UltraEdit Upgrades

JimShort · Apr 29, 2009#12009-04-29T14:42+00:00

Dear Ian,

I am a happy user off UltraEdit 11 that is just perfect for what I do. Each time I receive an Upgrade notice, I wonder what can have been done to make it any better. Since my usage of UltraEdit has gone up quite a bit, I finally caved in an downloaded the latest upgrade, version 15.

What a mistake!
The interface had changed in many negative ways. Since it replaced 11 on my computer, it also was inconvenient to revert back.
Then I had this idea. You give me the users Bill of Rights and I will happily send you $25 per year.

Users Bill of Rights

We promise to maintain UltraEdit as a premier text editor.

We will strive to keep it working flawlessly by fixing bugs through maintenance releases posted on the website.

We will not change the user interface unless a majority request it.

We will never relocate screen controls or change the size of anything.

We will never waste a pixel of usable space.

We will not consider replacing the GUI with some new design to attract new users.

We will strive to improve the behavior and performance of a fine product and add only a few new features each year while not disturbing the already fine work flow of the product.

Thank you,
Jim

mjcarman · Apr 29, 2009#22009-04-29T16:16+00:00

These are user-to-user forums. IDM doesn't generally read them or participate.

I find the interface of v15 to be a big improvement over older versions. It's different, certainly, and it may take you some time to figure out what all the new options are and how to configure it to your liking.

Your "Bill of Rights" is silly. You pay for a product; your rights are whatever is included in that purchase contract (e.g. free support and upgrades for one year), nothing more. IDM is a business. They produce a product. If people stop buying that product they go out of business. They can, should, and must do whatever they can to attract and maintain customers.

Your requests are also somewhat self-contradictory. How is UE supposed to remain a premier text editor if they can't change the user interface? I can edit a text file in Notepad. The primary value of tools like UE is that they improve my workflow: that's a function of the user interface. Locations, sizes, spacing -- all of those should change as ways to improve productivity are learned. Besides, what makes you think that users didn't request the new UI features (many of which exist in other products)?

You're jumping from version 11 to version 15; that's around four years of development. You should expect significant changes over that time, not just a few little tweaks.

rhapdog · Apr 29, 2009#32009-04-29T20:38+00:00

mjcarman,

You said what I wanted to say, and perhaps better. Thank you.

I went from version 5 to version 14 (talk about shock!) and it took me a while to get used to the new interface. Now, after having 15 since it came out, I can't imagine going back to anything else!

The way I can hide the Function List, Tag List, Templates, Scripts, Macros, etc. over on the left side to "pop-out" when I need them saves me valuable screen real-estate that I never had in other versions.

Being able to place the SSH/Telnet console in a tab on the bottom to pop up when I need it is invaluable as well. Hover over the tab, and suddenly it's 3/4 of my screen space. It gives me virtually full terminal view while I work with it, then pops back out of my way when I'm done. This is so much faster than opening another program to do this task, which before, since it was too difficult to "resize" it every time I needed it, I used another SSH program that I kept minimized until needed.

I've been so impressed with the improvements, that it's time to get the unlimited upgrade option.

Mofi · Apr 30, 2009#42009-04-30T07:46+00:00

I have attached screenshots of my UltraEdit installations for general text editing made both on the same computer (WinXP SP3). One is for UltraEdit v11.20b and the other for v15.00. As you can see on my screenshots you can setup the GUI of v15 to look nearly the same as in v11. I don't need the new features like auto-hided docked views. I use mainly the keyboard and rarely the mouse and so I enable/disable or hide/unhide a view with pressing the hotkey I have mapped to the appropriate command. And since UE v14.00 UltraEdit supports environments. I have for my projects (in UEStudio) configured several different environments which can be activated fast and which do not look so pure as the environment I use in UltraEdit for general text editing.

So what is your problem with the new GUI?

Propably only not taking the time looking into all the options you have to configure it to your needs.

By the way: I can switch between different versions of UltraEdit by running a simple script file which checks if UltraEdit is currently open and if this is not the case renames the UltraEdit program directories. This works fine in the last 8 years.

All information you need how to configure the GUI or how to use multiple versions of UltraEdit can be found in the user forums.