3.2.17 Tools & Help menu buttons nearly nonfunctional

Bug Reports
#1

Platform & OS Version

Windows 11 latest release US English

App Version

Aeon Timeline
Version: 3.2.17
Shell Version: 3.2.16

Problem Description + Screenshots

Can’t screenshot successfully, but it’s easy to see for yourself

nearl non-functional Tools and Help menu buttons – other menu buttons ok

  • Neither functions at all, if you click them over most of their visible area.
  • If you’ve activated their menubar by hovering over one of the buttons to left, then sliding to these two will light them up, but they still don’t respond.
  • sometimes in clicking center when they aren’t working, you actually get the Windows 11 OS topbar action – the window size and position will change
  • these two buttons only operate if you tap in about the lower 10% of their area; then they light up, click function is as expected. It’s reliable from that area.

Steps to reproduce

As just above

  • Are you able to reproduce this bug reliably? Yes
  • Can you make this bug happen with a clean timeline file? Yes, timeline file not needed, happens on just opened app the same
  • Does it only happen with a specific timeline file? No

Any relevant files? No

Please follow these steps: – This rest is tedious, and should be entirely unnecessary, not so? Thank you…

  1. Finish posting this bug report to the forum
  2. Send an email to support@timeline.app, including:
    • A one-line summary of the issue
    • The URL of your post
    • Your timeline file, as an attachment
#2

Hi,

Sorry you have had this problem when using the app.

We have had an occasional user report this to us in the past, unfortunately we have been unable to reproduce it on our machines to work out what the issue is.

Are you able to tell us any information about the screen you are using (eg. screen resolution, dpi) and any text size settings you have for your machine?

#3

Hi Jess, and as in the late here overnight email, thanks for thoughtful and timely response on this.

I’d mentioned my own thoughts out of software background about display settings – and this morning, testing, this turns out absolutely to be the key.

Reading more carefully this morning, I see that you’d suggested towards it, along with external displays that distracted, and you were right too :slight_smile:

  • I’m not using scaling, or a separate monitor, just a (new and powerful) laptop, having a 1920x1200 16in new ‘tall format’ screen.
  • it turns out I’m not using anything which is known problematic, like scaling…
  • but the fonts were small for my eyesight, so I increased their size, on the Settings > Accessibilty > Text size pane.
  • testing, then, if I reset this to 100% (full left slider)…then your navbar buttons all light up on mouseover, and function on click, just as they should. This is why you haven’t been able to duplicate, I know you understand.
  • at 110% on that slider, all but the last, the Help button, work well…
  • trouble comes in increments, rather than smoothly, but by the 130% setting I personally use, indeed both Tools and Help buttons fail or near-fail in the way I’ve described – tiny active area only, very low on the button.

So I think we’ve found the problem, and now it should be easy to remedy I suspect.

There’s one more thing I noticed, which could nicely affect features, without much work on your team as well.

I’d mentioned happiness about the display scaling 3.2 has added, which answers at a good level a long problem about not seeing enough context, particularly in the Subway display. It’s this that convinced me to purchase the upgrade, in fact, and feel Timeline will be more useful than it had felt.

I did (recently on your survey) suggest this needed to go farther than 50% scaling, as in my view it could while improving scan on context, and stil able to show text well enough.

Now, when I experimented with the font sizes, I saw as you might expect that the magnification scalinMyg became more powerful – indeed to a likely limit I’d felt it should have – which was great.

My preferred font size is close to 20% larger (125% would be exact. So if your pane magnification factor went down to 40% instead of stoppiing at 50%, it would make what you see normally be available for such as us who work with the font size increased.

Maybe a nice way to do this, anticipating others with larger font scaling yet, would be to make a setting for the lowest pane magnification. This would make things smooth for centerline normal persons’ eyesight, yet allow the accessibility when the font scale is larger, not so?

Interested what you and Matt may think, and hoping this long missive will be useful to you.

Best,
Clive

1 Like
#4

Just to confirm, this is also a problem on a 4K monitor with Windows 11 and AMD GPU and the recommended (in Windows) 150% scaling. But I have still 3.1.9 installed, because the updater/installer doesn’t start even though it does close down Aeon 3.1.9. Yes, I am running as administrator on my computer.

And when in a project, the Tools button is actually only active in the lower left corner, less than 10% of the button area.
Still in 3.1.9, but after I got the notification of the new update, this was not an issue a few days ago.

#5

Appreciatedly enough, just noticed the latest version (3.2.20) now has the Tools menu button working correctly - lights and works with cursor at any point enclosed.

The Help button is still improper – works only from lowest 5-10%.

But, a change you made is moving in the right direction., good to see

Something else on UX is that in full acreen (Win 11 latest), Timeline won’t allow the Windows Taskbar to float up – have to reduce it from full screen to use other apps.

This last is something many apps have done, and then fixed…hope you can soon, thanks!

Best,
Clive

Help button is still 92% missing in action
#6

This isn’t an original idea from me - it was suggested elsewhere. If you press and release the Windows key, the taskbar pops up.

2 Likes
#7

Thanks, Amotillado – that works, and lets us get around the full-screen issue!

#8

Win10 x64

I reported this problem on September 29, 2021. Yes, almost exactly two years ago. I provided an explanation and video capture illustrating the problem in communications with Matt, the Aeon Timeline owner/developer. For whatever reason, he simply stopped responding. I have re-engaged and hope he responds.

That said, this unsolved problem is incredibly frustrating and has impeded me from using the program.

#9

@cwf, I had a look around on this, and as ever with Windows, matters are not clean.

However, I found this posted code and explanation, which seems popular to get taskbar hiding to work ‘normally’.

I’ll put the link here for @matt, via @jess if need be, and note that the sense of it seems to be not to make calls to affect the taskbar. The concept of it seems mainly in just setting the size as desired, along with with HWND_TOP when it should be and act full-sized…maybe a few more Win-ish details. Which is what he means, by ‘simply’…

It seems that would make sense, as normal (i.e. autoshowing) taskbar shouldn’t be affected, as it can always go above other windows. as we know. And this code, for windows, counts I think as a ‘simplest method’ (!)

This needs to get fixed as you note, particularly for trial or new users.

However, I found in looking for this some other ways to work around, for the moment:

  • you can expand a normal window to nearly full screen, pulling the edges, and this will keep the taskbar auto-rise functioning. …

  • you can use full-size, and double-click the top bar of window, which will return it to previous; then do the same to recall full-screen after using the taskbar

  • you can use Win-T instead of just Win, and the taskbar will show…and hold, with your current app button having a very visible selection ring around it. This is actually kind of nice, and you can navigate with arrows and get previews, or just click on another; same Win-t to drop the taskbar if you don’t change anything…

  • you can use alt-tab, which will let you choose any other app, and will alternate automatically back to the original if you use it again from your chosen other app. This is particularly nice on Win11, giving large previews in center of the screen…

  • …thought I had one more way, but I didn’t, leaving note in case anyone saw this…

#10

@narrationsd Thanks for this.

Unfortunately, it does not address the issue with accessing the Aeon Timeline Tools and Help menu buttons. I’m using Win10 on a 1920 x 1080 screen with 100% scaling and have to hover at a specific point below both the Tools and Help menu buttons to activate them, while all the other buttons work as expected. Something is causing the menu to not react with those two buttons specifically and has not been resolved in the two years since I reported the issue.

Here’s video of the issue: https://vimeo.com/869844168?share=copy

#11

This is still an issue with 3.2.22 on Windows 11 with a 4K monitor with 100% and 150% scaling to.

It is actually so bad that it is difficult to not get a click on the “Subway” button on the second row.

#12

Unfortunately we have tried to replicate this issue on our Windows computers and have been unable to, which is why the issue hasn’t been fixed yet.

If you are one of the people that is seeing this problem, are you able to let us know what menu items you are often using in the Tools/Help menu. We may be able to have these accessible from elsewhere while we try to fix the problem.

#13

Jess, what Jaran mentioned about his monitors led to me thinking about what could cause my own problems you seem to ignore.

Good you explained how you couldn’t duplicate – it’s important to let persons know you are trying rather than consigning toa black hole…

Now, I couldn’t find what triggers this taskbar hiding, at least yet. But I did discover the problem with the Help and preceding menus, and I’ll detail that here – it’s after all the topic we’re on!

The issue is an Accessibility one; at least using Accessibility triggers it. My notes are for Win11; Win10 will be similar.

  • Go to Windows Settings | Accessibility | Text Size
  • The Text Size slider will probably be full left, 100%, but you don’t see the number until you are adjusting it. Very clever, always, those Microsoft boys…
  • You can be consistently running Timeline, as it will pick up changes
  • observe as you usually do - all Navbar menu items light when hovered, and act when clicked
  • now set the Text Size slider, at 112%, click Apply, wait for Windows to settle on this,
  • Now in Timeline you’ll notice that the Help menu button nearly doesn’t respond at all. It will only illuminate and become active in a very narrow band at the bottom.
  • You can try again, setting Text Size to 125% then Apply, and now both the Tools and Help buttons have this same near non-behavior.

This is exactly as I see. When I thought you’d improved something, it’s because I went from 125% to 112%, as I found it a better compromise.

That a thin band is unaffected may be a good hint to @Matt where he can look that a mask or masks are being mis-set.

I’ll keep looking to see what I might have done to set off the full-window-prevents-Windows Taskbar-float-up. In the meantime, Win-T feels a very good solution as it brings it up and holds it there. Or Alt-Tab for quick switching…

Clive

#14

Just a bump in case you thought you already saw my comment just above ^^ today, as I added the full description of how to duplicate the Navbar buttons hiding there.

After realizing this was the topic originally centered on that…

C.

#15

Hi Clive,

Thanks for finding that and posting the instructions, it has helped up replicate the issue, so I have passed it onto our developers so they can look into it.

#16

All you need to do to recreate the problem is, right click the desktop, select “Display Settings”, “Scale & Layout” and change the scale to something none standard, e.g. 150%, 200% etc.
On a 4K monitor the default is 100%, but recommended is 150%.

I have not touched anything else that have anything to do with display, scaling…

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#17

@jaran, well, ‘all you need to do…’

This has two problems< I think…

  • display scaling has been a horror in times past, at least, though the number of people with huge displays may have convinced Microsoft to fix it

  • but most of all, I don’t want everything ‘scaled’ – at all. On a not-huge display, there’s barely room enough. Font size in moderation helps readability after youth’s eyes, while letting the rest of visuality remain rich.

This is the thing. Persons have differing needs, as well as technologies or pleasures…

#18

Jess, thanks also – nice to know we have the knowledge now, and fix will be forthcoming :slight_smile:

#19

Sorry that I wrote it so you so easily could manage to misunderstand it…

Try to read it as “All you need to do to recreate the problem is to …”

If you don’t have a monitor that needs it, don’t use it, it is as simple as that.
I will promptly reedit the sentence in that comment.

information:
The scaling just scales the text and icons (including buttons), the workspace including the desktop and all your software windows remain the same. It is not an “extend my desktop size outside the boundaries of my view space” function.