Expandable/collapsable loop tags bar

[oceanhahn]

I have a sprite with a few overlapping tags in the animation/layers pane, but if two loop tags begin on the same frame (or even on a nearby frame), the tags can overlap, making the occluded one inaccessible without (as far as I know) deleting the superposed loop. Which I don't want to do.

If we could have some way of either selecting a loop from, maybe a context menu of overlapping ones (generated on-the-spot when multiple tag labels overlap) or have the space loop labels appear in grow and shrink automatically when tags would overlap (example below), that would be dandy!

I made this mock-up of what I was thinking, if it's of any help:

The upper section is the existing form; the lower part is the same data presented in a format I'd imagined based on the interface as it is now. There's also a new button there, that collapses the tags area into a single row (as it currently exists). Perhaps when labels overlap, only the first letter is shown, and the label is offset according to length (with the labels for longer loops occurring last, so that they're above at least some of their frames)?
It might also be convenient if the loop selection brackets were coloured after the loop labels!

Thanks for considering it!

[dacap]

Related to #768

@oceanhahn i'm not sure about collapsing the tag area - tags/animations are of the same importance as layers. they are the third dimension, after layers and frames.
maybe if the tag area grows too big let the user collapse it into a selector (a dropdown list?). i need to reflect on this some more.

[oceanhahn]

The basic purpose I'd thought for collapsing the tag/loop area is so that, if the total height of the tags became too deep (that is, it imposed too greatly upon the graphic editor space), the user could press a button to roll them up (and, later, press it again to restore them). Basically, it just hustles them out of the way when they aren't needed and brings them back with a single click, in much the same way that [Tab] hides and reveals the entire pane.

I'm not super-sure how useful it might be considering that, to be meaningfully cumbersome, there would probably have be be at least three stacked sets of layers (fewer, I suppose, if ASEprite is running in a smallish window or on a small or low-res screen), but it might be nice to be able to switch between a full profile of loop labels and a compressed one during viewing.

I do agree that the tags are important; my reasoning is just that the more simple and uncomplicated options a user has for viewing their data, the more robust the UI environment becomes. :D

In any case, the "Collapse" button doesn't hide the loop labels and leave them hidden; there'd be a corresponding "Reveal" button that expands the pane back to the larger size.

I look forward to hearing more about what you think!

that's an interesting idea about [Tab]. +[Tab] could be used to toggle the state of the tag area.

when overlapping tags are collapsed into a single row they look really messy when not colorcoded. what makes it worse is that you can't click on an overlapped tag to bring it to the foreground.
maybe when two overlapping tags start on the same frame, when you click on the foreground one the tag area is temporarily expanded to let you select the right tag. also such tags that cover other tags could be marked somehow e.g. the shadowed tags could stick out from behind them by a couple of pixels.

[oceanhahn]

Mm. That was my issue to begin with (or rather, what prompted me to create this particular issue thread), actually. I had noted the pulldown menu, but the shadow is a really good addition. :D

It would be nice to have the context menu version when the labels area is collapsed but still be able to expand it to see everything at once, but that could represent a lot of extra work for something that may not come up that often...

this is how tags could work wrt clicking (disregarding overlapping issues):

• when you left-click a tag it is marked as current. this is roughly equivalent to selecting its frames and pressing . if you left-click it again the mark is removed.
• when you right-click a tag a dialog with its properties is brought up.

when a tag is selected as current you can delete it with .

[dacap]

I was thinking about this issue, and I came with this possible solution:

• Moving the mouse over the tags they should expand and you can click one tag from the list to make it active/current
• Right-clicking a tag should popup a menu with options like Properties / Remove / etc

[SolarLune]

Also interested in this.

@dacap Your solution looks pretty simple! I might recommend making the shadowed tag have brackets pointing to the frame like the foreground one, just darkened according to the color of the tag.

Otherwise, it seems fine to me!

[oceanhahn]

@dacap I really like that idea, too. :D

[Tranberry]

what is the UX benefit from having the a animated upward?