19 PM

I thought I had that explained in the Panels help topic, which covers pretty much everything else. I'll add a paragraph about auto-hide panels - and an auto-hide keyword so you can find it in the index.

jeknepley · March 23, 2015, 03:38:36 PM

Thanks John & Mario. Just goes to show that even after using IM5 for several months, I've only scratched the surface (or so it seems). I feel dumb about missing this feature.

Mario · March 23, 2015, 03:52:50 PM

A typical IMatch user uses maybe 50% of IMatch. But each user uses different 50% ...

Carlo Didier · March 23, 2015, 04:34:34 PM

Quote from: Mario on March 23, 2015, 03:52:50 PMA typical IMatch user uses maybe 50% of IMatch. But each user uses different 50% ...

I would even say that 50% is already a LOT, considering what iMatch can do ...

JohnZeman · March 23, 2015, 07:07:02 PM

Just to add another way to work with panels, with a very simple script for each desired panel you can also turn a panel into a popup window. Drag that script to the favorites panel then all it takes is a press of a button to open a window containing the panel you want.

I use this method for panels I normally don't want open at all but do want them front and center when I need them. Such as Quick View. Screen shot and script attached.

Note this does the same thing as View > Panels > Quick View, it just saves some extra clicking with the mouse.

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Mario · March 23, 2015, 07:17:59 PM

Double-clicking the panel caption also switches between docked mode and floating (window) mode. Just to mention this.

ubacher · March 24, 2015, 04:35:18 AM

QuoteDouble-clicking the panel caption also switches between docked mode and floating (window) mode. Just to mention this.

I was not aware of this. YES it is in the help file - I just checked. Just one of these things I never used and so forgot about. Very handy - Thanks.

And John's script (Quick View) will also come in handy, if not as is, then as an example of what can be done. Thanks too.

ubacher · March 24, 2015, 04:43:35 AM

A further explanation to jeknepley:
An auto-hide panel can bee seen as a kind of fancy pull-down menu.
If you just want to display some info it goes away on its own but if you click something in
the panel it stays and you have to click somewhere else to have it close. This way of closing can be rather
inconvenient and has raised some discussions in this forum. But Mario says he can not change this behaviour
( adding some kind of a close button on the panel) since it is part of the 3rd party interface kit.

Ferdinand · March 24, 2015, 08:11:25 AM

Quote from: ubacher on March 24, 2015, 04:35:18 AM
QuoteDouble-clicking the panel caption also switches between docked mode and floating (window) mode. Just to mention this.

I was not aware of this. YES it is in the help file - I just checked. Just one of these things I never used and so forgot about. Very handy - Thanks.

+1

Quote from: ubacher on March 24, 2015, 04:43:35 AM
you have to click somewhere else to have it close. This way of closing can be rather inconvenient and has raised some discussions in this forum. But Mario says he can not change this behaviour

Also +1. Yes we've discussed it before and apparently it is the UI toolkit that's responsible. There are a number of minor annoyances that either are too hard or can't be fixed. This is one of them.

Carlo Didier · March 24, 2015, 01:16:09 PM

Quote from: ubacher on March 24, 2015, 04:43:35 AM
you have to click somewhere else to have it close. This way of closing can be rather inconvenient and has raised some discussions in this forum. But Mario says he can not change this behaviour

Another +1 for that.