MEP 2015 Plus - track icons

Recycler wrote on 12/31/2014, 5:58 AM

I find on my 1680x1050 monitor that the 'lock/unlock' padlock icon in the header for each track is tiny and can be quite difficult to use, in that they don't reliably change after I've clicked. Further, on my kit it seems best to click on the right hand side of the icon (don't ask me why, I can't think Magix deliberately coded it that way!), although even that is not always successful.

Because I've been away from Magix for a couple of years I'm still relearning things, and am therefore quite capable of inadvertently messing up a complex project by a single unintended click, and not noticing until recovery is nigh on impossible. So I prefer for safety to keep tracks locked when I don't need them to be unlocked.

Since toggling the lock on 12+ individual tracks can be a bit of a hit and miss process, I wondered if there is a global lock all tracks/unlock all tracks command lurking somewhere? The Help files seem rather coy on the subject - as far as I can see there's only a single, throwaway mention of these lock icons.

A corrollary if I may; sometimes the padlock icon will remain highlighted in grey (whether or not it toggled its state satisfactorily). What (if anything) should grey highlighting, or absence of highlighting, signify to the user please? What's its purpose on an icon which already has both locked and unlocked images?

Thank you - Mike -

Comments

browj2 wrote on 1/1/2015, 11:46 AM

Hi Mike,

I went through the manual and the program and could find no command to lock/unlock tracks, not even the possibility to add a short-cut to the command.

Anyone else find something?

Have a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

johnebaker wrote on 1/1/2015, 12:04 PM

Hi Mike

. . . . I find on my 1680x1050 monitor that the 'lock/unlock' padlock icon in the header for each track is tiny and can be quite difficult to use . . . .

This sounds like a mismatch between the resolution that Windows is using and the native resolution of the monitor - check that Windows screen setting is also set to 1680x1050, ie the native resolution of the monitor, and not 1920x1080 or some other high resolution setting that would make the icons extremely small.

John

Recycler wrote on 1/2/2015, 6:14 AM

@johnebaker:

Thanks John, but everything's correct in that department! (Windows is set up for the 1680x1050 monitor)

---------------------------------

I've looked at these padlock icons a bit more closely now, and conclude that the UI coding behind them is just a bit - well, either untidy or unfinished, I can't decide which. (All these comments apply to my installation of course, your experience may be different.)

1) If you mouse-over a LOCKED padlock icon (don't click yet) you see no greyed version, only the popup information text. The icon remains the locked version.
2) If you click, but don't move your cursor, the padlock image changes to UNLOCKED, but still white on black.
3) Move your mouse just a fraction, still staying within the area of the icon. The icon will go to white on grey LOCKED. So we are now in a Schroedinger's Cat situation; the User Interface has given us two signals and we have no way of knowing which is valid.
4) Only when you move off the icon, do you see an UNLOCKED, white on black icon. You can test the track and find it is indeed unlocked.

Now try the reverse experiment, which logic would suggest should work in a matching way. But it doesn't - UNLOCKED to LOCKED is much more intuitive.
1) If you mouse-over an UNLOCKED icon, as well as showing the popup information text, the icon image changes to white on grey LOCKED.
2) If you move off the icon without clicking, the icon reverts to UNLOCKED black on white.
3) However if you click, the icon goes to white on black LOCKED. If you now move off the icon, it will remain white on black LOCKED.

So locking and unlocking require different expectation and user action. If you add to the mix the facts that (a) sometimes I find that my mouse is simply not recognised over some padlock icons***, but is on others, and (b) some icons in the track header area remain greyed long after use and for no apparent reason, the user experience is simply not what I would wish for.

But this is clearly not a make or break issue; the good things about MEP 2015 outweigh these wrinkles.

- Mike -

*** I tried maximising my time line workspace, and comparing it with several arbitrary workspace sizes less than full screen; sometimes (rarely I admit) I found it impossible to get my mouse actions noticed by an icon.