Invisible icon on tabs - causes misleading behavior on UI

[misova]

Hi,

the cross icon in the Chart tab, that closes the tab,
is invisible and this causes, that user closes tab, instead of switching tab.

The fact, that the cross in invisible causes, that it looks like empty space
and user click on it, when switching tabs. But then, tab is lost,because he clicked
on the cross, that is not visible constantly, only the milisecond, when mouse was over.

Users can love NT8, but will are short minutes, when they will hate it,
after they all the work prepared on the chart, that took much time to do.
One click into invisible space (i.e. it looks safe to click, no hint about closing tab) and all the work is lost !
This should NEVER happen to the user !

How to improve:
This should be improved and the cross icons should be visible all the time.
Their color can be nicely in lighter tone of the background, so they are not distracting, but visible enough. - BUT THIS JUST INCREMENTAL IMPROVEMENT, THAT CAN BE DONE QUICKLY WITHOUT WORK. IT IS NOT SERIOUS AND WELL THOUGHT FIX.

Why: ? Because even if the cross will be slightly visible, nobody will be so precise in his mouse movements, that he clicks the right pixels all the time. Just try to switch quickly between tabs, on you will close one by mistake. It can happen anytime again = it is error prone.
To achieve improvement, the icon should be really strong and have have clear boundary with some empty space around it to be safe.
And for this, there is probably not much space in the tabs... so this solution is not good one. It does not really fix much and still leaves space for error.

Best solution:
Close tab should by accessible from 2 possible (and safe) actions:

• middle mouse click on Tab will close the Tab
• RMB on Tab and click "Close Tab" in popup menu.

This solution has all the benefits (speed and safety) and no drawbacks:

1. it is accessible in 1 click - for power users - they can use Middle mouse button. Nobody can complain, because it cannot be faster than 1 click.
2. For others it is safely accessible in 2 clicks - this is OK, if we take into account, that Closing tab is not so frequent action. And it is absolutely safe. Work is never lost.
3. It is easy to implement, because popup menu already exists, and cross can be removed easily.

The close tab behavior is not one of the most frequently used.
It is occasional action, once for a time. It does not need to be on the front line, accessible on 1 click inevitably. But it has to be safe first, because it has serious destructive effect causing serious loss of prepared work!


See the picture:

[tradesmart]

Thanks for posting this! Yes, I have lost a tab with a quick mouseclick on what appeared to be empty space on the tab. Luckily, I had previously saved it as a template so nothing was lost permanently. However, had I not had that template, I would have been seriously peeved.

[sledge]

You've renamed your tabs? That appears to be the bug.

There's an option in nt8 to prompt on closing tabs.

[JerryWar]

Tools - Options - General and check confirm on Window or Tab close.

Jerry

[misova]

You've renamed your tabs? That appears to be the bug.

There's an option in nt8 to prompt on closing tabs.

Hi sledge,
yes, I have renamed the tabs.

But in the options - Confirm on window or tab close - is unchecked by default.

[misova]

Tools - Options - General and check confirm on Window or Tab close.
Jerry

Thank you, this is helpful and makes the problem less painful.
I checked it immediately.

[tradesmart]

Thank you, this is helpful and makes the problem less painful.
I checked it immediately.

Yes, however that changes the behavior of both windows and tabs. There's no problem with window close buttons; they are always visible.

The problem is with tabs in that their behavior is non-standard. Look at your browser tabs in Firefox or Chrome, the x is always visible and changes color to red when the mouse hovers over it. This is how NT8 windows behave also. Why should tabs be any different? There's no compelling reason that I can see for making tab close buttons invisible. I suggest that they should conform to the standard to avoid confusion.

[misova]

Yes, however that changes the behavior of both windows and tabs. There's no problem with window close buttons; they are always visible.

The problem is with tabs in that their behavior is non-standard. Look at your browser tabs in Firefox or Chrome, the x is always visible and changes color to red when the mouse hovers over it. This is how NT8 windows behave also. Why should tabs be any different? There's no compelling reason that I can see for making tab close buttons invisible. I suggest that they should conform to the standard to avoid confusion.

Definitely, cannot agree more. This thing should be improved.

[NinjaTrader_EricB]

misova,

Thank you for your post,

Glad to hear the Tools > Options > General > "Confirm on window or tab close" helped out.

Thanks to all who contributed to this post.

I will certainly forward a feature request regarding the tab's close buttons changing color when clickable, and also making the above option clicked by default.

Let us know if we may assist further.

[sledge]

I will certainly forward a feature request regarding the tab's close buttons changing color when clickable, and also making the above option clicked by default.

Let us know if we may assist further.

I think everyone is missing there is no visible X if the tab was renamed programmatically. It's invisible.

[NinjaTrader_EricB]

Hello sledge,

Thank you for your post,

To confirm, after renaming a tab via right-click > Rename, the X no longer shows up when the mouse the hovered over?

It's expected for no X to show up until the tab is hovered over.

Or what method is being taken to rename the tab?

I look forward to assisting further.

[misova]

It works how you said.
After mouse hover, X icon appears. problem is, that it is too late.

One sugestion for improvement, is that X icon should be at least constantly visible, to make clear, there is not empty space, but Close Tab action.

Better, X icon should be removed completely and replaced by Middle Mouse click and action in RMB popup.

1. Then, no confirmation checkbox in Options is needed,
2. it is 1-click accesible (using Middle mouse button)
3. and safe (users can never close their tab unintentionally)

On mouse hover - it is too often too late to show the X icon, because user already clicked into the previously empty space, that he was aware of and Closed the Tab.

[misova]

misova,

Thank you for your post,

Glad to hear the Tools > Options > General > "Confirm on window or tab close" helped out.

Thanks to all who contributed to this post.

I will certainly forward a feature request regarding the tab's close buttons changing color when clickable, and also making the above option clicked by default.

Let us know if we may assist further.

HI EricB,

I found problem, that despite the configuration in Tools > Options > General > "Confirm on window or tab close",
window can be closed without confirmation from the Win10 taskbar windows preview.

This way, one can loose work unintentionally, because there is no confirmation, despite it is configured.

[NinjaTrader_EricB]

Hello misova,

Thank you for your post,

I'll certainly forward on for our teams to look into as well. As a note, I'm not sure this will be something NinjaTrader is able to prevent, Windows features like this tend to superseded program features like this.

For example, Windows Task Manager to could be used to close individual windows, or to end the NinjaTrader program itself without allowing it to trigger Save Workspace prompts, similar to how other programs like Word or Excel function.

[misova]

Hello misova,

Thank you for your post,

I'll certainly forward on for our teams to look into as well. As a note, I'm not sure this will be something NinjaTrader is able to prevent, Windows features like this tend to superseded program features like this.

For example, Windows Task Manager to could be used to close individual windows, or to end the NinjaTrader program itself without allowing it to trigger Save Workspace prompts, similar to how other programs like Word or Excel function.

Hi EricB,

understood. I want just to add, that it is easy to verify if this can be done
by simple simulation with Notepad:

1. write some notes in notepad without saving into file
2. use close from windows taskbar
3. and we see, that confirmation dialog appears and prevents closing Notepad without saved data

This shows, that it can be done and it works already with other applications.