Library useability

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   It seems that all the focus has always been on adding, correcting, & updating the calculator. Can we please now get a little focus on the Library. Ever since I can remember there have been issues with the displaying, searching, and sorting of the Library view.
I constantly use the library to look for existing footprints that I have already created, and/or very close matches that I can then use as a starting point for a new footprint. But the current usability of the table is lacking. Below are a few of the issues, suggestions to make it more useable (in no particular order).

Footprint Date: 
Sorting does not work as it should. It is sorting by first character, not actually by date from first to last or last to first.
This field was added just a few revisions ago. Prior to this I had a field called "Date Added". It would be real nice if I could have these converted over to and included in the "Footprint Date" column.
The "Clear Markers" after a search does not always clear. And even if it does clear as it should. It doesn't seems to always return to the previous column sorting state.
The "View Library by Categories" what a mess. I have been using this tool since near the beginning. And over the years some of the internal category names have changed. As a result I now have several categories, that are the same, but because they are named slightly different, now show as separate category listings. Can we please clean-up/combine these category name so that each category type is listed just once.
Export to CSV and/or Excel; Need I say much more. Yea, I can use the upper left most box to select all and do a copy & paste to Excel or a text document that recognizes this formatting like NotePad++. But I then have to manually go back and add the headers. It would be nice to have a menu option to allow export with or without header information. Like is common in most of the SQL tools that I have ever used. 

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caclark Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Advanced User Joined: 24 Oct 2012 Location: Cincinnati, OH Status: Offline Points: 177	Post Options Post Reply Quote caclark Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Library useability Posted: 16 Feb 2022 at 5:04am
	It seems that all the focus has always been on adding, correcting, & updating the calculator. Can we please now get a little focus on the Library. Ever since I can remember there have been issues with the displaying, searching, and sorting of the Library view. I constantly use the library to look for existing footprints that I have already created, and/or very close matches that I can then use as a starting point for a new footprint. But the current usability of the table is lacking. Below are a few of the issues, suggestions to make it more useable (in no particular order). Footprint Date: Sorting does not work as it should. It is sorting by first character, not actually by date from first to last or last to first. This field was added just a few revisions ago. Prior to this I had a field called "Date Added". It would be real nice if I could have these converted over to and included in the "Footprint Date" column. The "Clear Markers" after a search does not always clear. And even if it does clear as it should. It doesn't seems to always return to the previous column sorting state. The "View Library by Categories" what a mess. I have been using this tool since near the beginning. And over the years some of the internal category names have changed. As a result I now have several categories, that are the same, but because they are named slightly different, now show as separate category listings. Can we please clean-up/combine these category name so that each category type is listed just once. Export to CSV and/or Excel; Need I say much more. Yea, I can use the upper left most box to select all and do a copy & paste to Excel or a text document that recognizes this formatting like NotePad++. But I then have to manually go back and add the headers. It would be nice to have a menu option to allow export with or without header information. Like is common in most of the SQL tools that I have ever used.



Tom H Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 05 Jan 2012 Location: San Diego, CA Status: Offline Points: 5718	Post Options Post Reply Quote Tom H Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 16 Feb 2022 at 9:39am
	You can click and drag an FPX file into Excel and edit all the column data (except for the first 5 columns that belong to Footprint Expert). Then when you want to bring it back to FPX, CRTL + A to select All and CTRL + C to copy and open Notepad text editor and CTRL + V to paste then select File > Save As FileName.fpx
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