M15: It's the every day stuff in the UI that gets my goat

Ninetrees · ‎Apr 05, 2011

I can understand that folks want more [whatever] in M15, but I find myself hitting Insert about 100 times a day in M15. Why? Because right after I paste something, the cursor chooses a very inconvenient place to rest. It seems natural to me that right after I paste something that I'd want to work right there, but the designers apparently figured that I'd want to immediately jump to another location and do something else. I can't see a work around for this, and I see myself using M15 for another fwe years while M' gets up to speed. Why wasn't such a common UI error addressed in the M15 release?

~R~

DanMarotta · ‎Apr 05, 2011

Rich, I moved your discussion to Enhancing Mathcad. This is valuable feedback so it makes sense to get the right people on it.

-Dan

MikeArmstrong · ‎Apr 05, 2011

I can understand that folks want more [whatever] in M15, but I find myself hitting Insert about 100 times a day in M15. Why? Because right after I paste something, the cursor chooses a very inconvenient place to rest.

I don't really see the issue here. Why are you hitting insert 100 times a day because the cursor jumps?

I can't see a work around for this, and I see myself using M15 for another fwe years while M' gets up to speed. Why wasn't such a common UI error addressed in the M15 release?

What makes you think Mathcad Prime will take five years to get up to speed?

Mike

Ninetrees · ‎Apr 05, 2011

Thanks. I wasn't sure if this group was only for Mathcad Prime...

~R~

Oh, and sorry for loggining in just to complain, but I am really busy these days, and that includes many hours of using Mathcad each week. (That's what prompted the original post.)

~R~

Ninetrees · ‎Apr 05, 2011

"Why are you hitting insert 100 times a day because the cursor jumps?"

Because I do a lot of copying and pasting in M15. Why has to do w my work flow. Simply put, when I want to add A+B+C, where A, B & C are complex expressions, I copy them and paste where needed. Unfortunately (Try it - you'll like it 😉 right after I paste A, I can't then, say, type in + because the cursor ain't there no more...it got itself off to another part of the expression, or at least turned 'round backward so that I must hit - wait for it - Insert - to turn it around just so that I can then type + whatever.

"What makes you think Mathcad Prime will take five years to get up to speed?"

I don't: "nother fwe years" years is what you get without a spell checker (don't know if there is one here, but it ain't active) and "five years" is what you get when you speed read "fwe years." They do look remarkably similar ;-o even to me, and I wrote the first one.

~R~

MikeArmstrong · ‎Apr 05, 2011

"What makes you think Mathcad Prime will take five years to get up to speed?"
I don't: "nother fwe years" years is what you get without a spell checker (don't know if there is one here, but it ain't active) and "five years" is what you get when you speed read "fwe years." They do look remarkably similar ;-o even to me, and I wrote the first one.
~R~

My bad sorry.

There is a spell check in the top right hand corner of the post screen and it tends to work ok.

Mike

h_nas · ‎Apr 05, 2011

Well, when I start writing new calculation sheet (usually involve some programing) from scratch, Mathcad 15 start to crashes many time and hitting the save icon become part of my ritual when I start a new calculation sheet.

Can you beat that.

mzeftel · ‎Apr 05, 2011

Rich,

I'm not clear on your issue. When I paste, I don't see the cursor, but I just click where I want to start typing. If I start typing directly, it starts just above what I pasted.

Is that what you mean by insert? I'm not sure how we would know where you want to type. Sometimes you may paste and want to next type below what you just inserted. Sometimes you may want to change what you inserted. Is your issue that you don't see the cursor after you paste?

Thanks for clarifying, which will help us get it right.

Regards,

Mona

mzeftel · ‎Apr 05, 2011

Hana,

You should not have that many crashes with Mathcad 15. It should be very stable. It sounds like you have a bad install. Can you contact technical support and see if they can help you.

Regards,

Mona

Ninetrees · ‎Apr 05, 2011

Hi Mona,

This has been the same for several generations of Mathcad, AFAIK. It might have been different in M12, I forget.

I just started up M14 and did this in a new doc

go to a blank part of the doc

enter, say, 2pi

now go somewhere else and enter

a+

now there is a little square to enter stuff into

go get a copy of 2pi and paste it into the little square

as soon as /I/ do that, the "math editing lines" - I call it the cursor, sorry - swaps so that if I want to THEN enter, say, +b

so that I have a+2pi+b

I FIRST must hit insert, THEN, I can type +b.

Now most of the time, I don't want to paste something and THEN put something in front of it. If I had wanted something in front of what I just pasted, I prolly would have put it there BEFORE I pasted, not wait until after I pasted someting else.

I do this very often as I edit. But it wouldn't make any difference to me if it were only 5X a day. I find it counter-intuitive.

I should prolly note that if others want to weigh in and vote for the current behavior, they should do so, because maybe this is just my personal peeve. But a peeve it has been for the past several generations of Mathcad.

~R~

RichardJ · ‎Apr 05, 2011

I agree with you. It irritates me too, but I have just developed the habit of hitting insert without thinking about it. I haven't complained loudly because there is a long list of other things I care about much more, but this one is like a mosquito that just won't leave you alone!

mzeftel · ‎Apr 06, 2011

I thought you meant something totally different, so thanks for providing the step-by-step details. I agree, that the cursor is winding up on the wrong side.

The good news is that I tested the same thing in Mathcad Prime 1.0, and the cursor winds up on the right as it should. We spent a great deal of time redoing the equation editor for Mathcad Prime.

Mona

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