Copy button with CTRL + mousedrag, add suffix and window offset

Help & Support
#1

Over in the other thread, we talked button window issue, I have one more.. o)

When in customize mode, I often use CTRL-LeftMouse to drag/clone a button to then immediately change it. After the drag-clone, the two buttons have the same name, I would like the clone to have a different name with a suffix like " - copy". Most of the time I open the original and the cloned button and you never know which is the one you want to keep untouched and which is the new one to be edited. Both windows appear at the same location, hiding whatever button was opened first - so you'd think at least, because the button windows switch "plane" or z-index randomly at times when opening multiple.

If the button windows would offset slighty when opening, you would notice a switch of the windows more easily (if that actual issue is hard to be fixed, we tried in the past iirc), an offset for a new button window is welcome anyway. The suffix " - clone" would make even clearer which button is the one to edit (you'll probably change name anyway, so adding " - copy" to the name would not hurt).

#2

The change I mentioned in the other thread will mean you'll have to close the editor for the first button before dragging out the new copy.

(Although right-click copy & paste will still work, I now wonder if it should, since it would copy the old version of the button; the edits to it won't have been applied yet, which I think is potentially confusing.)

Dragging edited button around in menu - changes get lost
#3

This topic is actually only about editing multiple buttons at the same time (I don't mean location/position wise, just having their editors open). Not related to the other topic from my point of view, so I think replying over there makes more sense, I hop over.. o)

#4

Now that the more serious issue is fixed (in the other thread, where the button changes get lost), it would be ice on the cake if buttons created by CTRL+Drag or Copy/Paste could get the " - Copy" or "(2)" suffix if there is a button with that name already. As mentioned it's irritating if you have the original button opened in the editor and you open the duplicate as well, since windows will hide each other and it's not clear which button is the original or copied version. Maybe you can reuse the getDuplicateNameForFileName() method you already have somewhere, just guessing. o) Thx!

#5

Been thinking about this on and off for a while.

What if buttons you had open in an editor got a colored accent on the side of them, which was reflected somewhere in the button editor?

Then you could easily tell which button was in which editor (or edited at all) by the colors, even if the buttons had labels turned off, or all had the same labels and/or icons.

Would that solve the issue for you?

#6

Mhh.. I'm not sure, at first this sounds helpful. Let me thing this through.. o)

The problem I have is mostly present if I copy buttons from/to the same menu/toolbar, that's where the suffix would help (if button-name already present -> add suffix). But if a button is copied to another place, where it's name is distinct, the suffix would not be added, in which case a color indicator could help indeed when opening these for editing.

I'm not sure how this combines with buttons which already have background color and things set. The "active edit" indicator needs to be something totally different, an outline of some kind, something which cannot be set with the regular editor. Maybe a color scheme would help as well?

First button opened will always be highlighted with a blue outline, next one in green, yellow etc. and this color is to be found in the editor window as well, in some place, maybe around the icon or within the inner border of the editor window.

So mhh yes, it seems the color thing would be a helpful addition for all the cases, where the button names are identical or not visible (good point here). I would not let down the "add suffix" idea for all the cases where a button is to be copied into the same spot, it is kind of standard behaviour and makes things even more clear. As mentioned, a button copy in the same spot is very likely to get a new name anyway, so why not use it "temporarily" to indicate "this is the copy" as well, but it seems I have nothing against using colors as well! o)

Thx! o)

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