I find it difficult to precisely navigate in a larger workflow area by only using the Outline window. Similar to Adobe Photoshop, where you can press the space bar to turn the cursor from pointer to a grab and then drag & navigate in all directions, Iäd like to propose a similar behavior.
The benefit would be to:
More precisely navigate
Navigate in all directions not just vertically via the mouse scroll
Being able to set press & hold space bar as a shortcut and / or press & hold a mouse button like in mine I could press & hold the mouse wheel
Hi @mwiegand, I agree that the mechanism for navigation in the KNIME classic UI is not the best. In the “Modern UI” , you can now navigate (scroll in all directions) using the keyboard cursor keys. These can also be used in conjunction with dragging nodes, which I find useful. That said, no doubt others used these keys to jump between nodes (something I almost never used), but that function appears to have been taken away, and I cannot find a way of customising the keys in the modern UI whereas it was there in Classic, so I guess it’s win-some, lose-some…
Arrow key navigation offers a really poor experience as it is too slow and quite cumbersome to use four keys to “pixelwise” navigate. In addition, which I just tested out in 5.1, navigation via arrow keys collides with selecting nodes.
Usign arrow keys from a UI interaction perspective is highly discouraged. The hand palm rests most often on the mouse which offers a much better experience.
About the new UI, I tested the Beta and checked out a few “new” things today and must honestly say I dont like it for many reasons. I ahve already opened another “bug” ticket as the node configuration windows seems rather bugged.
Yes I agree it is not perfect. Especially as the arrow keys are on the “wrong” side of the keyboard, as I still want to keep the mouse in my right hand to move the node whilst using the arrows to scroll the canvas. But I do still find it easier than the classic UI. I would prefer that the canvas simply scrolled automatically as I moved a node off the visible area without having to do the “hover by the border” action that classic ui requires.
[…] Being able to set press & hold space bar as a shortcut and / or press & hold a mouse button like in mine I could press & hold the mouse wheel
Holding space or a mouse right click and move in all directions should work in Modern UI. Or, do you mean this would also be a nice addition in the classic perspective?
[…] customising the keys in the modern ui whereas it was there in Classic
That is right, it is not yet possible to customize the keys.
[…] That said, no doubt others used these keys to jump between nodes (something I almost never used), but that function appears to have been taken away.
Selecting and moving nodes via the keyboard (e.g. with the arrow keys and with a modifier and the arrow keys, like it is in the classic user interface) is not yet available, but already on the list for a future release — I will give it a +1.
[…] I would prefer that the canvas simply scrolled automatically as I moved a node off the visible area without having to do the “hover by the border” action that classic ui requires.
That is a nice idea, I will create a ticket for it.
frankly speaking, whilst I enjoy a more modern looking interface I, at this point in time, strongly believe the Modern UI is still in beta. That being said, having that option to conveniently navigate in the classic UI would be awesome.
About the Modern UI, I’d like to raise awareness that I had to issue a few topics since the node configuration modals since 5.1 cause quite some “inconveniencies”. I’d have expected any changes only coming with the Modern UI but not as premature as they are now (please see my topics).
Hi @mwiegand , you may have found this already. I just “discovered” in the modern UI that if I hold shift while moving the mouse wheel it gives left-right navigation instead of up-down.