Menu System
Previous Topic  Next Topic 

FF&EZ is designed for users with a visual approach to working, that is, design professionals. It differs from generic Windows-based software in that it does not use a traditional "menu" system. There are two related reasons for this: 

  1. While the traditional "File...Edit...View...Help" works well in software designed to produce documents of unknown content (spreadsheets, word processor files), this approach tends to become "forced" in vertical market applications where the work has an inherently clear logic or process involved. In that situation, a traditional menu tends to become cluttered with options you do not need at any particular point in your work. With a database system that uses a single database to contain all your data, the "File" menu option in particular becomes pointless. It then follows that... 
  2. A command system for very task-oriented software can be simplified to show only what is needed in the context of your current task and if that can be done, then the options you really need can usually be displayed at all times instead of having to use a top-level menu to access them. It should be noted that the introduction of "ribbon bars" (and earlier, toolbars) in other software recognizes this difference between generic command menus vs. task-oriented ones.  However, a ribbon bar can also be a compromise in deference to intransigent mouse users.  FF&EZ's menu bar still allows you to use the keyboard without reaching for the mouse.  Using both the keyboard and the mouse appropriately is the key to the fastest possible task completion on any computer.

Of course, the reality is that FF&EZ actually does employ a menu system, but you are always in the top-level of that system, with the sub-options for your current menu choice ready for use. Once you get past the opening screen, the "Views" buttons are your top-level menu and the "Commands" that you see are the sub-options for whatever type of information you have chosen to work on. Further, the logic at work is simplified to two questions, in this order: 

"What do you want to work on?" 

"What do you want to do to it?" 

For instance, if you want to clone (copy) an entire room, the answers are... 

"I want to work on a room the Room List" and... 

"I want to clone it." 

...respectively. This translates to: 

  1. View the Room List (work on the room list) 
  2. Select the room you want to clone (work on a specific room) and 
  3. Clone it (the specific thing you want to do). 

The exact steps, of course, depend on where you started in the system, but you are never more than three steps from accessing the function you want to do and usually much less.

The result is a system that either uses fewer steps to accomplish the same task or uses the same number, but in a different, more natural order. For instance, if you need to add a vendor while working on a spec, here are the ways you might do it in a traditional system vs. that in FF&EZ (plus an example of a typical FF&EZ shortcut):


Traditional

FF&EZ
(Generic)

FF&EZ
(in practice)

Edit (invokes top level menu)

Views: Vendor List (need to work on vendors)

New (button on Spec screen next to vendor selection)

New (edit what?)

Add (the task to perform)

(Enter vendor data)

Vendor

(Enter vendor data)

Save (automatically returns to the spec)

(Enter vendor data)

Save


Save

Views: Specs List (return to working on the spec)


View (view what)



Specs (to return to working on the spec)



Note that in FF&EZ you never have to close main editing screens (like the Vendor Screen) in order to return to another one. In fact, your work will proceed quickly once you understand that the "Views" buttons are meant to simply switch you from one work location (screen) to another without closing any of them. It will proceed even faster once you learn the various shortcuts, like the "in practice" procedural shortcut mentioned above and the keyboard shortcuts available on the editing forms.