Our accounting/estimating software stores all sorts of info for your company. There are 18 types of accounts: customers, projects, employees, vendors, subs, bank accounts and a few others. Also 35 business transactions for estimating, accounting and project management: estimates, purchases, sales and many more. Most of them link to other records. For example, a Material Purchase has a supplier, a job account, a payment transaction, and maybe some cost items. Also, payment terms and a few other details.
You may want to take a peek at those linked items. Our software gets you there via commands in the View menu, or buttons in the record layout. Smart fields and table rows also have links. All of them open a record window that shows whatever you clicked on.
Accounts also have buttons to create new linked records: purchases from a vendor, sales or estimates for a customer, etc. All that linkety-linking makes your data more useful.
This past week, our staff worked on the links interface. We put it off until near the end because it’s important, and a dilemma.
Goldenseal uses a different window for each type of record. To show a link, it simply opens a new window, or brings an existing one to the front. That part is easy, but the multi-window setup has some basic flaws. Windows accumulate all over the screen. It’s easy to leave half-finished records somewhere in the clutter. Eventually the mess will drive you nuts, until you tidy up and close them.
The multi-window problem is even worse for Windows OS. That has a big Goldenseal window, with record windows inside it. It’s all because MS Windows puts a menu bar on each app window rather than at screen top. The window-in-window interface is the least bad option.
TurtleSoft Pro has a different design: just one window for everything. It has a tool bar, an outline view and tabs. The new look has much easier navigation. It solves the clutter problem. In general it’s pretty nifty. One-window apps are the trend these days, with buttons instead of menu commands. We are going with the flow.
The one-window setup does have a design problem: how do we show links?
We can’t put them in a tab. That was our first attempt. If the new tab jumps to the front, it hides the one you just clicked. If not, you have to click the correct tab to see it. One is annoying, the other is awkward and useless.
The new accounting app already has the option to show some records in separate windows. It’s there for die-hard Goldenseal fans who hate the tabbed window, or for anyone who wants to see two things at the same time. We tried that to show links, and it seemed decent.
What if the link is already in a tab? The solution was to move it out of the tab bar and into a new window.
What if you click a link from a separate window? For now it makes another separate window. That may bring back the clutter problem. Maybe we should add it to the tab panel, instead. It will take some real-world testing to find the best approach.
Another option is to use a temporary movable modal dialog: show one record until you click OK or Cancel. We already do that for lists. It may be the best solution for accounts and transactions, also. Code is already there for it. It’s another option to test out during daily use.
For links out of smart/clairvoyant fields, Goldenseal adds commands at the bottom of the popup menus. TurtleSoft Pro has a right-click menu instead. It’s easier to program, and easier to use.
Right-clicks are one more useful tool. I’m sure we will add more of them during testing. They are yet another way to get there from here.
Dennis Kolva
Programming Director
TurtleSoft.com
