Sprouted ~ Software that grows with you...

Adding another category to the blog: tips. Now and then I’ll post a tip on a feature that isn’t obvious. First up is quickly sizing the entry table so that it requires only as much space as you have available.

Journler’s user interface follows the well established iLife model. A list of folders lies to the left, while the contents of the folders are presented in a table at the top of the window. Selecting an item there displays it in the main viewing area below. Variations on this layout are at work in Mail, iTunes and iPhoto.

Each program handles that main table a little differently. In Mail the table always fits the available space, but in iTunes the table extends out as far as is needed. A horizontal scroller lets you move back and forth, bringing the hidden table columns into view.

Journler follows the iTunes model. As you resize the main window the entry table keeps its width. Columns that don’t fit fall off the side but may be easily reached with the scrollbar.

Sometimes though you just want to see all of your columns. You could manually resize each one so that the table fits inside the window perfectly, or you could use the “size to fit” button built right in.

At the top right of the window, just under the favorites bar and occupying the small space where the scrollbar and column headers meet is a button. It doesn’t look like a button — it isn’t supposed to — but it is.

Whenever you want to fit the table’s columns so that they are all visible in the available space, click that guy once. The columns are extended or shrunk so that they perfectly fit inside the window. Goodbye scrollbar, hello date due and entry number.

That’s it for the first web tip. There are a ton of hidden features like this in Journler, and I’ll see about hitting them up as I find the time. In the meantime, keep on writing!