Navigating the Canvas: Tool Container selection list

[estark13]

When building out a large workflow, I'd say one of the bigger challenges I come across is being able to quickly navigate the canvas to a certain spot. In these types of workflows, my personal way of keeping things organized is creating sections of my workflow in different Tool Containers and naming them with a short description.

Here is what I picture helping out a great deal in navigation. Create a drowdown somewhere in the ribbon on top (would not want another sidebar or floating window that takes up needed space) that simply lists out every tool container in my workflow by name. When a tool container name is selected, the view jumps to that tool container in the window pane. Another option in terms of the interface might be to add a keyboard short that gives a popup "tool container search" window. Begin typing a tool container name, and it would jump to the first result it sees as a match. Then just hit escape or click outside the popup to continue your work. 

I think this would help immensely in being able to jump to a particular spot in the workflow without having to drag the overview or scroll around until you are able to find it. I included mock-ups for each version I mentioned.

 

[GeoffJ]

Hey estark,

With Alteryx 10.1, we added a right-click option to jump to any container in your workflow. See if that doesn't work for you!

We still need to work on how we communicate new enhancements like this, but if you do a little digging, you can find it on the Application Shortcuts help page.

Also, here's a blog post that provides an overview of the 10.1 Canvas Navigation improvements, along with a cheat sheet listing some of new keyboard shortcuts.

Hope this helps!

Geoff

[estark13]

Hi Geoff,

I did see the right click (or CTRL+F) to open the tool contained in the workflow, but that still doesn't have the Tool Container NAME that I am looking for (instead is has "Tool Container-1","Tool Container-2", etc.). Even just added the name to the CTRL+F would be a great start :). 

Thanks for you response!

Eric

[GeoffJ]

Hi estark,

The Find Tools window (CTRL+F) is definitely on our list to improve. 

For now, though, you should be able to right-click anywhere in the canvas and then click "Zoom" and then see a list of the Tool Container names to "zoom to."

Below is a screenshot from the "Frequently Used Tools" sample. (Help > Sample Workflows > Basics > Frequently Used tools)

I right-clicked on blank canvas right above a Tool Container (also named "Frequently Used Tools"). Then I clicked "Zoom." The four items below "Selected tools" are all Tool Container names, and selecting any one of them will shift the the Canvas focus to it. Are you able to see this? Does it address your initial request?

[davidhenington]

As always, with so much functionality, there's always something to realize you could have been using for a while! This is awesome.