On 2010 Dec 13, at 5:30, David McQueen wrote:

> ... even though we talk of a paperless society, business is paper driven, specifically letter and legal size, portrait orientation. That makes some screen real estate for FileMaker usage more valuable than other parts of the screen. The, depending on paper size where you are, 8.5" swath down the screen with maximum depth to minimize scrolling is the real estate used for WSIWYG forms. In some applications divorcing the data entry from the final form is fine.  In others, seeing the actual form on screen with a minimum of scrolling is very important. This is The Prime FileMaker application screen real estate.  Unfortunately, this is also, at the top of the screen, where the tool bar resides.


Thanks, David, this is a much better articulated version of my rather incoherent lament about horizontality. I continue to begrudge every cm^2 of screen real estate that I can't "own" or control for myself, but some of those square centimetres are more valuable than others.

Normally I wouldn't waste everyone's time with a simple "Me too!" or "Well said!", but I wanted to add something to the conversational mix, namely that I really, really like the concept of floating toolbar palettes. I can shove them out of the way if I want, or I can drag them right up next to where I'm working if I want. There was a period (I'm thinking Versions 8-9, but I'm too lazy to check) when the design tools (pointer, text, etc.) had their own floating toolbar, but now they're back in a fixed location. This seems to me to be a step backwards. 8^(  I'd rather have FMI load as much as possible into 1 or more inspectors (which is what the floating palettes are now called) and not have to put up with a top-mounted toolbar at all.

Also, if FMI wants to provide a standard set of end-user tools (like the Rolodex paging interface or the "new record" icon), wouldn't it be great if we could place them wherever WE wanted on a layout, the way we do with buttons or portals or tabbed interfaces? That is, I'd really love to be able to grab a "Rolodex" tool, drag it onto my layout, and drop it where I wanted it. Heck, maybe I'd have 1 in the upper right and a 2nd in the lower left to minimize cursor travel time. Why not?