Spreadsheet suggestions

[pratinhos]

Some general ideas to improve the workflow of the data editing process, while not compromising the simplicity of the spreadsheet editor (by order of necessity, I would say).

1. Scrolling with PgUp/PgDn throughout the data (does not work here when pressed for multiple times).
2. Mouse selection of cells out of the visible area leading to the scroll of the spreadsheet.
3. Multiple entire row/column selection (useful for subsequent deletion of several variables/subjects).
4. Selection of several cells with Shift + PgUp/Dn.

Also, and as a personal remark, I think we could manage the space occupied by the data variable panel in a better way. Considering most people should be using widescreen monitors (statistics collected from internet brwosers appear to show so), it currently consumes a lot of unnecessary empty space. Here are my two cents:

1. Occupy the entire horizontal space to save vertical space. Move the variable type to the right of the variable name and the variable levels to the right of the variable type, i.e. variable name -› type -› level.
   Alternatively:
2. Don't change anything, but align the data variable options with the spreadsheet data editor to keep the entire vertical space of the output panel always preserved.

See if any of these suggestions make sense and thank you for the time to review them.
Cheers!

[jonathon-love]

hey, good suggestions,

1. yeah, my computer doesn't have those buttons. :P (maybe @dropmann 's does?)
2. 3. 4. yup yup yup, good suggestions. these sorts of refinements we've left for the time being, concentrating on getting the big ticket items in place, but it's good that you've added them here.

wrt 2.1-2 i totally see where you're coming from (wrt to being a poor use of space), but i'm reluctant to mess with that aesthetic. ... but i'm sometimes surprised when i see mockups. make us some mockups?

cheers

jonathon

[pratinhos]

Sure.

I am not a big photoshop/gimp player, but I think this conveys the message: in all three scenarios, we win some space with no major hiccup, just by repositioning the elements of the panel (I did not change the size of anything).

In cases 1 and 2, we could win even more space if we reduced a little bit the size of the levels box. Note that I did not delete the empty space.

Case 3 saves a lot of space (I pushed the output window to the top), but also poses a few more questions when resizing the data panel: should it block the resize after reaching the limits of the data panel editor? Or should it resize to the limit with the data variable panel as well? If so, by making it smaller? By literally 'cutting' it?

Regardless of whether any of these change actually happens, I have a another question regarding the available space (which could also be a another solution for case 3): was at any time considered a button to fully hide the data editor, instead of just resizing arrows? Would that small extra space allow for more info to be displayed at any time when working with other windows side-by-side (when copying data to other programs, for instance)?

Thanks a lot!

[jonathon-love]

hey @medack,

good mockups. i think it's worth remembering that people using wide-screens, often use windows side-by-side, rather than fullscreen. so rather than maximising windows, i think people keep them windowed, and keep the screen empty (or with other software) to the left or right.

(this is how i use it anyway, and i remember a bit of a furor when ars technica updated their website; they looked at the resolutions people were visiting their website with, and thought, "we should totally use this horizontal space more effectively":

We researched our readers' screen resolutions before deciding to try a wider layout than in the past. What we've heard is that while you are technically capable of handling the wider site, you prefer to not have to make your browser window so wide to accommodate the site.

https://arstechnica.com/staff/2016/05/an-update-on-the-state-of-the-ars-redesign/

[pratinhos]

@jonathon-love,

True, true (I myself do that). In that case, I still think mock #3 would be an improvement, as with two windows side by side and the variable editor opened, things get too crammed up (although you can close the variable editor at anytime, I know!).

Anyway, I know that these are things you will adress in the future, but I will just keep a note of other spreadsheet refinements that I come across to:
5) Ascending/descending variable sorting (by value number/letter).

Another thing, and this is more of a philosophical question, as I think it is probably out of jamovi's scope and code cleaness:
I know a lot of people that like to use the Prism software a lot, mainly because of the graphing tools and the way it allows them to organize the data. I can understand why they see it that way, mainly, I guess, because they are dealing with small and directed experiments. Now, although I believe that regarding the graphing part we have a consensus that good tools are always useful regardless of what you work with, what do you think about the spreadsheet data editor part? Do you think it would be desirable to target that population some way? Or in another way, do you think the spreadsheed editor would ever be flexible enough to adapt itself to other uses, for instance through the use of modules?

Finally, if you don't mind, another bug report, as I think this one ist to small to be adressed in a new issue:

1. Open the filters panel.
2. Open 'Show formula editor'.
3. Scroll up or down the 'Functions' list by grabbing the handle.
4. Close the Filter (in the cross).

Formula editor panel remains opened and the only way to close it again is if you open again the filters panel and click on the 'Show formula editor'. (Note that when I click again on the Filters panel, the formula editor panel that remained opened flies to the upper left corner of jamovi's window.)

Thanks for the time and cheers!

[jonathon-love]

ooh, i'll come back to you about the other stuff, but let me attend @dropmann to that last issue.

[jonathon-love]

hey,

I know a lot of people that like to use the Prism software a lot, mainly because of the graphing tools and the way it allows them to organize the data.

can you point me toward a video which demos this for me? trying to get a sense of the sort of data transforms you mean. i assume this goes beyond wide-to-long, long-to-wide transformations.

with thanks

[pratinhos]

Hey @jonathon-love,

For the data organization part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Sl-3eu974

It doesn't show much of the different workflows, but I think it should be enough to give you an idea. Basically, Prism allows you to change the table format according to the type of experiment and statistical analysis you intend to perform. Like I previously mentioned, I think a lot of people, mainly the ones who work with lab bench experiments, like this way of approaching data analysis, as it simplifies the process of having to create data grouping variables, since the type of table they choose already does that for them. Furthermore, because you determine the type of experiment a priori, Prism then suggests you the statistical procedures and graphs more adequate to the data. Of course, this implies that if you want to analyze another variable, you have to open another sheet (not instance of the soft) and repeat the whole process again. This is a completely different mindset from that of SPSS, which IMHO, for big data and a lot of working variables, is clumsier. Nevertheless, if there any genious way of designing modular workflows without creating too much code entropy, it could indeed be a big plus on the long term.

As to the rest, here are two videos that show some of the graphing options (and some of the statistical menus):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF6fWNzAYr0&list=PLR4wfoQ4HbykS2rzwpHTI_R4QEGSmHbNV&index=2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVVrkly0hcU

If you need more info, they have a very thourough guide on their soft:
https://www.graphpad.com/guides/prism/7/user-guide/index.htm

Regardless of the above, let me just say that jamovi is working here pretty great so far!

Thanks and cheers!

[dropmann]

2. Mouse selection of cells out of the visible area leading to the scroll of the spreadsheet.
3. Multiple entire row/column selection (useful for subsequent deletion of several variables/subjects).

These two feature have been added as well as a few other selection improvements, like:

• ctrl + Arrows: moving to the extremes of the data
• Enter after tab presses returns to the original column
• selection with mouse continues outside the table-view when dragging
• multiple row/column selections with mouse
• better selection tracking

[dropmann]

1. Scrolling with PgUp/PgDn throughout the data (does not work here when pressed for multiple times).
2. Mouse selection of cells out of the visible area leading to the scroll of the spreadsheet.
3. Multiple entire row/column selection (useful for subsequent deletion of several variables/subjects).
4. Selection of several cells with Shift + PgUp/Dn.

These have now all been added. Will be in the next release.

Below is a list of all the available shortcuts for the table-view:

SHIFT+ARROW - Extending selection by one cell
CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW - Extend selection to the boundary cell in same column or row
CTRL+ARROW - Move selection to the boundary cell in same column or row
SHIFT+SPACE - Selects the entire row
CTRL+SPACE - Selects the entire column
CTRL+SHIFT+SPACE - Selects all cells
CTRL+A - Selects all cells
SHIFT+PAGEDOWN - Extends the selection down one window height
SHIFT+PAGEUP - Extends the selection up one window height
PAGEDOWN - Moves the selection down one window height
PAGEUP - Moves the selection up one window height
TAB - Moves selection to the right one cell
SHIFT+TAB - Moves selection to the left one cell
ENTER - Moves selection down a row and returns to the last non 'tabbed to' column
SHIFT+ENTER - Moves selection up a row and returns to the last non 'tabbed to' column
CTRL+C - Copy contents of selection
CTRL+V - Paste to selection
CTRL+X - Cut contents of selection
ARROWS - Move selection one cell
DELETE - Delete contents of selection
BACKSPACE - Delete contents of selection
F2 - Edit selected cell (only single cell selection)
F3 - Open setup for selected column
Escape - Abort cell editing

This finished the spreadsheet improvement requests.

[pratinhos]

@dropmann @jonathon-love

Amazing work, thank you! I am an outsider, but things are indeed wrapping very nicely!

I just remembered that there may be one more action that you may want to consider, which is the Ctrl + mouse click to select multiple scaterred cells

Nevertheless, I agree that the work is done regarding this part. Shall we close this, or do you want to leave this open for discussion of other suggestions?

Cheers!

[dropmann]

Ok! I've done it. The latest release v0.9.5.0 allows for Ctrl + mouse click selecting scattered cells. This allows for setting up multiple variables at once, as well as transforming and recoding.
Enjoy!