An Easy Way Daz Could Make the Content Library 10 X Easier to Navigate?

EdwardEdward

Right now, Daz has the Content Library set up so that one often loses the forest for the trees. That's partly due to the fact that the two main "forests" in the Content Library -- Poser Formats, and Daz Studio Formats -- BOTH appear the same color -- white text against a grey background. Why not make the two sections different from each other in color? Then, even though one had "zoomed in" to the level of a particular tree -- a particular bit of content -- and forgotten which forest -- which format section -- that tree is in, one could instantly SEE by the color which forest that tree was in -- without having to "zoom back out" -- that is, scroll around in the Content Library to remind oneself which format section -- Poser, or Daz Studio -- one is in.

Similarly, Headings in the Content Library should have one color, Subheadings another color, sub-subheadings a third color, and so on. One would then at a glance be able to perceive not only which forest one was in, but also which tree a particular branch of content is from, and which branch a particular leaf of content is from. One could see instantly if one is staring at a tree, a branch, or a leaf.

One could thus see at a glance exactly where a specific content is in the folder hierarchy, whereas now one easily loses track, and if one then tries to regain the bigger perspective, all one sees in the Content Library is a chaotic mess of white against grey. It can then be hard to get an overview without scrolling back and forth. Worse, while scrolling back and forth looking for the broader picture, one sometimes loses track of the specific content one was looking at in the first place!

Using color differentiation could make it much easier to find things and keep track of them, and could eliminate any need to scroll around to figure out where one is in the whole Content Library.

Richard Haseltine

If you look at the folder icons you will see that there's already a distinction there.

EdwardEdwardEdward

Thank you for pointing that out to me. That's very helpful.

Apparently the distinction is that Daz Studio folders have an S on them, while Poser folders have nothing on them. I can only guess what the S stands for. "Studio"?

The fact that I didn't notice those S's suggest that, at least from a beginner's point of view, there was something valid in my initial comment. For one thing, it was not self-evident to me what the S means, so I didn't notice the S, especially in the morass of unfamiliar details experienced as a new Daz 3d user.

Color differentiation would have been infinitely more self-evident as to meaning, visually far more comprehensible. The fact that I am a beginner might mean it is easier for me to understand at least some of the difficulties for a beginner than it is for an expert to see them. To you, I guess, the beginner problems are not objective problems -- they are problems in the beginner. But that's not always the case.

Accountants and spreadsheets often use color differentiation. It seems to me unbeatable for clearest presentation and thus quickest absorption of information.

But I guess it depends who your main clients are. If you are seeking to be as accessible as possible to the widest audience, especially beginners, then clarity is paramount. If you are mainly concerned with producing something for professionals, specialists, colleagues, experts, that's another.

Anyway, thank you for educating me as to the differentiation you have in place.

Loaar

I always thought that the "S" stood for script. Many of the older products and some of the newer ones have poser setups, with DS settings added via scripts in DAZ Studio.

I may be way off though.

Richard Haseltine

Well, it could be script or scene - but I think it probably is S for Studio.

I should add that i wasn't trying to scorn the suggestion, though I would want it to be an option (I always turn coloured menus off in applications that use them and allow it, but I can see it would be useful for others).

EdwardEdwardEdward

Richard Haseltine, thank you for your comments. Sorry I was oversensitive to a terse reply and read a little scorn into it. Terse is in fact good, and I should be terser myself.

In the last couple of days you have pointed out to me at least two extremely useful things: 1) the visual differentiation between the two kinds of folders, and 2) that the Content Library search box works (for files).

Between those two suggestions, I feel a bit like I've been given a car when before I had to walk everywhere. Especially the second one is a huge relief to employ.

Until your suggestion, I had never used the search box for the Content Library, because of Daz documentation that advises advises against using a search function and advises using ReadMe's. I did not understand that the Daz documentation was not advising against use of the search box for the Content Library, but against some other kind of search.

Richard Haseltine

Glad to have helped.