MobileSheets Forums

Without an orientation sensor on my e-ink Max2 Pro, in order to switch between portrait and landscape viewing I must manually set the orientation lock. Using the settings screen or the overlay popup menu this takes around 5 taps. Typically using Single Page mode in Portrait and Two Page in landscape, sometimes I would love the ability to quickly switch my tablet orientation between songs or for a particular song. It might depend on the density, quality, or readability of the score or my current familiarity with it.

It would be very convenient to have an immediate toggle switch between portrait and landscape orientation lock. Typically using a music stand I would switch between landscape and flipped portrait, but the switch might rotate thru, or have a setting to choose between which 2 of, the 4 orientations (+/-portrait, +/-flipped). Perhaps this instant toggle/switch could be provided as an option for a pedal action, screen touch zone, 2/3 finger tap, quick action box (setlist window button), or floating toolbar?
Or convince Onyx Boox to (retroactively?) incorporate an accelerometer into their tablets.

I personally like the idea of placing an icon to toggle this in the quick action box. This is the easiest for me to implement. Would that be sufficient for your needs? I also like the idea of flipping through the different locks (portrait, landscape, flipped portrait, flipped landscape) with each tap of the icon, so let me know your thoughts on that as the solution.

Thanks,
Mike

A toggle between portrait and landscape in the quick action box would be perfect. After all, quick action is what it's about. When this function exists, some might like it also available to be assigned as a pedal or touch action, but the quick action box seems to make the most sense. Currently the 4 buttons neatly arranged around the center one are not programmable, except for the setlist window button. That could be used for the orientation toggle, but then that would no longer be available for setlist functions. Perhaps you're thinking of expanding the quick action box to accommodate more quick actions.

Cycling through the different locks instead of a simple toggle would be general, and the extra taps would not slow you down much because the taps would be in the same spot. But typically I know which 2 of the 4 orientations I want to repeatedly switch between (landscape and flipped portrait in my case). So I would prefer an instant toggle instead of having to pay attention to which of the 4 locks I want to choose. Of course that would require more work implementing another choice setting. None of this would be necessary if only all tablets and an orientation sensor.

If you want the button configurable to only trigger between two selected orientations, I'm going to have to defer this for the future, as that would require new dialogs and other UI elements, translations, and settings to be persisted. With the other high priority feature requests and issues, I can't slip in that amount of work at the moment. If you either want a toggle that flips through one at a time, or if you want to tap the button to display a dropdown list with the four orientations from which you can pick, I could do that much faster and slip it into an update.

I should add that I plan on placing this new icon in one of the corners of the quick action box.

Thanks,
Mike

(07-27-2019, 03:13 PM)Zubersoft Wrote: [ -> ]If you want the button configurable to only trigger between two selected orientations, I'm going to have to defer this for the future, as that would require new dialogs and other UI elements, translations, and settings to be persisted. With the other high priority feature requests and issues, I can't slip in that amount of work at the moment. If you either want a toggle that flips through one at a time, or if you want to tap the button to display a dropdown list with the four orientations from which you can pick, I could do that much faster and slip it into an update.

I should add that I plan on placing this new icon in one of the corners of the quick action box.

Thanks,
Mike

Thanks Mike for considering this so quickly. Hmmm... If I had to choose I guess I'd go with whatever you could provide sooner. Certainly it's up to you if you have a preference for what and when, given your amazing workload. I'd be happy with either the flipping or the dropdown, whichever is simpler to implement. The fewest total keystrokes, and/or the least hand movement to tap targets, and/or the quickest operation would be ideal .

To consider: Would the new icon already be the toggle button? After either flipping to or tapping your orientation, would any further "done" action be required before getting back to the song display? The 4-way toggle switch would be more transitional with the possibility of any (distant) future decision to implement a 2-way toggle.

It would be great if the orientation choice that appeared on the first toggle tap could always be your previous orientation, if MS could remember it? MS does remember orientation across sessions. In that case, the whole issue collapses back to a toggle that just triggers your PREVIOUS orientation, if there was one. To set it up the user would at first or at any time manually select an orientation using the current mechanisms, and if desired do that again. Now he can toggle between his current and last-used orientation faster than an accelerometer. It seems to me that would be the easiest and most elegant way to provide the function. Minimal taps and maximal flexibility.

Once you use a corner of the quick action box, I guess the other corners become prime real estate.

Okay, here is the plan:

1) Add a button to the top left corner for locking in the orientation
2) Tapping on this button the first time will show the dropdown list. 
3) Tapping on the button a second time will still show the dropdown list
4) Tapping on the button any time after the second time will just flip between those two orientations. MobileSheetsPro will save these selections and persist them.
5) The selections can be changed at any time by long pressing the icon. After long pressing the icon, the steps will repeat from #2.

Let me know if that doesn't sound good. I'll work on implementing it right now as it should only take 30 minutes or so to put together.

Thanks,
Mike

Wow, yes that solution sounds really practical and elegant. By top left corner I suppose you mean the quick
action box. I'd be happy for such a button anywhere in the interface. I appreciate you getting on this so quickly.

Thanks so much,
Mike G.