[MacBerry]

Originally Posted by Toadling

Hmm, I don't agree with that assertion. The space below the inspector and to the right of your main window is not wasted, even on a small screen (I'm on a 15-inch MBP too). The fact that I can see my desktop and the icons through that relatively small opening is very handy, particularly for dragging files into note fields. It also gives me easy access to other windows behind my OmniFocus window (yes, I know there are other ways to access those windows, but having more paths to my goal almost always makes things easier).

You're serious aren't you?! Wow, I know people work differently, but the idea of having a big hole in an apps interface just so you can see something behind it is completely alien to me! I can't see how it's useful except on the very rare occasions when what you want happens to be lined up with that hole.

I do what you describe useing Expose - mouse to top right to expose the WHOLE desktop, grab what you want, mouse to top right to re-hide the desktop, drop. If I want something from finder, it's the same except I mouse to bottom right, or hover over the finder icon if a window isn't already open. I can't believe what you want is below that 60 x 150mm (max) hole very often!

What I think you may be saying is that you don't like to work full screen anyway, so therefore you have room for the inspector. That's fine, especially if you're used to a 9" screen as you mentioned before, but I've come the other way (20" screen minimum before getting my MacBook Pro), and find full width the minimum.

Not to mention the fact that I find having other windows visible behind what I'm working on a destraction - this is OmniFocus we're talking about after all ;)

Originally Posted by Toadling

And you don't need to move the inspector window around all the time. Just toggle it with the handy key shortcut (Command-Shift-I).

But it's NOT handy! the desired location for the inspector to edit one item is not the same as for editing another, hence the need to move it all the time, and the last thing I want to do is invoke inspector, possibly move it to see what I'm working on, edit, hide or move inspector to see what I want next, select next item, invoke inspector, move it again! The only safe place for the inspector, the only place it's guaranteed not to cover something I want to see, is outside the main window, but that means reducing the size of that window unacceptably to make room for it.

Originally Posted by Toadling

In that respect, it functions very similarly to the inline info approach you mentioned earlier,...

Except for the key difference of an extra manual step that I don't want to be bothered with. Yes it's only one step, but it all adds up.

Originally Posted by Toadling

..... except that the inspector can operate on multiple records at once and allows you to see more info than could be shown inline without pushing the rest of your contents down and offscreen.

Properly implemented, inline detail would colapse the moment you selected more than one item. I'm not arguing for taking the inspector out, so you could still have it for editing multiple items, just for giving us a more useable alternative for single item editing and viewing. We already have inline, it's just that it only shows limited info and isn't automatic.

One of my biggest issues with the current design is that it's neither one thing nor the other. We have both inline and inspector, and can edit and view some but not all things in both. It's totally inconsistent. All that's needed is for them to put all info in both, and make inline auto-collapse/expand (auto could even be an option if preferred).

Originally Posted by Toadling

I don't mean to imply that inline info is bad. It'd be nice to have as much as possible inline. Cultured Code's Things does that pretty well. But that additional info should be completely collapsible because it can waste a lot of space by displaying too much detail. I'm not interested in seeing those bits of data most of the time, which is one of the reasons I think the Things interface feels clunky. I really don't like to have the rest of my content moved around or pushed offscreen by the huge amount of space the selected action consumes.

So, you'd turn auto expand/collapse off, and I'd turn it on. You'd continue to edit in the inspector, and I never would, and really there'd be no need for this debate.

Originally Posted by Toadling

Incidentally, a right-hand drawer/sidebar also suffers from the drawback of reducing space in the main content area (relative to the size of the main window) and even shifts content around if the drawer/sidebar is toggled when your main window is set to full screen.

Exactly. That's what I meant when I said:

Originally Posted by me

Drawers suffer the same problem, though they can show and hide automatically. However, that involves re-sizing the entire window dynamically unless you have spare room anyway.