How to define classes?

#1

The Subform Website shows the great usage of classes, I can't figure out yet how to set them myself. Help please :slight_smile:

EDIT: I figured it out, just type in the smarty bar at the bottom. The class will show up in the top right.

#2

That's very un-intuitive at best. I have expected to create and edit them in the top right corner. The bottom "smarty bar" seems interesting, could be a great feature. But working with styles/classes should be where they are, that is top right corner.

#3

I still don´t really get it.

I tried and tried to add a class, but nothing happened.
It turned out I couldn't I add a class when I had a text element selected.
Why not though? It doesn't make sense to me.

#4

Text doesn't support the same properties as boxes.
You can't add a "background" to text, for example, so we thought it would be better to keep classes for boxes only.

As an aside: If you do want to show some text on a background, make a box w/ the background property (or a box that has a class that has a background property), then put the text inside of that box.
If the box height/width is "auto" (i.e., the height and width inputs are left blank), then it'll take the same size as the text.

#5

But how do I set up my type hierarchy so that I can use type consistently throughout the design?

#6

We went through several prototypes where we tried to make an "add class" button in the top right corner.
I agree that it initially "feels" like the right place for that control, but we couldn't come up with a design without larger tradeoffs (e.g., wasted space, a "jumping" sidebar if we show/hide that button, etc).

There may be a design where that functionality is there, but we couldn't find it and have settled on the current one as "good enough" for the time being.

Also, two notes about "intuitive":

1) We're optimizing Subform for use by experts who will spend more time using the tool than learning it --- so if there are tradeoffs between discoverability and power/efficency, we will go with the latter

2) The word "intuitive" is very broad. For example, I find English more "intuitive" than German, but I suspect that has more to do with my upbringing as a native English speaker than it does about the relative linguistic merits of the two languages.

What is most helpful to us is to talk about the core issues --- in this case, I believe the issue is spatial consistency (classes show up in that corner, so people expect to create new ones there). This issue relates to discoverability too. Are there other issues that I'm missing?

#7

Right now we don't have a good solution for that.
It's a complex problem, and it relates with a lot of other functionality we have (e.g., Can type settings be overridden across different instances of a component? Should there be interactions between type and layout?)

We need to think deeply about the necessary capabilities and the tradeoffs of possible solutions before implementing anything.
It's definitely on our agenda --- what would be most helpful for us is if you could start a new topic in the features category to discuss what your needs are and how you are addressing them in your current workflow w/ other tools.

#8

Could you put up a template or more detailed description please about how you best want to receive descriptions about our workflows?

What you can already tell is that everyone here is solving problems differently. I have a different workflow and requirements then a freelancer has. What are you looking for specifically? I'm kinda hesitant to write up a wall of text that won't help you or Ryan.