Is there someway to see what windows are open? And better window management?

[steveculshaw]

Is there someway to see what windows are open?

Just starting with FGU, and trying out creating my first encounter.
I have the NPC, encounter, map and other windows open.

But I can't find any way to cycle between them, so I'm stuck with constantly shuffling/resizing them so I can switch between them :-(

Is there a better way to manage this process ?

[Zacchaeus]

You can minimize any window by right clicking on it and selecting minimize. But otherwise no there's no better method of organising your windows other than don't open too many and reposition them when they open so they don't cover others. A lot will depend on your screen size and how many monitors you can stretch FG over.

[steveculshaw]

Many thanks for the prompt response.

I've found only some windows seem to have the right click "Minimise" option ... "Images & Maps" does, but the "Combat Tracker" doesn't
I double checked by right clicking in various locations as the right click menu choices does seem to vary depending upon mouse pointer location

[Zacchaeus]

Yes, you can't minimize things like the Combat Tracker, Party sheet etc (anything accessible from the small icons on the top of the button sidebar basically).

Mostly the windows you can minimize are 'things', like images stories, NPCs, parcels etc although you can also minimize list windows such as Story list, NPC list etc.

Another thing you can do is to put the map (or any other image) to the background using the up arrow at the top right. You can also drag things using the link icon (again top right) and drop it on a quickbar slot t the bottom of the UI so that you can pop it back up as needed by clicking on the slot (or pressing the F key). Note there are 96 slots since you can use CTRL, ALT and SHIFT on their own or in combinations to get more slots. You can also rename those slots by right clicking on them and selecting rename.

[steveculshaw]

Again many thanks for the guidance

[damned]

My advice is to close everything as soon as you have read/used it
Its quick enough to find in the source or from a hotbar link
Dont leave 20 windows open on your screen. Dont even leave 8 windows open.
Chat/Map/CT/Story - done.

[wndrngdru]

I have also made a habit of moving the same window type to the same spot on the screen, i.e., all character sheets go at this location, story entries go here, NPC sheets go here, map goes here, etc. Then I do as damned said above and close it as soon as I'm done with it. The next time I need that same resource it opens at the same place I left it last.

[steveculshaw]

All good suggestions ... many thanks all

[c4pappy]

My solution is to use the hotkeys at the bottom for the windows that I need most, combat tracker, party sheet, etc. That way I can hit the shortcut function key to quickly bring the window I need to the forefront. Unity feels very quick to load windows so closing them when not in use and reopening as needed doesn't slow the game.

It would be handy to have an "alt-tab" feature to cycle between windows for those of us who use this feature often. However, I suspect that a "ctrl-tab" cycle between open windows could cause a bunch of issues with other ctrl linked functions.

Hotkeys work fantastic.

[damned]

Tabbing between windows doesnt/cant work (I believe) because what we are calling Windows are not actually windows like they are in your operating system.

[c4pappy]

Right. They are more like tabs nested within one window. Ctrl-tab works within browsers for example to switch between tabs. I don't think open "windows" in FGU are akin to tabs though. Admittedly, I haven't tried the ctrl-tab trick.

[Weissrolf]

There are several extensions that can help here:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?48656-CoreRPG-SingleWindow

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?51659-FGTabber-More-space-for-your-FG-client

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?58226-Better-Menus-(CoreRPG-5E-etc)

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?43706-Window-Saver-X-Extension

Not free:

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/335471/Zuilins-Window-Tabber-for-FGU

[steveculshaw]

Tabbing between windows doesn't/cant work (I believe) because what we are calling Windows are not actually windows like they are in your operating system.

Interesting ! ... I wonder what they are ?

... I'm a software developer, but it's middleware/backend, so my UI is the C# Console.WriteLine level :-)

[Weissrolf]

The last extension link I posted is called "Zuilin's Window Tabber for FGU". It offers tabbing via buttons and F-keys.


Note: Currenty does not tab to a few of the system windows, like the Options window, Chat window, Library windows, and color picker window. Works with all other system windows and data windows.

[steveculshaw]

The last extension link I posted is called "Zuilin's Window Tabber for FGU". It offers tabbing via buttons and F-keys.

Excellent set of resources ... many thanks

[LordEntrails]

Interesting ! ... I wonder what they are ?

... I'm a software developer, but it's middleware/backend, so my UI is the C# Console.WriteLine level :-)
In FG, a "Window" is simple a graphic element. More like a group of elements to be drawn or moved or opened or closed together. The O/S does not recognize them as "Windows", hence why o/s features like alt-tab do not work with them and you need to use an extension like FG Tabber.

[Weissrolf]

I especially recomment FGTabber, not only does it allow multiple virtual screens inside FGU, but it also saves all windows positions per tab and opens them automatically the way they were saved before.