Resizing booklist columns

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

@BetterRed - you mean make those options for a view so that if they were ticked they get applied whenever that view is selected? As of course they depend on whatever search data you have displayed at the time - so you would need to keep “reapplying” your view at times if you have outliers in your search results with extra long values.

I was thinking of options in the drop down, not the config, a'la:



Yes I would have to apply as required, but that's okay by me.

BR

[kiwidude]

Ahhh now I see… I missed your “all” columns emphasis (was still waking up) for a moment as I was trying to figure out what value this would add over the existing column menu.

Really what you are asking for isn’t actually “technically” a view manager function in that you want the existing calibre functionality for single columns extended to support all columns with a single click. But of course if Kovid doesn’t see that as something he wants to put in calibre itself then I agree that View Manager is the best fit in plugins to add it to.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Suggestion:

When I right-click on a Column header I get this popup:

Attachment 196889

Would it be possible to add something similar to those I've boxed to VM, i.e.

Resize all columns to fit contents
Shrink widest columns so that all columns fit the window

BR

Responding a bit to @kiwidude's "it should be in calibre" comment ...

The first one is straightforward.

The second one isn't clear. What is supposed to happen? Are the columns reduced in proportion? To a fixed size equal to the window size / number of columns? With a minimum size, and if so, what size? What happens if the sum of the minimum sizes doesn't fit in the window? Is this actually a useful function?

And no, this doesn't belong in the VM thread. Feel free to move the discussion somewhere.

[BetterRed]

I put my suggestion here for a reason: I can drive VM from book-list context menu with menu and arrow keys,

Due to conflict injuries exacerbated by old-age induced peripheral neuropathy I find clicking column headers difficult, I have to use two hands. I invariably end up sorting the columns. If I could, I'd turn off sorting by clicking column headers.

BR

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I put my suggestion here for a reason: I can drive VM from book-list context menu with menu and arrow keys,

Due to conflict injuries exacerbated by old-age induced peripheral neuropathy I find clicking column headers difficult, I have to use two hands. I invariably end up sorting the columns. If I could, I'd turn off sorting by clicking column headers.

BR

Fair enough. I will back out of this discussion.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

...
The second one isn't clear. What is supposed to happen? Are the columns reduced in proportion? To a fixed size equal to the window size / number of columns? With a minimum size, and if so, what size? What happens if the sum of the minimum sizes doesn't fit in the window? Is this actually a useful function?

This deserves a response.

The second option is a consequence of the first. if one resized all columns to fit their content, and there were a couple of very long cells - e.g. Jeffery Sachs' recent report titled "The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic" (70+ chars) and it's list of 41 contributors (900+ chars), the right most columns would be in next door's front parlour, so to speak

Aside: I actually thought this functionality already existed in VM, but when I looked it wasn't there - then I spotted the options in the header context menu - what does "Shrink column if it is too wide to fit" actually do?

Idea: - provide a tool that that makes the current cell's column header context menu available in a toolbar or menu, then I could get at it from the book list context menu.

BR

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

This deserves a response.

The second option is a consequence of the first. if one resized all columns to fit their content, and there were a couple of very long cells - e.g. Jeffery Sachs' recent report titled "The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic" (70+ chars) and it's list of 41 contributors (900+ chars), the right most columns would be in next door's front parlour, so to speak

The questions I asked before are still unanswered. Kiwidude will run into the same problems.

Aside: I actually thought this functionality already existed in VM, but when I looked it wasn't there - then I spotted the options in the header context menu - what does "Shrink column if it is too wide to fit" actually do?

It shrinks the column to the size of the viewport less a few pixels.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

The questions I asked before are still unanswered. Kiwidude will run into the same problems.

It shrinks the column to the size of the viewport less a few pixels.

Took me a moment to figure out how to make a column wider than the viewport - make it wide, then shrink window

Originally Posted by chaley

The second one isn't clear. What is supposed to happen?

Are the columns reduced in proportion? To a fixed size equal to the window size / number of columns? With a minimum size, and if so, what size? What happens if the sum of the minimum sizes doesn't fit in the window? Is this actually a useful function?

The goal is to reduce need for (even eliminate) horizontal scrolling, and having to manipulate the column header bar with the mouse. I'll use characters as the illustrative unit.

Widest column is shrunk (in 2 char bites) until all columns are visible, or are at minimum width. So if col-a was at 80 chars, and col-d was 61 chars, col-a would be shrunk until it was 60 then col-d would be shrunk to 59, then col-a to 58 and so-forth-and-so-on.

BR

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Idea: - provide a tool that that makes the current cell's column header context menu available in a toolbar or menu, then I could get at it from the book list context menu.

BR

I honestly think this touches on the underlying solution. If calibre can improve it's accessibility by implementing such support then that is half your problem solved. Having had to do some accessibility work in my day job for a website I got some experience of just how difficult that can be to make everything truly keyboard accessible for instance.

Surely it could be done by just adding a new action that can be bound to a keyboard shortcut that invokes the column header context menu code?

I think the "Size all columns to contents" should be added to that menu, not in this plugin.

Then the "Shrink column if it is too wide to fit" can be left to you as the user to determine which ones you want to shrink. As chaley says it is too problematic to try to figure out which one makes the most sense to try to shrink and "when to stop" etc.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Idea: - provide a tool that that makes the current cell's column header context menu available in a toolbar or menu, then I could get at it from the book list context menu.

BR

Originally Posted by kiwidude

I honestly think this touches on the underlying solution. If calibre can improve it's accessibility by implementing such support then that is half your problem solved. Having had to do some accessibility work in my day job for a website I got some experience of just how difficult that can be to make everything truly keyboard accessible for instance.

Surely it could be done by just adding a new action that can be bound to a keyboard shortcut that invokes the column header context menu code?

I think the "Size all columns to contents" should be added to that menu, not in this plugin.

I was thinking along the lines of a tool, so that it can be used like this, or from a toolbar even:



That's my Book list context menu, pretending I hit the menu key on an Authors cell; chaley did something similar recently with Manage Categories, made it a lot easier for me.

BR

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Surely it could be done by just adding a new action that can be bound to a keyboard shortcut that invokes the column header context menu code?

I added this. It is in calibre source now.

I think the "Size all columns to contents" should be added to that menu, not in this plugin.

Then the "Shrink column if it is too wide to fit" can be left to you as the user to determine which ones you want to shrink. As chaley says it is too problematic to try to figure out which one makes the most sense to try to shrink and "when to stop" etc.

I am not going to do either of size all columns or shrink all columns. I don't think the first is useful enough to do, and in any event can now be done column by column using the shortcut to open the context menu. I don't see any way to get the second one right. There would be no end of "It didn't do what I want" reports.

[chaley]

I don't think this affects the VM, but the discussion has been here so ...

I added a line to the books view header context menu:


Selecting it gets you this dialog, which doesn't require using the mouse.


These changes plus the action permitting opening the header context menu with a keyboard accelerator make it possible to resize columns without using the mouse.

[un_pogaz]

Hum,
I'm testing this in the source and I think it would be nice to add 2 buttons "Shrink if to wide" and "Resize to contents" to this dialog (since we can't access the context menu entry)
Yes, you can do it before, but if you create a special dialog for width colum, you might as well put all of them in it.

Also, I have the impression that "Shrink colum if to wide" does not work (image) Calibre 6.6.1 / Source ; Windows 10

In any case, the autistic that I am, I will be able to adjust either colum pixel perfect as I want, or with pretty multiple of 50 (150, 200...300...)
A big thank you

[chaley]

Moderator Notice
Moved the resizing posts to their own thread

[chaley]

Originally Posted by un_pogaz

Hum,
I'm testing this in the source and I think it would be nice to add 2 buttons "Shrink if to wide" and "Resize to contents" to this dialog (since we can't access the context menu entry)
Yes, you can do it before, but if you create a special dialog for width colum, you might as well put all of them in it.

Makes sense. I will submit the changes.

Originally Posted by un_pogaz

Also, I have the impression that "Shrink colum if to wide" does not work (image 2) Calibre 6.6.1 / Source ; Windows 10

It shrinks columns that are larger than the book list viewport. It doesn't shrink to fit, which is what it looks like you were expecting.