Floating Orange Switch View Button

Question

This is just a brief post to say that the new Orange "Switch View" button in the bottom right of the screen is very distracting. Its location means that it sits right where notifications usually appear from the system tray. So if you are working away on two monitors with an MSDN page open on one screen while you code in the other, the bright orange "switch view" button keeps making you glance down there thinking a notification has popped up.

Perhaps consider moving it away from that region of the window or at least not making it stick out quite so much.

Answer 1

Thanks Casey. I'll talk to our Library team about this and ask them to follow up.

Chris

Answer 2

I agree.  In general I like the new design and colour scheme.  EXCEPT for that orange "Switch View" button which is also cuasing me to glance there thinking I have a new email or something...  :)

Answer 3

How about not displaying it at all. The lower right corner of the screen is where the scroll arrows are and the button blocks the right scroll arrow and part of the down scroll arrow.

All of the other links are in the tab strip or are in the toolbar at the top of the page.

It looks very unprofessional.

Answer 4

As Chris mentions I will take this feedback to my team. The switcher is a temporary feature to show the users the 3 views of library.

Anand..

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Group Manager| Developer Division| Microsoft Corp.| http://blogs.msdn.com/sandcastle/ http://blogs.msdn.com/innovation/

Answer 5

Does it seem appropriate to use a production level web site to prototype new features?

Aren't these type of options supposed to be selected through the toolbar at the top of the page?

The button under IE nearly blocks the vertical scroll arrow and entirely blocks the right scroll arrow. Under Firefox there is no verticcal scroll arrow and the entire vertical scroll arrow is blocked. This forces the user to either do a fast scroll or to drag the scroll place holder to get a smooth vertical scroll.

Technically....shouldn't this get blocked by the popup blocker?

Answer 6

Thanks for taking this back to the team...I would really welcome being able to turn it off, or at least get it to quit covering the scroll down arrow and have a less neon-sign-like appearance; but then perhaps I'm biased because I thought that the existing view worked perfectly well!!  To me, this looks like a perfect instance of fixing something that's not broken.

I tried the other two options, just out of curiosity, and they both seem to go to less functional versions of the library that make it harder to keep track of where you are in the tree structure.  The "ScriptFree" version in particular seems to randomly decide whether to drill down into the link you select more or less in place, or alternatively to turn the tree structure upside down by displaying the children of the link I clicked on in the middle section, with its parent and its parent's siblings shown in a new bottom section.  Now that's disorienting!!

The thing I like best about the "ScriptFree" version is that it puts Switch View in the right place...unobtrusively buried in a toolbar at the top of the screen next to the "Feedback" link, where users will seldom look, and NOT highlighted in orange!

With that said, I guess I should probably use that link to report issues, instead of venting my spleen here.  I'll do that with any future comments.  Thanks again for your patience...

Answer 7

Distracting?  That's an understatement.  It covers up the down scroll button and the right scroll button so that you can't press them.  Could this be fixed as soon as possible please?

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http://www.peterRitchie.com/blog

Answer 8

Peter,
We have next monthly release planned for November 13th before PDC (http://microsoftpdc.com/). I am trying to get this addressed for this release to have a switcher experience similar to ScriprFree. Thanks.

Anand..

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Group Manager| Developer Division| Microsoft Corp.| http://blogs.msdn.com/sandcastle/ http://blogs.msdn.com/innovation/

Answer 9

But there is no way to turn it off. I've very happy with the view I've chosen and do NOT want to be forcefully remided I have a choice. And as a dual monitorr user, I hate the location, but can't move bhis obtrusive button.

PLEASE get rid of this huge button and replace it with a simle underlined command at the top of the page.

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Thomas Lee - [e-mail]

Answer 10

Looks like this attempt failed. It's Nov 17 and we still have the big orange blob.

:-(

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Thomas Lee - [e-mail]

Answer 11

Looks like this attempt failed. It's Nov 17 and we still have the big orange blob.

:-(

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Thomas Lee - [e-mail]

Yes, because Microsoft is run by a bunch of monkeys (lead by Ballmer himself) who don't pay any attention to detail and are too ineffective to make the smallest of fixes on one of their most visited websites.

Answer 12

has not enough people complained to get rid of this?

Answer 13

I think that view a little unfair.

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Thomas Lee - [e-mail]

Answer 14

We have fixed the issues (in Orange switcher) with our classic pages. Please visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default(classic).aspx to see the changes. The version selector is now available on the top right corner of the page. Hope this helps.

Anand..

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Group Manager| Developer Division| Microsoft Corp.| http://blogs.msdn.com/sandcastle/ http://blogs.msdn.com/innovation/

Answer 15

We have fixed the issues (in Orange switcher) with our classic pages. Please visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default(classic).aspx  to see the changes. The version selector is now available on the top right corner of the page. Hope this helps.

Anand..

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Group Manager| Developer Division| Microsoft Corp.| http://blogs.msdn.com/sandcastle/ http://blogs.msdn.com/innovation/

YEAH!

Thanks very much Anand - much appreciated.

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Thomas Lee - [e-mail]

Answer 16

Yes - and it's gone from the Classic page.

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Thomas Lee - [e-mail]