Request: Project Info Window - Consistent UI & Custom Tokens

Dorico
#1

This may be nit-picky, but I feel like the Project Info window could use some love.

Idea #1
My main issue is having to use the drop-down list to change between editing Project-wide info and individual Flow info.

If the window was more standardized, to match the UI design of other windows in Dorico, it could be less clunky.

Plus, there could be the added benefit of editing multiple flow / project info at the same time by Cmd/Shift selecting the entries in the list, or selecting the “Select All” button, just like how many other Dorico windows behave.

Idea #2
Additionally, it would be great to have user-created tokens.

My suggested Project Info window appearance (this is photoshopped):

The current Project Info window as it stands now in Dorico 1.0.30:

Dorico - Edit Project Info Window - Current.png
Dorico - Edit Project Info Window - Current.png448×785 28.1 KB

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#2

You’d need a way to copy info from one flow into another–or into Project Info–in order not to take away some of the functionality already present.

Also (setting aside the database changes necessary to accept custom fields) how would the program create custom tokens for the added fields. Would they have generic names like “Custom_01” or something?

#3

Obvisouly. I’d leave that up to the illustrious dev team to sort out.

#4

Yes, that’s a nice idea, orchetect. We’ll certainly think about how we might be able to implement something like this in the future.

#5

Thanks Daniel. I find myself editing these info fields on a regular basis. At the very least, it would be also nice in Dorico’s main window next to the docked Flows editor, to have an “Edit Flow Info” button or entry in the context-sensitive popup menu. It’s rather clunky to have to open the info editor through the system menu, then have to dig into the pop-down menu to find the right flow you want to edit info for.

#6

That’s also a good idea, and something we should be able to add relatively easily. I’ve made a note of this, too.

#7

Yeah, essentially. One approach might be:

{@projectCustomOrchestrator@}
{@projectCustomContributor1@}
{@projectCustomContributor2@}

{@flowCustomOrchestrator@}
{@flowCustomContributor1@}
{@flowCustomContributor2@}

etc…

Then it avoids collisions with built-in/reserved tokens.

There could be a validation routine that prevents the user from using illegal characters in the custom token names (ie: allow alphanumeric chars only) so as to not break Dorico’s internal text parser or the XML file storage format.

#8

Good observation about the UI ! Matching the UI of project-info to the other option-dialogs in Dorico would be great.

To speed up editing with the current version I made the shortcut cmd-I for project-info.