Related Articles | Index
MacFamilyTree:
Customizing MacFamilyTree's GUI
(Re-) Positioning Subviews
One of our design goals for MacFamilyTree 5 was to offer you the most flexible user interface available. You may freely position the various subviews (»panes«) by dragging them around. You can reorder and recombine them, so that the ones you need most are directly at your hand.
To move a pane to a different position in the Main View, just »click-and-hold« with your mouse on the tab for the pane you want to drag. You will see the selected pane hover over the other subviews and MacFamilyTree automatically generates »target areas« where you may drop the pane you are dragging.
Detaching And Combining Subviews
The pane you grab with the mouse may be part of a »multi-tab« subview, like »Name & Sex« and »Additional Names« in the screenshot below. When you grab one of those panes, it will »detach« from the subview it belonged to.
Should you want to recombine a »detached« pane with any of the subviews, just press and hold the »SHIFT« key while dragging. The pane will then snap onto any other subview as a new tab.
Resizing Subviews — Before…
Subviews (»panes«) can accomodate various tools: list views, text entry fields, media displays and our interactive Quick Navigation to name a few. Because different uses require the separate panes to be at different positions within the Main View, we discussed how you may rearrange their layout on screen. However, sometimes, you will want to also change the panes' sizes.
Some of the separators between the subviews show a line of five small dots. These dots form the so-called »handles«. You can grab such a handle with your mouse and drag the separator around to increase or decrease the space available for other subviews.
In our example below, we will reduce the space available for »Name & Sex« and »Additional Names« to gain more room in the single »Quick Navigation« pane.
Resizing Subviews — … And After!
You can see that Quick Navigtion now is much more spacious, thus making navigation through families with many children a lot easier.
Less Is More — Closing Panes You Don't Need
Not two people are the same, and also you personal taste or needs may differ significantly from those of other users. So, we have given MacFamilyTree another handy feature:
With just one or two clicks of your mouse, you can close panes you do not frequently use. Simply activate the panes you wish to close and click the small »X« buttons on their tabs. Who rather prefers to use a dedicated menu will appreciate the »Pane Settings« menu in the lower right corner of MacFamilyTree's main window.
And Once You Reduced The Clutter…
After closing all unneccessary panes we resize and reposition the remaining ones to show a really neat 3-pane layout in the Main View. Should we need to reopen certain subviews, we can always just checkmark the desired ones in the Pane Settings dialogue. It is there that we can also quickly return to the default set of panes by clicking »Reset Subviews«.
… Use MacFamilyTree On Multiple Windows!
Macs have known multiple-monitor configurations for a very long time. Many users have come accustomed to using a dual-display solution, e.g. keeping track of incoming e-mail and Internet chat on a small, second display while working with their office programs on the bigger main screen. But other setups may have huge digital HD displays connected to PowerBooks and MacBooks to take advantage of the bigger external screens.
MacFamilyTree supports as many windows on as many screens as you wish. Having previously rearranged the Main View now brings us in the ideal position to try out this feature:
Open Views In Separate Windows
The Main View offers a rather tiny, special button in the upper-right corner which is meant to symbolize a light gray window within a dark gray circle. Click on this button and the current Main View will open in a separate window (preserving all the previous changes to its layout).
Even after you have opened a first separate window, you can still open additional windows, either starting from within the Main View again or from each extra window you have created so far. Just click the small »Window« button again.
Related Articles | Index
|