Hide the font toolbar when not in use

[whoisrich]

Just an idea.

View space is a premium when it comes to image editing, and theres a whole lower toolbar with font formatting options constantly being displayed even when you are not using the font tool.

How about making this lower fixed toolbar hidden and have it only appear when the font tool is in use. Maybe even be convert it into a floating toolbar instead so that you can move it around.

[Rick Brewster]

In the early days of v1.0 (around March 2004) we tried having toolbars be enabled/disabled or hidden/visible based on context. In other words, the font chooser was only enabled or visible when the Text tool was active, and brush-related configuration was only usable when a brush-related tool was active.

People hated it. I hated it.

The reason is that different people like to click on things in different orders (or the same person will want to do things in a different order depending on context and other stochastic factors). One person may prefer to click on the Text Tool icon first, then place the cursor, then type some text, and then experiment with the font and size decisions. Another person may have an idea of what font they want to use beforehand, and will choose that before switching to the Text Tool. It doesn't make sense to prevent the second user from doing things in the order of his or her preference.

So, for our current toolbar model, our current design works best.

Our v2.6 release is going to be a feature-parity port to "Whidbey", aka .NET 2.0. This release of .NET also has a rich toolbar system that is similar to Office 2003's toolbar system. For the release after v2.6, we are planning on migrating to that toolbar system at which point we'll also decide on what type of flexibility we'd like to provide for moving and hiding toolbars. This new toolbar system also has the benefit of better aesthetics.

My biggest gripe with our current toolbar setup is that the horizontal position of each element is dependent on the width of the window. If I have the window maximized, the font toolbar is at the far right. But if I make the window smaller, it might be at the far-left or in the middle somewhere. When I go to pick a font, my eyes jump over to the right, are confused by the brush width selector, and then finally I remember that the font chooser is on the next line and I eventually make my way over there. So be assured that I'm looking to improve this in the future.