General UI/QoL improvement ideas

[anthony-bernaert]

The following ideas could improve the usability of COMPASS in different environments (making it even more suitable than it already is for non-TTRPG usage 😄):

• 1 General:
  • 1.1 Use Ctrl+F to focus on the search bar, Ctrl+S is very unusual to find something
    • That shortcut is already for toggling 'favorites', maybe you could use F, Alt+F, ... there instead
  • 1.2 Automatically search while typing in the search bar without hitting enter?
    • Would increase the sense of 'snappiness', except if it creates performance issues as well while typing (→ maybe with a small timeout?)
• 2 In the list view:
  • 2.1 Add a Description column that can be toggled with a setting
    • I have a few documents with cryptic names which I need to keep that way. It would be great to have the description next to it
  • 2.2 Add a 'show in explorer' button in the file button column for really quick file/folder access
    • The 'show in explorer' command now just opens the folder without selecting the file -- I'm not sure if this has a reason.
      Selecting this file should be easy by extending the current command to explorer.exe /select,"C:\path\to\file"
  • 2.3 Add a tooltip on the Title of each row to show the file path of that document. The file path feels just a bit too hidden right now, but that's maybe because I (mis)use the app in an office environment.
  • 2.4 Bulk import dialog is not very scalable: trying to add a folder with a lot of extensions creates a dialog that does not fit on the screen. → Maybe put all extensions in a scrollable list that you could also filter, and have select/deselect all buttons
  • 2.5 Drag & drop of files is quite confusing: now the newly imported files are 'lost' in the list without getting focus
    • Maybe have an option to automatically show the bulk edit dialog so one can immediately add the right tags?
    • Or have a special filter (e.g. "last import") that automatically gets set so that only the new rows are on-screen
    • Streamlining the way new files can be added/tagged with as less clicks as possible, currently seems to me as the most significant QoL improvement among this list
• 3 In the left side panel:
  • 3.1 When filtering, clicking on a tag could toggle the tag instead of only adding it to the include/exclude bar

[DSPaul]

I numbered your points to make it easier to reply and track if you don't mind.

• 1.1 Ideal solution: Remappable shortcuts #78, will probably do a vote in the meantime in the discord about changing the default for search specifically
• 1.2 I have had instant search in the past but scrapped it due to performance reasons as you suspected. I didn't however have a delay system that only searches if the user hasn't typed for a little while which could make it work. I'll play around with it
• 2.1 I'll add this, no reason not to
• 2.2 I will do this in a more general way, allowing all action found in the context menu to also be added as shortcuts at the end of the line in list view.
• 2.3 I don't like the idea of abusing tooltips for this. I get that it fits your specific need but it won't fit everyone. My counter proposal: adding the sources, which includes the path, to the info panel on the right (CTRL + I if you haven't discovered it yet)
• 2.4 I will play around with it a bit and see what I like, making good UI is always a trial and error process
• 2.5. I will add an option to show the edit window when import is done, similar like the URL import which already has this option. You can sort by "Date - Added" by the way to see your new files on top, found in the sorting tab on the left, might need to F5 so get is to sort properly.
• 3.1 I will do this, but only after I have added a visual indicator to the filters that they are actively being used. That way you can always tell when clicking it will do, without having to look up top if the filter is present there or not.