This article shares details of smaller changes or improvements made to the user interface or experience:
Data Refresh - Improved Experience and Performance
A new action has been added to the "When clicked" options, to refresh panels.
This means that only the panels on the page are refreshed rather than the full page itself, delivering a better user experience and improved performance.
Zoom Bar Improvements
Previously when a user used the zoom bar slider to zoom in or out of a model, the zoom bar increased and decreased in increments of 8%, this has now been changed to 10% to reduce confusion.
The bar now reflects the true zoom in or out percentage when a user clicks on "Show pin" on the flipside of a panel, rather than remaining in the position of the original scale.
Improvements to Colour Settings in Ribbon
There were a number of inconsistencies found in the colour settings within the MooD Business Architect ribbon, which have now been rectified to reduce confusion:
1. Inconsistent Language - US vs UK spellings
In some colour settings the spelling "Color" was used, whereas "Colour" was used in others. We believe we have now changed all US spellings to the UK spelling of "Colour".
2. Inconsistent available settings
Some colour settings gave the user the ability to change pattern and gradient, where others only offered Standard and Custom colour changes; these two tabs have now been provided in the "Font Colour" settings.
The title of the settings has also been changed, to align with this change, from "Colours" to "Text Style"
The title of colour settings for outline colour has also been changed, from "Colors" to "Line Colour" to align with the new options on offer.
3. Colour thumbnail showing "More Colours" selection
Previously when a user selected a colour from "More Colours", within the settings, the thumbnail within the ribbon did not reflect the colour chosen. This has now been fixed to show the latest selection, even when selected from "More Colours", allowing a user to then apply that custom colour to other objects quickly.
4. Colour Palette Icon
To make it clearer, to the user, which setting to choose and more pleasant to the eye, we have now added a Colour Palette icon to the left of the colour settings:
Setting a minimum size to Manage Themes dialog
Currently users are able to minimise the Manage Themes dialog beyond a point of usability. To ensure users maintain the use of all functionality within this dialog, there is now a minimum set for scaling down.
Allow a smart column in info panel
Users are now able to use Smart Column values within info panels. This means the user is not forced to use another, perhaps more complex control than is needed.
Repository Name is now left aligned
Currently the repository name sits central of the Business Architect caption bar. This can cause users, who access Business Architect via Virtual Machines, to lose sight of the name. When accessing multiple versions of the same repository, this means the user has to minimise MooD to ensure they are making changes to the right repository.
In this latest version the repository name is now left aligned to ensure the VM tab does not obscure it.
Improved "Select" Pane
A number of improvements have been made to the "Select" Pane information and format for a clearer user experience:
- The Select pane now shows picture dimensions as well as size
- Metafiles are indicated correctly as (metafile) not (picture), as such no dimensions are given, due to metafiles not having an intrinsic size
- A metafile which only contains a bitmap will show a warning symbol
- "Pictures on model masters" are now grouped by each model master
- Clicking on a picture from a model master takes you to that model master and opens the select pane so you can find it
OLD NEW
How to: when on a model master, click on the cursor icon found in the "Layout" section on the Home ribbon.
Improved Document Export Synchronisers
The drop down for the type of list in "Start List" rule, in the Document Export, now features images and groupings to make it clearer to users what format will be applied. This will allow users to make better informed, quicker decisions on their preferred list type including what happens at different indent levels:
Old:
New:
Improved exception error dialogs
A number of exception errors, which provided meaningless information for the user, have now been replaced with more user-friendly error dialogs, providing clearer, more meaningful information to the user.
Parameters within Custom Function Facts can now be named
To make the use of Custom Function Facts easier within the rest of the fact designer, the user can now apply parameter names, as shown below:
OLD: NEW:
Applying a Model Master
Previously when applying a model master the options would include model types which were not applicable. This has been reconfigured to only show what the user can select as an applicable model type.
OLD: NEW:
Some minor UI improvements have also been made to the "Apply Model Master" dialog, such as improved rendering in high DPI.
Updates to tooltips on Bar Carts and Time Line Matrices
Tool tips, when hovering over bars on matrices, have now been improved to update as changes are made via the matrix, as well as an improved format for displaying the information. There is now also the option to navigate, via the tooltip:
Improved Navigation Options
Currently when a Business Architect user sets a button to navigate to an element, it defaults to navigate from within the current tab.
There is also an option within the ribbon, and on the flipside of the button, to navigate to the element in a new window.
It was recently discovered that when a user checked the option to open "In a new window" when the button was clicked, they were actually navigated to the element within a new tab instead.
This issue has now been fixed, but we have taken the opportunity to provide further options and improve the usability.
- The ribbon now has a dropdown with the three options, instead of a checkbox. The default is set to open in the "Current Tab":
- The checkbox has been removed from the flipside of the button, to direct the user to the fuller navigation configuration options in the ribbon:
Ruler in Matrix Editor
So that Business Architect users can ensure the same sizing across matrices when presented in MAE, we have now implemented a ruler option which the user can switch on and off to help them find and apply the correct column widths.
Users will also now find more information within the tooltips on a matrix column:
MS Project installation not required
Previously, when importing or exporting, a user would not see an option to import from or export to Microsoft Project if they did not have MS Project installed on their local machine or Server.
Now users will see options to import from or export to Microsoft Project without the need to have it installed.
The file formats now supported:
- MS Project (.mpp)
- MS Project XML (.xml)
- Oracle Primavera P6 (.xer)
Note: the previous icon used (for those who had MS Project installed) to represent MS Project has changed from:
to (which will be seen by all users):
These changes are expected to support newer versions of MS Project.
These changes are made available in Build 85
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