I’m wondering how hard it would be to add a duplicate template function right on the template itself.
Currently we see this:
It would be great to avoid the current method of having to:
click “Actions”
2 click “Add Template”
Click “Percussion Templates” radio button
Select my website from drop-down menu (why does this menu default to “Base”?)
Scroll through templates to find the one to duplicate then select template
Click “Save”
Six clicks are currently needed to perform a simple function that would be just one click by adding a single icon to the template browser:
One other improvement to the Design template browser would be to make the list of sections associated with the template, a direct link to the Editor view of that section. Currently these look like links but don’t do anything when the user clicks on them.
Excellent suggestion. Working in support, I’m creating duplicates of templates all the time for testing purposes, and this would really streamline a very common task.
By the way, the pages selectable under the template do have a purpose, even if it’s not readily evident. What happens is, when you highlight a certain page before editing the template, that page’s local content shows up as faded content while working with the template. This allows you to reference the look of real content while working with your templates, and also enables you to easily promote a certain page’s local content to the template level.
I think your championing of this type of functionality has not been falling on deaf ears, because as of CM1 3.0 (the next major release), the blank page icon next to the page title in Design view will actually become an active link that will bring you to that page in – yes – edit mode. That’s one less click than you were asking for!
To be clear on the click-efficiency issue, it’s not so much that I’m looking to save a single click but rather, to save having to remember a non-intutive navigation process with lots of steps that could be avoided.
Related to the template selection thumbnail list for example, double clicking on the list of pages doesn’t do what is expected (take the user to the page). Instead he thinks “Oh right, I need to to go up and click on the pencil icon before it will take me to the template designer.”
Although this is only a minor annoyance compared to the creation of a new template as described in the top of this thread, all navigation and mouse moves figure into the efficiency of editing. If a designer or administrator clicks on icon A to start editing but then finds he also must click over on menu B, then on tab C, and finally on a minimize button to get rid of a rarely used function before real work can start, then the usability quotient has gone way down.
So I’m excited to hear that some of these UI issues are being addressed.
At the risk of nitpicking the top level design page where the templates are shown, one thing that would really help workflow might be…
What if clicking the pencil always took you to the design LAYOUT editor but double clicking on a page in the list automatically took you to the design CONTENT editor. In fact, icons for each of the subsequent editing tabs (content, layout, style) might be very nice.
I find that the page loads for the design tabs is an impediment to editing workflow so if CM1 knew that I wanted, for example, to edit the content on a template before the template designer even opened, that would be a significant efficiency gain.
Could look something like:
where the right hand icons represented each of the subsequent page tabs.
I think you have some great insight and ideas here, Dan. BTW I hope it was clear that I was joking with the single vs. double-click comment earlier, and I completely understand what you’re saying about the importance of an intuitive interface.
I see that the direct page edit functionality did not make it into v3.0.
I was kind of hoping for this. But even more, I was hoping that we were going to see image thumbnails when choosing to add images to a Rich Text Widget.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear on where the direct page edit function would be appearing. As of CM1 3.0, while you’re working in the Design section of CM1, the blank page icon to the left of the page listings under your Templates is now a direct link to that page in edit mode. Of course we’re still discussing such a direct link through the Finder itself, but for now this will serve as a shortcut that only Admins can access.
Looking over the 3.0 release notes, it’s hard to avoid noticing that much of it centers on our LiveFirst technology. Now, with the bulk of that work out of the way, I believe you’ll start seeing a lot of these smaller usability enhancements get the attention they deserve.
We’re delaying the rollout of CM1 until we feel comfortable that non-technical users will be able to contribute in a way that doesn’t a.) frustrate them and b.) that doesn’t require too much hand-holding.
