In 2.x you could click a on group to select it.
In 3.0 you have to click the border of the group because clicking inside the groups select the element inside.
This change makes is more diffucult to change the layout of a prototype becuase selecting the groups are now more difficult.
I prefer the 2.x functionality.
5 answers
When the group occupy the same area with its member, it is normal to bring difficulty to select group or its member.
Clicking on the border is not the only way to select the group. You can click on the area which is not occupied by its member; you can select the group from the “Path” row in tools pane; you can select the group from the outline view.
The way V2 works seems ok but it actually cause other problems and we have to change it.
The central question is: Does the common user of ForeUI typically
A) rearrange the fields inside the group or
B) select a group to move it, assign behavior etc.?
I usually want to select the group and not an element inside.
Typically I use the group functionality to create special controls (a special combo box for instance), and once the group is created I rarely rearrange the elements inside. However, I move it around a lot.
How about this:
- Clicking on a group always select the group
- CTRL or SHIFT + clicking always select the element inside the group
“So we choose an opposite way, and always try to get the deepest element first. “
That is the opposite of intuitive.I believe that most users will expect that each click will take them further down – not the opposite.
“When user clicking on a member of the group, we assuem he/she want to select the group member. If it is not the case, he/she can easily select its parent group via the “path” tool or outline view.”
You assume that a group always have some empty space to click on… that is usually not the case in my prototypes.
I would prefer not to use the Outline tool. It gives me no overview, and it does not auto scroll, so I have to manually find the group in question.
I would prefer not to click on the Group in the path tool, as my mouse has to travel a lot and I must click on a very small label.
Please reconsider the design. It is a step down compared to version 2.x. I know it’s not easy to find a great solution to this, but I hope you can come up with something.
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Hi Ulrich,
We answer user's emails everyday, and we do know the requirements from our users. Our design is made after considering many factors, and we believe it is good for most cases. So far you are the only one who complain about this behavior.
I understand your concern. When you create a group that contains a big element (so it has the same size ) and some small elements over it, it is a little difficult to select the whole group instead of the member inside. Usually I will drag a rectangle area that contains the group area, then the group will be selected after mouse releasing. You can hold SHIFT key and drag to select your element in this way even there are many elements nearby. -
So it's not an option to implement SHIFT + click to select a group?
I don't see that SHIFT makes a difference when I drag to select an element, -
Currently pressing SHIFT and click is to select element in "toggle" mode, which is used to remove/add element from/to current selection.
If the point that you start dragging an area has an element under it, the default behavior is to select that element and move it. If you have SHIFT key hold, you will not drag that element, instead you will always drag out an area. -
Ok. How about CTRL + click? Or ALT + click?
I tried the SHIFT + drag but it did not help me select the group. Have I misunderstood something? -
I can see that SHIFT + click is for selecting more than 1 element. CTRL + click also has this effect.
Why is that?
⋅ 
⋅ Dragging an area to cover the group can help you to select the group, as below:
Holding SHIFT can force ForeUI to select in this mode even there is an element under the start point of dragging.
Both SHIFT and CTRL are for “toggle” select mode, it is because some graphic editors use SHIFT for this, where some other graphic editors are using CTRL for this. For the same reason, both DELETE and BACKSPACE can delete the selected element.
And ALT + click?
Dragging is not good solution when groups are bigger than then one in your example. I prefer not to move the mouse a lot.
This question is now closed
Since group can be nested into another group, when user click on a nested group, it is not possible to know which group does the user want to select. If ForeUI always try to select the top level group first, you will find it is quite difficult to select the content in nested groups. So we choose an opposite way, and always try to get the deepest element first.
When user clicking on a member of the group, we assuem he/she want to select the group member. If it is not the case, he/she can easily select its parent group via the "path" tool or outline view.