Bug or (Mis)Feature: Move Pads on top of each other

I cannot tell if this is a bug or a feature.  If it is a feature, I cannot figire out what it is good for.



Usually when I drag a pad nearly on top of another pad, the pad being moved onto is moved away.



However, when I very carefully position the pad that I am dragging exactly on top of the other pad, then the new pad occupies the space, and the other pad is hidden. But I can later drag the "top" pad away, and the pad underneath is revealed.



Is this intended behavior?



I hope not - I must admit that I became a bit panicky when I first saw this happen, thinking that the hidden pad (a group) had just been deleted.  But fortunately it could be revealed.



Move Pads · Quadro: "Move Pads
To move a Pad inside the Palette enter Edit Mode and perform a long tap on the pad to drag it around. Leave the finger once is placed in the desired position."



'via Blog this'

Security and Dynamic Keypad / User Interface Elements (Quadro, Keypad)

I obviously like the idea of "dynamic user interface devices" in general, and Quadro in particular: use a tablet, iPad or iPhone, to provide a more pleasant user interface to legacy PC apps.

Data Tracking

Data Tracking:



'via Blog this'





On Tuesday:



- my FitBit reports 16 minutes of exercise.



- Moves, an iPhone tracking app, reports 39 minutes of walking



- my Jawbone UP2 reports that I was active for 1h19m, and that I had a 24minute walk.



- the Misfit app on my Pebble watch reports 12m of moderate activity, and 44 minutes of light activity.



- this Aetna site reports 51 minutes of exercise, which it says it read from my Moves app.



Go figure.



These devices certainly have inconsistent metrics.

Performing · Quadro

It looks like Quadro's "fluid gestures" (press on group, group opens, slide to button within group, release) explains the "bouncing" that I have been complaining about.  Although they say that I should be able to tap on a group and then tap on the final item, it appears that my taps are too slow - so they interpret them as "fluid gestures" and select the button beneath the group button.



Many systems have similar UI distinctions, but they usually offer a configuration slider for tap speed.





Performing · Quadro: "Fluid gestures
When launching an action inside a group, or recall an option from the toolbar, the usual method is to tap on the parent (the group for instance) and then again to reach the final item (the action in this case).

A better solution though is to perform the aforementioned task with a single move, called Fluid Gesture. To use fluid gestures, just pose your finger on the nesting item (a Group, the Favorites, the editing button...) and pan, without lifting your finger, to the nested item of choice (an action, a favorite palette...) then lift your finger.

Doing this launches the item your finger was placed on.

"



'via Blog this'

New pad layout and iPad Pro optimization

I am very happy that labels can be displayed underneath the "icons" on even the smallerst 1x1 Quadro button/pads.   As I posted earlier, this really helps.



However, it would also be nice if labels could be displayed underneath the "artwork" on similarly sized Quadro button/pads.



I am not sure of the difference between "icons" and "artwork".  Both are pictures one can display on a pad.  Perhaps artwork is color, and icons are white on black?



In any case, it is unfortunate that the best symbol I have found for "grocery shopping" is not able to have the label text beneath it just because it is "artwork" and not an "icon"  (because it isn't THAT good a symbol).







New pad layout and iPad Pro optimization: "Labels can now be displayed on all pads, including the smallest. Since release, this has been highly requested and was more than necessary with the iPad Pro. (Curious fact: we received more requests for this from iPhone users than iPad!)"



'via Blog this'

Bug: Typing with the Keyboard · Quadro

Typing with the Keyboard · Quadro: 'via Blog this'

This page says "Quadro includes a hidden Keyboard for quick text edit and management.

You can recall the keyboard with a single swipe from the bottom of the display-up."

Not on my iPhone 6+.  On my iPhone 6+, swiping  from the bottom of the display up gets me Apple's standard "Control Center" https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202769

In general, I have more trouble with the swipe gestures on Quadro than on any of the other apps that use them.   On Quadro, I can barely do a swipe from left edge at all. Fortunately, for that there is a workaround.  But I have not found a workaround for Quadro's swioe from bottom of display up to get the keyboard (NOT)".



I am going to make a slew of blog posts that are really problem reports against Quadro.   "Blog this" is the easiest way I know of to make such reports.

(I used to have a set of weblets that posted such reports to my wiki - but, since I took my wiki down, no easy way.)

New Quadro Release - Nice Improvement, Ways to Make Quadro Even Better

I am quite happy with the February Quadro release, as I describe in New Quadro Release - Nice Improvement.



But, being me, I see ways to make it even better.





First, I really wish that  Quadro could work on a private link between Quadro device (iPhone, iPad, hopefully soon Android) and the device that is being controlled (Mac, Windows).   For security if nothing else.



But I also want Quadro when "roaming", e.g.  at a restaurant, using my iPhone's "personal hotspot" to allow my MacBook laptop to access the Internet.     (At the moment, after 8 hours of trying, I have not been able to make Quadro work on a "personal hotspot" connection, no matter whether USB cable, BlueTooth, or wifi between iPhone and MacBook.  I have only ever been able to get Quadro to work on a "frontside" network.   Since my main use for Quadro is email, making email reading tolerable, and since I mainly read email while roaming, away from my desk, not being able to use Quadro while roaming is a pain. Almost a deal-breaker.)



You really do need to explain whether and how Quadro is secure.   I cannot recommend that other people use Quadro until I can assure them that it is secure.



The new Quadro release still suffers the problem with "bouncing": Problem: Often "bounce" when hitting a group, also hitting button at same position in group entered.  This is a bad problem.  I have learned that I have to have an empty space in the group, I am connecting to, at the same position as the button that gets there.  This is a pain, making it hard to create a set of pads that connects to manty different groups.   I am almost ready to start "wasting" the top row of every palette.

(Pardon the colors.  Google's blogger edit is broken.)


I wish that I could copy/cut/paste and drag buttons/pads between groups/screens/palettes. I find that I often want to have the same button on multiple pads - like Undo, and also Enter (typically to select or conform some choice).


I would like to have   ↵ , the standard symbol for "Enter" or "Carriage Return"(U+21B5, HTML entity ↵) in the Quadro icons list - since I have found that I need to place it on many groups/screens/palettes.

The ability to design my own icons and artwork would be nice.  The icon set that Quadro provides, even to people like me who have paid 50$ to be "Heros" and support Quadro development, is quite limited.  Although I suppose that Quadro may want to sell aadd-on packages.  (Hmm, perhaps I should look for these resources inside the Quadro app.)




My original request for palette "overlays" still stands - even more so, now that I can get more buttons/pads per palette/group/screen.


Now that I am editing palette systems I set up a few months ago - I really do need to be able to version control and diff them, etc.


Now that I have more room, I am starting to create "button groups", such as

• Generic Forward (fill in the To address)
• Forward to my wife
• Forward to my boss

I have been able to paste text into new dialogs/windows... but this requires waiting until the new window is open.   Quadro has time delays - better than nothing - and also gives us the ability to tap to end such a delay - very good.  But it sure would be nice to be able to do what AutoHotKey on Windows can do - wait for a window or dialog to open, as opposed to waiting a fixed number of seconds, which is probably too long or too short.


Creating many similar but slightly different, slightly non-trivial, buttons raises the importance of being able to cut and paste buttons and actions. between screens/groups/palettes.   Again, for people like me, text files would be best.


Now that I can put labels beneath icons even on really small 1x1 buttons, it reveals the need to have short labels for display, and longer text strings for flyover / press to get help.
     This should not be a surprise.   It is a pattern described in most good UI / UX guidelines.

I cannot reliably open Quadro's  “key selection keyboard” by swiping up.  I.e, http://support.quadro.me/docs/the-keyboard does not work. 

The only way I get it to work is to use auto-recall.   And auto-recall only works in text fields. 

I would love an ACTION to open the keyboard, so that the user can type something in a text box that Quadro did not recognize.  (What is that, a non-Cocia app?  Like, say, Emacs? Or anything X Windows?)


The way Quadro handles hot-keys, one at a time, may work fort Mac, but is clumsy for apps that use key sequences rather than chorded keys, ;ike Framemaker (or Emacs).