I have posted here rather than just sending to support because I'm
hoping to get some discussion and I don't have as clear a "please fix
this" as normal.
I think this feature needs some UI redesign because I'm arrogant
enough to think that if *I* keep forgetting how to use it, other
people will also :-)
A very quick search on this list archives came up with one "my
factory doesn't work" posting which I suspect is an example of this
confusion. I figure the multiplier for people posting queries to a
support list vs people who experience something related and give up
would be on the order of at least 100x .
Text Factories is also such a powerful feature I don't want anything
standing in its way as a major plus for BBEdit users.
I find the current interface for Text Factories rather confusing and
keep wondering "why they don't work". I suspect a lot of people
silently give up on the feature.
I like the gear icon and it is very obvious - that is part of the
problem. It is also wasted because I can't use it most of the time.
PROBLEM
The problem is twofold
1) you can save a factory with an inbuilt set of files to which it is
applied. If you don't realise the implications of this at the time of
creating the factory, you won't realise that selecting the factory in
future from the gear icon will continue to affect those files, NOT
whatever is open.
2) If you have not specified a list of files in a factory, it still
appears in the gear menu as an enabled factory, despite the fact that
it will do NOTHING if selected.
To use a Text Factory on currently open files, other than those
specified when it was created, you use the less accessible and not in-
your-face menu Text - Apply Text Factories.
Text Factories are a powerful solution but most of the setup is so
intuitive that I expect few users to read the manual.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
1a) If a Text Factory has no files specified, it should not be
enabled on the gear menu. (This assumes the gear menu retains its
current role.)
- this may make people stop and think and remember the Text -
Apply... option
- it still requires the discipline or understanding when you create
factories to have them not include files
OR
1b) If a Text Factory has no files specified, when selected from the
gear menu, it prompts to select files with a way to select current
file(s).
- eliminates silent failure
- obvious what is happening
- still leaves factories that have files specified as a source of
confusion
AND
2) As an explicit source of files in the Text Factory, add the option
Applies to Current File.
- would enable intuitive selection of the factory from the gear icon
to do what I expect
- is explicit when you open the factory.
AND
3a) in the factory editor, the "(nothing to search)" text could
include something like "use Text - Apply Text Factory to use later on
your current file". This option is a much weaker way to try to
compensate for not doing 2).
OR
3b) if you implement 2), the 'Applies to Current File' is the default
setting replacing the "(nothing to search)" text
AND MAYBE
4) Segregate factories which have a saved selection separately on the
gear menu - the ones which apply to current should be at the top.
Incidentally, I frequently promote the Text Factories feature to
REALbasic users - to be able to compare XML versions of their source
code you need to remove the embedded window position and other
editing attributes. I wrote a little factory to do that, available at:
http://www.oofile.com.au/downloads.html#DownloadREALbasic
regards
Andy
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