[eddiethesock]

Hi,

i can use touch screen to turn pages and such,

but i cannot access the writing tools. 

previously, i was able to access that by touching the top of the screen. i've tested the touch screen on MS paint, and it is still able to get sginals on all part of the screen, so it's not a hardware issue.

 i've reinstalled the program but still no avail. the same prog works fine on my second machine (but both are surface pro 4, identical specs), help!!

[Zubersoft]

It sounds like performance mode has been enabled. To disable performance mode, tap the lock icon in the floating toolbar at the bottom right corner of the library screen. This same toggle can be accessed by tapping the bottom right corner of the screen while a song is loaded to display the quick action box. Once performance mode is disabled, you should be able to access the song overlay and the annotations functionality again. Let me know if you have any questions.

Mike

[Geoff Bacon]

@Mike

This continues to catch people out.
I still think MSP should say performance mode is enabled after it detects several touches; or perhaps just display the bit where the centre icon is selected in orange.

Geoff

[Zubersoft]

So if a user turns 3 pages in quick succession, I should pop up a message saying performance mode is enabled? I think that would be very counter intuitive to people and they would get annoyed by that messaging popping up every time they happened to change a few pages. I do pop up a message when the application is started that says that performance mode is enabled. If that isn't enough for people to know what is going on, then me saying performance mode is enabled when they are tapping the screen probably won't help them either. I'm assuming most users that get into this situation just don't know what performance mode is. There is a section at the end of the manual that clearly spells out this situation, and I can consider adding it to the FAQ on the website, but I haven't though of a good, non-intrusive or annoying solution for this problem yet. I could just disable performance mode every time the application is restarted, but I have a feeling that would also annoy some users.

Mike

[Skip]

Maybe a translucent color band or border around one of the modes [edit mode] or sacrificing the added flexibility of the 3 finger tap to just song annotation.

[Geoff Bacon]

Your example of a 3 page turn is not a good one - you know the page is being changed so the user is obviously not stuck.
I know that when this caught me out, I used many, many touches to try to get it to work. I'm therefore suggesting something like 8+ attempts on the same page that don't result in a predefined action. I know it will probably be difficult programming this but it does catch nearly everyone  when they first encounter it (I suspect it also gets them again when they accidentally re-enable it)

Geoff

[Zubersoft]

I understand what you are saying, but we have to clearly define the logic that will be used to drive this. What exactly would I be looking for, and within what duration of time? I need to clearly differentiate between a user that is just happening to tap the center of the screen to turn the page versus performing some actions that seems to indicate that they are trying to get the overlay to come up. You said 8 attempts - so I would only show a message if the user tapped the middle of the screen 8 times in a row, but within what duration of time? Trying to figure out that a user is just confused versus just triggering features in the app is not a simple thing. In your response you said, "you know the page is being changed so the user is obviously not stuck" - if the user is tapping in the center of the screen anywhere, it's going to turn the page. How do I differentiate that from them being "stuck"? Touch actions still trigger in performance mode, so if they are tapping other parts of the screen, how do I differentiate that from them just trying to tap every part of the screen to get the overlay up? I know it sounds simple to say things like, "well if they trigger actions in four different parts of the screen within 5 seconds, they obviously must be confused", but writing the logic for that is messy and tedious. That means I have to check the duration between every tap, but only when performance mode is active, and also trigger what actions have been triggered within what duration of time to see if that means they are confused. If I don't get it right and someone is just tapping the "goto next song" action 5 times in a row, and I display the message, that's going to cause confusion. 

I'm definitely not trying to be difficult here - I recognize that something should be done because this is a recurring problem. I just don't want to muck up all the code trying to detect random gestures from a confused user when it's not going to be a surefire solution. The only thing I can think of is making things more tedious for my users who know what they are doing, i.e.

1) Turn performance mode off when the app is restarted
2) Display a message or other visual indicator every time any song is loaded with performance mode to ensure they know that performance mode is active
3) Always display a message about performance mode if the user activates multiple taps in the center of the screen within a certain duration

All of this still assumes that if I say to a user, "Performance mode is enabled" that they are going to know what that means. If I have to put a long message with a picture of the icon to tap, that's going to be quite obtrusive.

Thanks,
Mike

[Geoff Bacon]

You are always going to have an issue with users not understanding what "Performance mode is enabled" means as you can't force them to read the manual!

When enabled, how about a faint transparent orange "performance mode" icon at extreme bottom right corner ?; this is unlikely to obscure anything (beware possible clock position!).
Hopefully, after many presses, the user will notice it and "wonder what it does".

I'm not sure what you do when it is tapped e.g. turn off immediately, display a dialog or display the normal selection mechanism (can't remember what you call it).
I suspect turning performance mode off immediately is probably easiest to code and simplest to understand (with a disappearing "Performance mode disabled (editing now allowed)" message so users realize what it did). MSP competent users will know how to re-enable performance mode should they inadvertently tap it.

If necessary, this icon could be suppressed by a setting (but I'm not a fan of large numbers of options)

No rush - it's been like this for a long time so a bit longer isn't an issue.

Geoff

[BRX]

I kind of like the idea that performance mode is disabled at a restart as default with an option for experienced users in the settings to save the state.

I bet this decreases the posts because of accidentally turned on performance mode as well because a user is likely to restart the app before going to the forum.

[Skip]

In my post above 'edit mode' should be 'Non-performance screen'. A translucent 'frame' around, or ghost bar across the top or bottom [in place of the stuff used in the edit mode], of the non-performance screen should not affect anything much and will be a visual reminder of which screen is activated.