why is the WL7 GUI so bad?

Took me a while to get used to 7 as well. Really couldn’t care less about the GUI, it’s functional, WL7 is a tool, not a desktop wallpaper, it doesn’t need to be “pretty”

What helped me in getting used to it was CLOSE ALL WINDOWS, TABS and DOCKS. They confused the heck out of me in the first few months. So close everything. Loudness meter spanned under the menu from left to right, K12 scale and back to work.

I must disagree. With a decent GUI, there is more fun and better for eyes to work with the program. And functional is different, most of the time in WLab 7 I search functions felt in the 1000 menu’s. Too little intuitive, but this was wrote many times here.

I’m WLab user since V2.

If it was only the looks…
I still have a slight struggle with WL7.
There are some good ideas in there ( and features), but the handling of WL6 is much more agreeable to me.
I also rather use WL6, when speed is of essence and no WL7 features are needed.
Maybe we should get to chose the prefered GUI…

Big K

Gotta agree - I am now 18 months into WL7 and still find the work-spaces etc to be a huge frustration any time I happen to “click” out of my usual comfort space. Luckily - I now have two work-spaces and never deviate from them. At least that way I can keep my frustration level low and keep things moving along.

But this year - I have begun moving my narrative work out of Wavelab and over to Studio One - so outside of the occasional needle drop session or “audio utility” type stuff - I won’t be worrying about WL and it’s weird GUI too much longer…

But yes - those were the days…WL6 was a like a Ferrari - you got behind the wheel, rolled down the windows and proceeded to rip around without a care - it was comfortable and it felt right. Everything was exactly where it was supposed to be. It was easy to learn and you had no fear of losing your way…

WL7 is a much newer Ferrari - but heavily modified - with a dash/console that makes one oddly uncomfortable - as if everything you knew before does not apply and nothing is where it belongs…all the while fighting that feeling that with one click in the wrong spot - you will easily lose your way. But mostly - you just lose your patience.

VP

I’ve got my workspaces pretty close to my WL6 layout. The division into separate windows just means that when switching between multiple montages and files, I often have to click twice (window then tab) instead of just once (tab). I could put them on separate monitors, but my second monitor has the metering on it, so I’d need a third. In general I’m happy enough with the new GUI, though it does take a little extra looking around to find things I don’t use regularly; but I don’t perceive any advantage to the change either. (Shrug.)

Paul

Let’s not drift away into nostalgia here, WL6 is what we were used to. And there was more than enough flak over the WL6 GUI clunkiness - this thread almost reminds me about the same type of threads we had in the old forum, about Windows 95 style looks etc… I did slowly switch - and it wasn’t easy - from WL6 to 7, but it was a definite switch and I haven’t looked back.

Hey - I am not saying WL6 wasn’t clunky - or that it didn’t wreak of “Windows 95-isms” something fierce…but at least once you got past that and got going - it was reliable and easy to operate.

One thing I will say - can’t ever remember really “needing” a manual to get my footing in WL6. Yet here I am in WL7 still stumbling around after 18 months…just sayin’…:mrgreen:

VP

I’ve gotten used to the WL7 “way” and can do everything I used to before, and some things better. That being said, I’m still waiting for the “aha!” moment when I realise what it was all about, or some such revelation to explain exactly what is behind some of the design choices for the GUI. However, I’m not a GUI designer and I don’t have the time to stop and wonder “what if …”, so I just go with it. Overall, I do think that WL7 is preferable to WL6, and when I do occasionally have to go back to WL6 it’s quite a shock (although it’s a bit like old socks – nasty, but very comfortable!).

+1

When I occasionally open WL6 I am amazed how much better WL7 is.

But when I occasionally open WL7 I am amazed how much better WL6 was…

first thing you need to do in WL7 is close all menu’s that can be closed (floating menus, tabbed menus, docked menus etc) there are around 27 crosses to close. Then close all tabs on the left of the main section. And you’re pretty much back to WL6. Now, you will need some time to go through all new options and where everything is hidden in the pull down menus. But once comfortable with that, you might even put some floating and docked often used menus back :slight_smile:

It’s a journey gents, but with a rewarding destination

I’ll beat the dead horse.

I much rather see an updated manual than any gui changes.

If enough people complained to Steinberg it might happen.

Raphie, it is good you repeated this, because I absolutely agree that this is the way WL6 users will get comfortable with WL7. I personally have assigned shortcuts to the often used menus and only open them when I need them. I still love the elegant way in WL7 when the desired menu (e.g. marker) pops up at the top of the screen by just one keystroke and, after using it, closes again with the same keystroke. This is really a pleasure and I can’t think of any other more elegant way. In the wave window all other times I have all menus closed. In the montage window I usually have 3 or 4 menus open, but these only show up as tab titles pretty similar to WL6.
pwhodges also made a good suggestion: It would probably great to have 3 screens: One for the wave window, one for the montage and a third for the meters. I personally am working with 2 screens but I like the idea to have a third one…

I personally have assigned shortcuts to the often used menus and only open them when I need them. I still love the elegant way in WL7 when the desired menu (e.g. marker) pops up at the top of the screen by just one keystroke and, after using it, closes again with the same keystroke. This is really a pleasure and I can’t think of any other more elegant way.

Hmm, what do you mean? You can assign shortcuts to menu entries, but not to menus themselves. Or what do you speak about?

Philippe

To be precise I mean the workspace specific tools.

I see now, these are indeed powerful shortcuts. These shortcuts can also appear as buttons in a comand bar. I hesitated to have these buttons visible, by default. Maybe I should change this.

I wasn’t aware of this, but yes, this is all in the keyboard command menu. The command bar is very interesting and can be custamized extremely. For those people, who don’t like too many keyboard shortcuts, the keyword command option might also be interesting: here you can create your easy to access dropdown menu for the most needed functions.
Maybe one lesson for WL7 users could be: Start with an empty workspace and then go through the keyboard command menu and assign keyboard shortcuts and/or command bar buttons (or keyword commands) to all functions that are regularly needed.

I just today upgraded to WL7 from WL6. Sorry, I don’t like the UI in this one. I see that’s it’s been coded with QT (http://qt.nokia.com/products/) in order to get the Mac version. QT is perhaps not the best framework to use, and I’m not sure about its future TBH.

I, too, have set things up this way and can confirm that it is a most elegant solution.

I spent a couple of days now with WL7. Sorry, the UI is way too wacky, complicated, unintuitive, and doesn’t follow any standard UI guidelines either on Windows or Mac. It’s slowed me right down, and got me frustrated. Such a shame. Sadly, rolling back to WL6… :cry: