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Req: show name of subfolio in display at top the 'folio list

Comments, critical feedback, praise, or suggestions for new features.

Postby rlaggren » Mon Feb 01, 2021 12:02 pm

FM_shot_subfold-display.png
FM_shot_subfold-display.png (18.23 KiB) Viewed 1569 times


This is how the 'folio display appears to me. The subfolio line displayed immediately under the "Symbol" column label has no name. Clicking on the folio icon there gets me into the Cash subfolio, as desired; IOW, it functions just fine.

But, if there are multiple subs, it would be helpful to see the subfolio name as part of the display.

Edit: I just maybe figure out how this came about: My 'folio list does not display the investment "Name", but only the "Symbol" . However, the subfolios sorted at the top are not normal line items and it would seem to make sense that they could be treated a bit differently from the field items in the list.

Since this is about (mostly) screen layout, here's one other point: I don't get any use from seeing the "curvy-arrow,FM" graphic to the left of every investment. Is that an icon with some kind of function or is it just decorative? If no function, then removing it would provide another couple characters of info in the 'folio list. I, personally, also find it slightly distracting - it's a very stand-out little graphic...


Thanks,
Rufus
rlaggren
 
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Postby Mark » Mon Feb 01, 2021 12:35 pm

Hi Rufus,

Normally, the first column is "Name", but you've changed it to "Symbol". Since sub-portfolios don't have symbols, this is blank for sub-portfolios. Every item in the list is treated the same. The sub-portfolio is not at the top because it is a sub-portfolio. It is at the top because it has an empty symbol, and you're sorting by symbol, so it sorts to the top.

You might prefer to put the "Name" column back, and if you want to see the symbol for your investments, use "Options / General Preferences... / Display / Investment Description:" and set it to "Symbol". This way, you'll see the sub-portfolio name, and symbols for your investments in this "Name" column.

The icons are placed to the left of every item in the list, and depict information about what that item is. There are currently 6 different icons, and you can learn their meaning in this documentation. There is currently no option to disable the showing of these icons.
Thanks,
Mark
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Postby rlaggren » Wed Feb 03, 2021 11:37 am

Mark

That all is clear, makes perfect sense what's going on. Thanks for your quick response. I guess I'm just a simple one celled investor at this point and FM only needs the one icon for my list items...

I stand by my request(s), though:

You mention using Names, ratherl than symbols in the list (and by extension, I assume other reports). Identifying by symbol seems far more efficient to me. When cross referencing with other sources, the symbol seems better to quickly and surely identify unique securities. Not perfect, but noticeably better than the name. Here's some reasons why:

- Names (or how they are displayed in different articles, reports, forms, lists, databases, etc), seem to vary somewhat. Names, for the same security, found in different documents don't seem to always start _exactly_ the same - so sorting becomes variable across different sources.

- For the same list, Names and their corresponding Symbols do not sort out the same. Thus if I'm looking at another reference sorted by symbol, it can become an easter egg hunt when referencing it back to the name in FM's list. I guess I could use the Name _and_ Symbol fields in the list display, but column width is a finite resource and, hiding right most columns off screen hurts usability noticeably. This matters particularly with laptops. I'm not talking about phones here - IMHO that form factor should _not_ be connected to securities work...

- Most important: Names, different names, seem at times to be similar or identical in the first 10-15 characters while still referencing different securities. Some funds and bonds have caused me problems trying to acertain, for sure but quickly, which security's info I'm actually looking at. Part of this problem relates directly to the size of the display field, but that doesn't offer any solution; most cases, I cannot grow the display field size sufficiently to make a usable difference. Scrolling the field is just a time consuming pain and, more importantly, if the displayed field is "live" and I put a cursor into it to get a scroll, I get the opportunity to mess up my data by entering a typo. Believe me, it's not hard to do this when doing a lot of screen work - and, worse, without knowing it. Symbols, even when it's five characters and differing only in the last one, seem much better to work with in this regard. Quicker, less error prone.


Onward. I'm darn happy about the coincidence that the subfolio sorted to the top because of a blank symbol! Forcing subs to the top seems like something that would be a seriously good idea and is the default in the several file managers I've worked with. It really, really helps clarifying the contents of the display. From what you say, the "list" uses the same display logic to handle all its input lines. But perhaps it would be possible to:

- add a(nother?) hidden marker field to all list lines and use that to force subs to the top (or bottom, optionally); the sort method would do this "automatically" once the added field was set up and defined as the first level sort field.

- optionally move part of the name field into the symbol of a subs list line. I would expect rather mixed results here, but if the option is available, users might find it easy to name their subfolios in a manner which would work here and it might turn out well.

-OR, way better (but this would require changing the list logic to use different line formats for different types of lines) displaying the name field automatically for all/any subs that appear in the list. Since a sub place holder does not need any of the regular column data, there's plenty of room.

- maybe (this doesn't matter to me personally) offer the option to hide the subs from the list entirely; they would appear only in the navigation panel to the left. Or maybe this can be achieved now with sub properties; sorry, I haven't looked at this. IAC, might not be a great idea, since, per above, all file managers default to showing directories at the top of file lists. People are familiar and used to this and probably look there habitually to find subs. However, an argument might be make that it's clearer/easier to work with a list which displays only one type of line item...

Maybe a better approach to this would be an additional subwindow, at top or bottom, which would contain all subs -just like the small window at the bottom which contains the totals. This would allow logically and visually separating different types of list items. For me, this type of formatting helps usage noticeably. Cat's Meoww.


Well, thank you for considering any of the above. I hope some of it may be interesting or helpful.

Regards,
Rufus
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