UI Talk: The Quick Access Toolbar
 

Hey folks! I've been meaning to post some things about the UI in Realm Works, either as tips or as discussion starters. Some of these have been sitting around for a while, but recent posts have brought them back to mind, so here goes.

Those of you who are more familiar with Ribbon applications probably won't find this one helpful, but as I see a lot of screenshots not using either of these two features, I thought I'd start with this one.

Apologies in advance for the large screenshots.



Here's what Realm Works looks like by default. The Ribbon body takes up a fixed amount of space: the height of three toolbars and the width of the window. The Ribbon tabs are about the same height as the menu bar used to be.

Attachment 3731


But would you like to save, oh, three toolbar-heights worth of space? Now you can! Here's what my Realm Works normally looks like:

Attachment 3732

By double-clicking a Ribbon tab, clicking the arrow at the end of the Ribbon tab bar, or right-clicking on a Ribbon tab or control, you can minimize and expand the Ribbon. When you need to use a Ribbon command, click on its tab once and it will pop up over what's underneath, letting you issue a command.

Attachment 3736


"But Mike," you may ask, "now I have to click an extra time to switch between Almanacs or other areas of Realm Works!" Well, that's where the Quick Access Toolbar comes in. The Quick Access Toolbar lets you build a cross-Ribbon collection of commands that shows regardless of which Ribbon is up. Here's what mine looks like:

Attachment 3733

From left to right: World Almanac, Mechanics, Storyboard, Categories, Tags, and Paste Special.

You can add and remove items by right-clicking on them in either the Ribbon or the Quick Access Toolbar. You can temporarily hide a command in the Quick Access Toolbar using the black arrow at the right side. (You can also show the Quick Access Toolbar above or below the Ribbon.)

Another neat thing about using the Quick Access Toolbar is that the items can gain keyboard shortcuts. Press and release Alt to see them:

Attachment 3734

If it picked a single letter, then you can jump right to it with Alt-(letter). If not, hold down Alt until the letters appear, then type the letters. This is different from the Office apps, which assign Alt-1 through Alt-9 to the Quick Access Toolbar items. (The first nine, anyway.)

Hope this helps.

Thank you for the ideas.
Some of this stuff I was using already, but I will try out the quick bar :)

Useful tips - keep them coming :-)

Thanks for the tips. I've been minimizing and expanding the ribbon as needed, but have not been making use of the quick toolbar.