General Info on the Expecco UI/en

This document describes some details of the expecco UI, which may not be well known, but are nevertheless very helpful.

Personal Settings

Many aspects of the UI can be adjusted to your personal style via the settings dialog ("Extras" - "Settings"). Setting parameters are stored in a file in your home folder "~/.expecco/.expeccoPreferences", where "~" stands for your home folder. The home folder is typically "/home/<yourName>" on Linux systems, "/Users/<yourName>" on OSX, and "c:\users\<yourName>\Documents" on MS-Windows systems.

The entry tab of the the settings dialog shows the name of your settings file (and also provides a link to inspect its contents).

The settings file contains mostly UI-related parameters, but a few attributes which affect the execution are also stored there (for example, debugging flags, which control if a debugger should be opened in case of errors). It is possible to use different settings files by giving the "--settings" command line argument. To create a different settings file, use the "Save As..." menu item in the settings dialog.

Keyboard Focus

The keyboard focus window is the (sub-) window, which processes your keyboard input. Unless explicitly set via the "Extras"-"Settings"-"Look & Feel" dialog, the default behavior is initially set according to the operating system's usual default behavior.

This is different between Unix and MS-Windows systems:

- in Unix/Linux, the keyboard focus follows the mouse. I.e. you do not need to click into a window to change the focus. Just move the mouse pointer over/into that window.

- in Windows, the focus remains in a window, until some other window is clicked.

In most cases, this default setting corresponds to the user's expectations. However, if you prefer the other style, change this in the above mentioned settings dialog.

Keyboard Shortcuts

• CTRL-c (Copy)
  Copies the current selection, which can be text, an element in the diagram editor or a tree element. The copy is placed into the clipbard.
• CTRL-x (Cut)
  Cuts the current selection into the clipboard
• CTRL-v (Paste)
  Paste the objet in the clipboard

• CTRL-z (Undo)
  Undo the last edit operation. Can be performed multiple times.
• CTRL-y (Redo)
  Redo the last undone operations

• CTRL-g (Goto Line)
  In a text editor; lets you position to cursor into a given line.
• CTRL-f (Find)
  Opens a search dialog
• CTRL-+ (Zoom In)
  Text ist shown in a larger font; diagrams are magnified
• CTRL-- (Zoom Out)
  Text is shown in a smaller font; diagrams are shrunk
• CTRL-SHIFT-+ (Zoom In All)
  Zoom-In in all windows
• CTRL-SHIFT-- (Zoom Out All)
  Zoom-Out in all windows.

Click vs. Press

Some UI components behave differently between click and press. In this context, "click" means: "a short click with immediate release of the mouse button", whereas "press" means: "press and keep the mouse button pressed".

Right-Click for Menu

The standard MS-Windows behavior on right-click is to first select the element under the mouse pointer AND then show the popup-menu for the selected element when the mouse button is released.

In contrast, most Unix/Linux UIs reserve the left mouse button for selection and the right button for menus (i.e. you can right-click anywhere, without affecting the selection).

The setting chan be changed via "Extra"-"Settings"-"Look & Feel" - "Tree" - "Select on Right-Click".

Toolbar Buttons with Menus

Some toolbar buttons show a little "down-arrow" to the right of the icon. These buttons provide a menu, when clicked or pressed.

Buttons with a black arrow will always show a menu when clicked or pressed.

Buttons with a grey arrow button behave differently on "click" vs. "press". When clicked, a standard action is performed, whereas when pressed, the menu appears after a short time delay.

For example, the "History-Back" button in the main window shows this behavior: if clicked, it navigates back to the previously visited item. If pressed, it presents a list of previously visited items to choose from.

Toolbar Buttons which Remember the Previous Action

Above the navigation tree view on the left, you will find 3 buttons for quick creation of new tree items. These provide a "press"-menu, to choose the type of element to be created (grouped by "action blocks", "test-related" and "misc-elements".

These remember the kind of element which was last created and change their icon. When clicked, that type of element will be created. Thus, to create multiple elements of the same kind, ou do not have to go through the menu items every time.

Separators between Subviews

Many windows contain multiple subwindows. For example, on the top level, you see the navigation tree on the left, and a detail window (called "element editor") on the right, to manipulate the selected tree element.

The ratio (fractions of screen space) can be changed by a separator between the two views. Usually, that separator is just a grey area, which can be pressed and moved. However, some show little arrows. When you click on an arrow, the separator immediately moves to either the far left or far right, to give the full space to one of the subviews.

The separator remembers its previous position and moves back when clicked in the center area (the separator's "handle").

Navigation Tree / Drag & Drop vs. Selection

The navigation tree (on the left) serves two operations:

• to select the element to be edited (show & manipulated in the right section)
• to serve as a drag&drop source to move elements into a test-plan, a diagram or another position in the navigation tree.

This was done to make best use of limited screen space, but is sometimes a little annoying, if you loose the selection. To make drag&drop easier (and save from changing the selection), the navigation tree offers "tear-off" and "split" toolbar buttons. Both will open an extra navigation tree which will ONLY serve as a drag&drop source. Either as a separate floating window (hovering above the expecco UI) or as a split-tree below the original navigation tree.

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