Rearranging the CHS display to give a conventional 2-pane display

[IainB]

I thought I would pass this on in case it might be of use to other CHS users.

Objective: A useful two-pane view of my CHS database. (Similar to a Help file display.)

• The left pane was to provide a scrollable hierarchical view (Tree tab) of my categories, together with a scrollable list of clip names (Grid tab) - both together in a relatively narrow column on the LHS of the screen.
• The right pane was to provide a full view of the data (Memo tab) in any given clip selected in the scrollable list of clip names.

Example: This would make it look a bit like the typical help file: (also a bit like my InfoSelect display)

Spoiler

Procedure:
1.This was my starting point:

Spoiler

2. Then out of interest I dragged all the tabs (Tree, Grid, Memo) together in the LHS pane:

Spoiler

3. Then I dragged the Memo tab (back) into the RHS pane, and dragged the Grid tab to the lower part of the LHS pane: (Objective achieved.)

Spoiler

Fiddling around with the column names displayed in the Grid tab - e.g., maybe to just display the Title column - could make things clearer for me.

[rjbull]

Interesting definition of "religion" 

[IainB]

Interesting definition of "religion" 

-rjbull (January 24, 2012, 02:37 PM)

Hahaha, sorry, you got that wrong!   

The things displayed in my Tree tab screenshot are my logical "categories", and they are hierarchically arranged (redolent of Lotus Agenda). One of the categories is called "Religion/belief/dogma", and that lists relevant logical sub-categories under that.
A "category" is not a "definition"!

But hey - isn't it nice how easily you can reconfigure the main CHS GUI?     

[tomos]

But hey - isn't it nice how easily you can reconfigure the main CHS GUI?      :Thmbsup

-IainB (January 25, 2012, 02:15 AM)

yeah, it is

[rjbull]

Interesting definition of "religion" 

-rjbull (January 24, 2012, 02:37 PM)

Hahaha, sorry, you got that wrong!   

The things displayed in my Tree tab screenshot are my logical "categories", and they are hierarchically arranged (redolent of Lotus Agenda). One of the categories is called "Religion/belief/dogma"

-IainB (January 25, 2012, 02:15 AM)

Ah, and the word "dogma" is hidden in that screenshot 

But hey - isn't it nice how easily you can reconfigure the main CHS GUI?

-IainB (January 25, 2012, 02:15 AM)

Mouser's programs are getting too complex for me... 

[bob99]

But hey - isn't it nice how easily you can reconfigure the main CHS GUI?

-IainB (January 25, 2012, 02:15 AM)

IainB

It is!!!
I didn't know this was doable.  I need to watch Mouser's videos more often. 

Thanks very much for taking the time to put together the tutorial. 

[IainB]

I didn't know this was doable.  I need to watch Mouser's videos more often.  

-bob99 (January 25, 2012, 10:24 AM)

I didn't know it was doable either!    
- which is why I put up the "tutorial" above, as I figured maybe other CHS users might not know.
I only discovered it by accident, playing about in the CHS main GUI window - I had inadvertently clicked and held a tab by its label, and I saw this ghostly rectangular image of the tab outline moving around. "That's funny..." I thought, then realised that I was dragging an object (the tab's pane).

A bit more experimentation showed that these Tabs seem to behave as inner panes trapped within the boundaries of the CHS main GUI window, and you can stick them together or to the sides of that window. If you double-click a Tab, it then "floats" as though it is a separate window, but it's behaviour is not that of a normal Windows object. Double-clicking it restores it to it's previous position, but it seems to lose its size settings in so doing. You can make all 3 tabs floating and then make them disappear (by closing them), leaving an empty main CHS GUI window(!) - and I haven't figured out how to get the tabs back - but you can quickly restore normality by selecting a preset Layout from the menu.

This "draggability" and reconfiguring of the tabs in the CHS main GUI window seems not to have been documented (?), or covered in any of the CHS videos by mouser that I have seen:
See this summary of CHS "How to" videos ("screencasts"): (Have I missed any?)

Spoiler

Summary of CHS "How to" videos ("screencasts"):
(Some parts of earlier videos may be obsolete where CHS has been changed since the video was made.)
Videos are summarised here: https://www.donationcoder.com/screencasts/chs/

1. Clipboard Help+Spell : 15 minute video tour - by mouser.
Description: An introductory tour of CHS features.
Duration: 15mins.
DCF comment link: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1514.msg240498#msg240498
Video view link: https://www.donationcoder.com/screencasts/dc/3ds/chs1/chs1.html
Video file download link: https://www.donationcoder.com/screencasts/dc/3ds/chs1/chs1.mp4

2. Clipboard Help+Spell Screencast: Image Clips - by mouser.
Description: An introductory overview of the CHS image capture features.
Duration: 11mins.
DCF comment link:: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=26575.msg247106#msg247106
Video view link: https://www.donationcoder.com/screencasts/dc/3ds/chs2/chs2.html
Video file download link: https://www.donationcoder.com/screencasts/dc/3ds/chs2/chs2.mp4

3. CHS Demo Screencast: Using Custom Script/Tool Formatting Presets - by mouser.
Description: An introduction in how to use and configure advanced custom modification presets that invoke external scripts/tools.
Duration: 6mins.
DCF comment link: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=28311.msg264788#msg264788
Video view link: https://www.donationcoder.com/screencasts/dc/3ds/chs3/chs3.html
Video file download link: https://www.donationcoder.com/screencasts/dc/3ds/chs3/chs3.mp4

Look, I just dragged each of the 3 tabs into individual vertical panes in the CHS main GUI window. I think this may be even more useful (good ergonomics) to me than the LHS+RHS pane configuration in the "tutorial" objective, above.

Spoiler

By the way, I always make a point of saving my favourite new Layouts as named presets (Layouts | Save As), so that I can always quickly invoke each one by name at a later stage. The save of a Layout will also include the current Tree position/display, and the current Grid columns/display, and the current sort order details at the same time, so I can restore them when invoked. More nifty features of CHS!

[bob99]

This "draggability" and reconfiguring of the tabs in the CHS main GUI window seems not to have been documented (?), or covered in any of the CHS videos by mouser that I have seen:
See this summary of CHS "How to" videos ("screencasts"): (Have I missed any?)

-IainB (January 25, 2012, 08:06 PM)

I thought there were more than 3 but looks like I was mistaken.  That's all I found also.

Maybe it is a hidden feature test by mouser to see who found it 1st. And you won!!!

Back on 12/15 mouser started a Clipboard Help+Spell: Tips and Tricks thread.   This would be a good addition to it.

[IainB]

Hmm...most "undocumented features" of software are bugs, but not in this case, it seems.