Author Topic: Current Sorting Set permanently visible  (Read 2683 times)

Gary Young

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Pretty often I'd find it useful to see by a quick look how the tracks in the main panel are sorted - without having to click anything first. I'm talking about the customizable "sorting sets" (Right-click column-header > Sort by).

I wish the current sorting set was permanently visible. I thought of something like a command button combined with a dropdown selection. That would also speed up the changing of sorting sets.






"Sort by" is not available to be set as a command button (and it would presumably not have the dropdown-feature).

D'you think kind of this is technically possible and useful?

PS: I know, you have those little arrows in the column-header, indicating the column used for sorting and the sorting direction. But when using a sorting set there are no arrows shown (of course).

Zak

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D'you think kind of this is technically possible and useful?
It would certainly make sorting easier, but it does use up a bit of toolbar space.

PS: I know, you have those little arrows in the column-header, indicating the column used for sorting and the sorting direction. But when using a sorting set there are no arrows shown (of course).
99% of the time I'm only interested in the first sorting column, so I've always found the little triangle adequate.

You're right about nothing at all being shown if a sorting set is applied. If the end result is the same, maybe they should display the same little subscript numbers Ctrl-clicking a column header displays.
Bee excellent to each other...

Gary Young

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but it does use up a bit of toolbar space.
Absolutely right. That's why I thought of an implementation as a command button, as some users might not want to have that feature. But at least you can set up that command button when you like to.

Actually I'm a bit influenced by the highly customizable toolbars in former Microsoft applications (before they ruined that feature by introducing the "ribbons" :(). In Outlook, for instance, I've set up quite the same like illustrated above - and it became an absolutely essential thing for me to toggle different views this way. That's what set the impulse for my request foremost.

If the end result is the same, maybe they should display the same little subscript numbers Ctrl-clicking a column header displays.
That would be a solution as well, though it wouldn't offer the toggling of the sorting sets. And it could be more clearly for the user to see the sorting set written in words (like "Year/ Artist/ Album") instead of the subscript numbers. It could also be problematic when a column which is used for sorting is hidden/not displayed, isn't it?

EDIT:
@Zak: I forgot: your hidden feature in the other thread over there, with CTRL-clicking column-headers for combined sorting, is great :). Never ever I would have noticed that.
Last Edit: November 23, 2012, 07:03:24 PM by Gary Young

Steven

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i've added a hotkey command which can also be assigned to a toolbar button/icon but doesnt show the active sort in the text as the original post requested