Now that version 4 is out, it’s time to turn to the future. There have been many feature requests during beta stage, it’s time to see which of them would really boost YOUR productivity the most (I know my own answer, but you make the majority here )
Why not add them all? Well it’s simple, really. As zillion features make it into any tool it becomes more and more bloated and cumbersome. And that is the exact opossite of the very idea of MockupScreens, which is to remain as slim and productive as possible. As some of you guessed, the most work on version 4 wasn’t implementing new features, but how to add them all but not let them to get in the way.
Frankly, I wanted to do this for quite a long time. I summarized below some ideas (both yours and mine) and I invite YOU to discuss them here, with me and with other MockupScreens’ users!
- Export to Word: would the exporting the project to Word readable file (.doc or .rtf) make it real easy for you?
- The way to make changes on single screen and have all it’s copies updated automatically : when you create several copies of the same screen and then make them slightly different, then when something basic changes you have to make exactly the same change to each copy by hand… Wouldn’t it be great if you just made a change once, on ‘original’ screen (something like ‘Master slides’ in powerpoint) and changes were done automatically on all it’s copies?
- ‘Sizing’ commands for elements: you select group of elements and then just click to make them of same width, height, etc.
- ‘Hand drawn’ look and feel: with skins mechanism now in place in version 4, a new skin could be added, that makes screens look like they are hand drawn by a pencil. Nice, huh?
- Turn on/off web toolbar for individual screens: Currently, when you switch to ‘Web’ skin, all forms are automatically drawn with web toolbar. Several people stated that the way version 3 did it made more sense for their work: you just turned it on or off for any individual form.
- Relying more on the keyboard: it is true that in MockupScreens since it’s very beginnings you didn’t have to use mouse that much. If that is what makes you productive, won’t it be nice to have a keyboard shortcut for every single action in MockupScreens?
- Tables improved: there are many ways how existing Table element and Table Editor ifself could be improved, like ie. highlighting individual rows, switching headers on/off, make alternating rows different color (for table) or ie. undo/redo capability, pasting single rows/columns from Excel etc (for table editor). While we are at it, why not make a Tree editor, too?
- Drag&Drop elements from the left toolbar, instead of clicking on them and then ‘sniping’ at the exact position on the form. It surely is a more standard way to do this.
- More elements: options are limitless here. Calendars, multimedia bars, predefined standard toolbars, you name it. Btw currently you can add them as custom image and use them that way, but would any of the zillion possible additional elements make a difference? Have in mind that adding more than a few elements would require fundamental changes in the interface to avoid the clutter.
- Changing color of elements: some elements could benefit from ability to change their background color ie. form, and others from changing their color alltogether ie. line. How much does it matter for you? (Most of you already know I’m pretty heavily biased towards black & white prototypes, but of course I may be wrong)
- Separate go-to for each tab: Tab element can jump only to single screen at the moment. Sometimes it could be useful if you could set the separate screen to jump to from any tab on Tab element…
- Submenus displayed for some elements: sometimes you want to show to your clients what are exact commands on that menu, or what options that dropdown offers to end-user. It could be implemented like single checkbox (or something) on the Form or Dropdown element, you know…
- Word-wrap for Text: Text element could benefit from word-wrap feature. You wouldn’t have to resize it again and again as you paste some long text. In fact I think I’ll do this anyhow, it’s helpful plus it doesn’t complicates the interface equals ‘go’.
- Predefined ‘Template’ screens: are you missing the ‘Templates’ quazi-scenario from the version 3? Not many people used it so it fell as one of the victims to make the interface simpler. Especially since you can anytime create your own ‘Templates’ group and use it in the same manner.
Well I think that’s quite enough to make you think. And be sure to comment on what would be most important for you!
Export to Word: This feature would be very useful to me, because I’m used to doing a prototype and after prepare a document to my client. This document needs to have screenshots and comments generated by Mockup Screens and some explanations I need to write in the document. If the Mockup Screens export to Word in the future, I could put my explanations in this document generated by Mockup Screens.
The way to make changes on single screen and have all it’s copies updated automatically: This feature is one of the best in my opinion. I think you supposed to include this feature in the next version. I need it all the time!
Just installed version 4.0 tonight.
Imported a project I was working on. There are about 500 checkboxes. All came out checked. Are you aware of this?
Major issue for me is speed. The othe one was robust. This version is very slow on my machine. Is this normal. I’m running a 3 year old Dell on XP with 512mb of RAM. Microsoft word, excel and outlook are robust. So was Mockup 3.nn.
Got any advice for me?
Irv,
This sounds like it’s all probably due to some bug in importing .story file. I have send you an e-mail to get to the bottom of this.
I’m running MUS 4.0 on a MacBook Pro with VMWare Fusion2 that allows me to have Windows XP running alongside OS X. I have no speed issues. Seems good to me.
What I’d like…
1. A multi-line text box with word-wrap, an optional border, and optional scroll bars.
2. When I re-size a newly created screen, I want to know the height and width of the screen.
3. Be able to define the element type of a column. It is common for a table/grid to have a checkbox, hyperlink, button, etc.
This software is very helpful to me. I’ve been putting off working on certain modules of an application. MockupScreens has helped me to break through my mental roadblock by allowing me to play “what-if” with the user interface. It has helped me to think things through.
I am very grateful to have found this software!
Cliff
Word-Wrap for text and objects (especially in items like buttons so that they are multi-line vs. single line).
Otherwise, I have been very very pleased with the progress V4.beta made over V3
Life is so much easier with your product, thanks for all the hard work.
3 things….
1 - Submenus and possibly links to other windows from those submenus.
2 - Toolbars - ability to define a toolbar on a window.
3 - Icons on buttons?
Well, so far it seems (both from this and e-mails I get from shy people who chose not to write here) we have concensus about multiline text, and probably not only in Text element but in most elements like buttons, fields, etc.
For me personally, the most important thing would probably be as Valdene already said the way to make changes on single screen and have all it’s copies updated automatically.
Just started yesterday with Mockup Screens v4.02 and am very impressed! Took me a while to explore all the features and functions, especially the powerful Screens tree management (new groups & new screens menu on far right) with “folders” and subfolders which can be renamed to fit my project needs, etc.
I sent an email with attached image and suggestion for improving the Comments (yellow boxes with texts) sorting order. They aren’t sorted now, so this would be an obvious improvement to make it easier for everyone to read the comment boxes without having to “hunt & peck” for them when they are completely out of order. Please check my email for details.
I looked, but couldn’t find anything in the “User Guide” about the keyboard shortcuts. I’m using my mouse to get around and activate all functions, but maybe a few key stroke shortcuts would come handy, so a quick list or ref. guide would really help.
Other than that, I’ll be in trial mode for the next few weeks, and so far I’m off to a good start. I may have some other suggestions (or questions) after I “test drive” it a bit more and see what issues/ideas may come up.
Contrats on a practical and well thought out design!
Hope to get a reply to my email soon, thanks!
I replied to Michael directly and it seems we are heading for animated discussion about the ordering of comments and comments’ callouts.
To summarize, both comments and their callouts could be ordered in more meaningful way. App could try to do it better (currently it tries to minimize intersecting of connector lines between comments’ numbers and callouts), but maybe the best way to go is to allow the user to order the comments “by hand” if needed. Maybe even to move the callouts arround…