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17 Jan 11 - 11:51 PM (#3076887) Subject: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: Janie Hi Max, There is a lot of white space between the thread title and the number of posts to that thread. I like all the white space on the cat, and generally can sort out what I am looking at or for much more readily because of it. However, I'm having increasing difficulty with visually tracking from the thread title to the number of posts. Only matters when the number of posts exceeds 50 and I don't want to load the entire, previously read, thread. Perhaps I am the only person who is having this problem. (Didn't used to be difficult, but has gradually become so.) I am assuming it is age-related. If it happens that a bunch of aging folkies are having a similar and increasing problem with this, wondering about some modest change in lay out that would help us increasingly visually challanged baby boomers. |
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17 Jan 11 - 11:56 PM (#3076891) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: Joe Offer It IS age-related, Janie....I'm of that age, too, and have the same problem. I like the look of the Forum Menu as it is, but I've also wondered if there's an eye-appealing way to display that column a little closer to the thread titles, or maybe underline or highlight the whole line when you mouse over it. -Joe- |
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18 Jan 11 - 02:38 AM (#3076920) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: Doug Chadwick The effect may be more technology related than age related. I recently changed my computer and now have a flat screen monitor which is so wide that it occupies the whole of the computer cabinet. I see exactly what you see, a large area of white between thread title and the number column, if I have the screen maximised. I set the window between minimised/maximised and drag the borders to give the maximum height but a reduced width. As I do so, the white space reduces to keep both the title and number columns visible within the window. DC |
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18 Jan 11 - 02:44 AM (#3076922) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: JohnInKansas An advantage of the old-style bifocals (or in my case trifocals) is that you can line the crack between the lenses up with "something horizontal," and if you can roll your eyes down to what you need to read without tilting your head too far off kilter you have a level reference to guess which "num posts" goes with which thread name. I'd use this method a lot more, but at my age just getting my head up off the keyboard is getting to be something of a problem. I suppose those who have the modern "blended lenses" could use a Sharpie to draw a line on the lens. Back when monitors were a lot cruder, line heights were fixed, you couldn't change magnifications, and I was working with "dense documents," I printed a View Foil with nothing but lines about a half inch apart, so I could hold it up in front of the screen to put lines in front of the text. I don't have "management" to communicate with now, so the text is much less dense, but I may be about ready to print a fresh foil. You can, of course, use the edge of a piece of paper as a "ruler," but my desk is so full of trash it's hard to find a piece of paper that has a straight edge left on it. Obvously the best solution would be lines on the screen, but html doesn't let you use tabs (or tab leaders) that are the common way of showing how tables and index entries line up. John |
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18 Jan 11 - 02:53 AM (#3076924) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: Bonnie Shaljean I'm finding it a hassle too. What about having the number-of-messages column to the left of the thread titles? It's easy enough for the eye to get in the habit of skipping across it because it's not very wide - a lot of email programmes have a short column of info to the left of the title & sender which you soon learn to "ignore" and focus on the info you want. The widest thing about that column is its title Messages, so what about shortening this to "Posts" or something? I don't think it's an age-related thing (though I can't say for sure because I don't have experience of looking at it with young eyes): it IS a lot of lateral space to traverse, which is why many book title-of-contents pages have that row of dots leading to the numbers. Good thread, Janie! |
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18 Jan 11 - 02:59 AM (#3076926) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: GUEST,Boho In case this is any help: in whatever version of IE it is that I'm using, if I have the "Status Bar" showing at the bottom of the window (selected via the View menu), when I hover my mouse over the thread title the url for the thread appears in the Status Bar, and includes the number of posts. |
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18 Jan 11 - 05:36 AM (#3076974) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: Nigel Parsons Left Click, and hold, your mouse in the white space to the rignt of the 'Trace' column. Slowly dragging it down the page will highlight each full line, in turn (building up to a large block of highlighted threads) It will, though, allow you to see exactly what is on each line. |
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18 Jan 11 - 05:45 AM (#3076978) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: GUEST,Grishka The solution given by Doug Chadwick (18 Jan 11 - 02:38 AM) above is good: don't maximize your browser window, make it narrower. If the Mudcat script could be changed, I suggest dropping the table attribute WIDTH="100%". (An additional column indicating the date of creation could be useful, by the way.) A background color for every other row is another good idea. The attribute BORDER="1" may also solve the problem, but the result doesn't look good on some browsers. |
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18 Jan 11 - 05:52 AM (#3076979) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: Nigel Parsons Low tech answer: Tape an OHP acetate (with a horizontal line drawn on it) to the front of your screen. Or, Scroll up/down until the desired thread is at the bottom/top of your screen Cheers Nigel |
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18 Jan 11 - 06:00 AM (#3076982) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: Bonnie Shaljean I click in & out of Mudcat periodically, and usually keep it open in a tab among several other pages (I use Safari, Firefox, and sometimes Chrome). So Mudcat is rarely the only thing going on in my screen. I don't want to have to re-size the browser window or make any visual adjustments from what it is elsewhere, just to get a peek at the latest threads. In practical terms, all that would mean for me is not bothering to check in so often. |
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18 Jan 11 - 06:36 AM (#3076999) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: Midchuck Scroll down. So that the thread you're interested in is the top one shown on the screen. Then the numerical information will also be the top line.... Peter |
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22 Jan 11 - 08:41 PM (#3080381) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: The Fooles Troupe I finally got the stats info shown, but only as "current visitors to mudcat.org are:" (no info displayed) It appears one of the things I have blocked is stopping the data. Now WHICH one ... :-) |
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22 Jan 11 - 09:00 PM (#3080390) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: gnu Me too. Great solutions. Thanks. They will work and don't cause Max or Jeff any time. Now, Max, lets make that "d" a colour that doesn't fuck up the colour blind people, eh? Or make it bigger or sommat? I know I ragged about this long ago and I am ragging about it again, but... it's Saturday night and I ain't got nobody.... else to rag on. |
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22 Jan 11 - 10:22 PM (#3080417) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: Janie Good suggestions, and I already employ many of them. They are effective methods to compensate, in part, for the aging eyes. (it ain't the wider monitor, which predates the visual tracking issues, though a narrower window now might help.) It is not a terrible problem, just feedback that may or may not be useful. |
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23 Jan 11 - 02:52 AM (#3080467) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: Bonnie Shaljean I like to just quickly skim my eye down the thread titles, not have to take the time & effort to physically scroll down and align the thread title with the edge of the screen - so that solution doesn't work for me. But as Janie says, it's not a desperate problem. Speaking of that little letter "d" - I find that it doesn't always take me to the end of the whole thread, but sometimes just to the end of one of the pages. |
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23 Jan 11 - 04:02 AM (#3080476) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: GUEST,Grishka Bonnie, "d" reverses the order, so that you see the last message at the top of the page. |
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23 Jan 11 - 06:18 AM (#3080521) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: Bonnie Shaljean Yes, I know that, but what I'm saying is that it doesn't always actually work. Sometimes it does what you describe, other times it will give me the last message of a page, but not the latest one! |
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23 Jan 11 - 09:57 AM (#3080621) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: GUEST,Grishka Bonnie, do you mean that where it says "Page:", another number than "[1]" is blackened? That would look like a bad bug in the script, or (less likely) with your browser. I never saw that; did anyone else? |
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23 Jan 11 - 03:21 PM (#3080874) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: Bonnie Shaljean Yes - and it's happened in different browsers too (I use Firefox, Safari, sometimes Chrome, occasionally Camino). I haven't monitored it systematically but it has done this a fair number of times; though as I say, not always. Just enough to be annoying & unreliable! |
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23 Jan 11 - 03:22 PM (#3080875) Subject: RE: Max, visual tracking, posts over 50 From: Bonnie Shaljean And I do keep all browsers etc updated |