Better scroll method

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janus
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Better scroll method

Postby janus » 01 Apr 2010

Many times when i use the scroll bar at the bottom to move sideways, I lose track of where I am as it's too sensitive, especially with lots of data loaded. The arrows method that moves the chart sideways by one bar at a time is far too slow to be of any use in this cases. The page up/page down method is also not much use as it pages a complete screen full of data, and I want to keep what I was focusing on still on the screen. So, is there an undocumented method to either page back and forth a fraction of a page, or scroll with the arrows more than one bar at a time? Of course, the ideal way is what I love using on another system. It allows you to scroll the page using the mouse point. Just place the mouse pointer anyway on the background of the chart, keep the left button mouse down and move the mouse left, right, up or down and the whole image moves as directed instantly. It's the best way I found of scrolling on any chart based system. It's intuitive too, which is why it should be the main way of scrolling an image.

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Re: Better scroll method

Postby Tresor » 02 Apr 2010

Many times when i use the scroll bar at the bottom to move sideways, I lose track of where I am as it's too sensitive, especially with lots of data loaded.
My thoughts are exactly the same. It is too sensitive.
The arrows method that moves the chart sideways by one bar at a time is far too slow to be of any use in this cases.
100% agree.

I like the way MT4 handles scrolling. You just use the scroll wheel on your mouse or the scroll lock on your laptop and the chart is scrolled easily at good speed.

You can also use scroll wheel / scroll lock with MC to scroll your charts, but the speed of scrolling is far tooooooo slow. I would be extreemely happy if the scrolling speed in MC (using scroll lock) is increased.

janus
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Re: Better scroll method

Postby janus » 02 Apr 2010

I would be extreemely happy if the scrolling speed in MC (using scroll lock) is increased.
I too would be very happy with that. At the moment it's very tiring to use MC for scrolling through historical data. It's as if MC was really designed for real-time traders only.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 02 Apr 2010

In the thread below, I had submitted some ideas for improving the arrow scrolling (ways to quickly adjust the speed of that method of scrolling). I turned off the chart scroll bar since I like to get as much chart space as I can.

http://forum.tssupport.com/viewtopic.ph ... ight=arrow
Last edited by bowlesj3 on 02 Apr 2010, edited 4 times in total.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 02 Apr 2010

Of course, the ideal way is what I love using on another system. It allows you to scroll the page using the mouse point. Just place the mouse pointer anyway on the background of the chart, keep the left button mouse down and move the mouse left, right, up or down and the whole image moves as directed instantly. It's the best way I found of scrolling on any chart based system. It's intuitive too, which is why it should be the main way of scrolling an image.
Qcharts does this and if I remember correctly it does it exactly as you say. It is a great way to get around the charts.
Last edited by bowlesj3 on 02 Apr 2010, edited 4 times in total.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 02 Apr 2010

Another idea I had to add to the list to help get around the charts faster and easier. It is extracted from another post.
Here is how the feature would be used. The trader positions the cursor on a selected bar (in my case a bar on the “10-second-bar-chart”) and then they press the back quote key (or any user selected key which is free for use preferably on the left side of the keyboard for a right handed person) which causes the chart to jump to hide all bars after the bar where the cursor was located when you press this key.

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Postby janus » 05 Apr 2010

I started using yet another tool and it's a luxury to use compared to MC. To scroll a chart all ones needs to do is drag it using the mouse in any direction (up, down, left, right, etc.) It's smooth and fast. MC needs to incorporate this feature ASAP.

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Postby TJ » 05 Apr 2010

try this:
http://www.freestockcharts.com/

the scrolling method is VERY intuitive.

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Postby janus » 05 Apr 2010

try this:
http://www.freestockcharts.com/
the scrolling method is VERY intuitive.
Yes, I saw that too and I like it too. However, I and I bet many others will be satisfied if MC just added the drag feature I described. In fact why not have both? It would be as intuitive as one could get. At the moment MC is horrible to use for scrolling through historical data.

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Postby geizer » 05 Apr 2010

try this:
http://www.freestockcharts.com/

the scrolling method is VERY intuitive.
Thanks TJ, this is the best method I have seen.
I added it into the list of shortcuts: http://forum.tssupport.com/viewtopic.php?p=32030#32030
The whole thread also added (to ensure everyone's opinion count) when Janus started thread.
Last edited by geizer on 05 Apr 2010, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby janus » 05 Apr 2010

I added it into the list of shortcuts: http://forum.tssupport.com/viewtopic.php?p=32030#32030
I thought 6.0 was frozen and is now undergoing final testing, which means no new features allowed. If so, we need a separate list for new features in the next version (7.0?).

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Postby geizer » 05 Apr 2010

I thought 6.0 was frozen and is now undergoing final testing, which means no new features allowed. If so, we need a separate list for new features in the next version (7.0?).
We will just copy the list into the new thread so it becomes current again :). I keep updating it without much hope it will be implemented any time soon. If it grows large enough and the time is right, we might see some progress.

BTW Beta 3 can arrive any minute: http://forum.tssupport.com/viewtopic.ph ... ght=Beta+3

--

janus
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Postby janus » 05 Apr 2010

We will just copy the list into the new thread so it becomes current again :). I keep updating it without much hope it will be implemented any time soon. If it grows large enough and the time is right, we might see some progress.
I see. I'll wait until the new list started. I have over 17 recommendations for major improvements and several bugs that need to be addressed; and still accumulating :x

Better still I'll wait for 6.0 to be released and check if any of the bug and issues have been attended to before publishing my list.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 05 Apr 2010

My vote is for every trick in the book. The more TSS can make MC convenient the better.

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Postby janus » 05 Apr 2010

My vote is for every trick in the book. The more TSS can make MC convenient the better.
Total agree. The sooner the better too so MC can become more popular. I fear that the longer they skirt around the various bugs and inconveniences the riskier it will become for them to remain a viable competitor. I hope they do listen and act accordingly as I like MC overall despite many of it's failings. However, the competitors are not standing still and in time MC will be left behind in a big way. So, MC please listen to us very closely to what we say :wink:

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Postby geizer » 05 Apr 2010

I like the way you put it, Janus.
Way to go :D

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Postby wodru » 05 Apr 2010

You can move the chart with the mouse by holding the space bar down and
- left click in the chart and drag the mouse to move the chart horizontally
- left click in the Y-scale and drag the mouse to move the chart vertically

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Postby TJ » 05 Apr 2010

You can move the chart with the mouse by holding the space bar down and
- left click in the chart and drag the mouse to move the chart horizontally
- left click in the Y-scale and drag the mouse to move the chart vertically
sorry... I only have one hand.

:-(

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Postby Tresor » 05 Apr 2010

try this:
http://www.freestockcharts.com/

the scrolling method is VERY intuitive.
This is an excellent website. And one can create sub-workspaces there (the feature I requested a few days ago).

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Postby janus » 06 Apr 2010

You can move the chart with the mouse by holding the space bar down and
- left click in the chart and drag the mouse to move the chart horizontally
- left click in the Y-scale and drag the mouse to move the chart vertically
Thanks for that. It works fine. Still prefer the more intuitive approach but this will do fine for now. In time hopefully MC will incorporate one or the other or both methods described above. Besides, why bother with the space bar? Just click on the background and move; simple.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 06 Apr 2010

Just click on the background and move; simple.
Yep, this is the Qcharts method. If you are feeling a little crazy (frustraited) you can move the chart in circles and real fast too :D LOL the best time to do that is after a bad trade.



On the more serious side I think the (ctrl / alt / shift - key) ideas in the thread below which I also mentioned above, could also be used for changing the distance that page-up and page-down shift the chart (maybe reducing it rather than increasing it since one full screen should be the default for page-up and page-down and this is very fast right off the top). So maybe adding each of those 3 keys could reduce the speed to 1/2, then 1/3 then 1/4 chart.
http://forum.tssupport.com/viewtopic.ph ... ight=arrow

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Postby janus » 06 Apr 2010

Yep, this is the Qcharts method. If you are feeling a little crazy (frustraited) you can move the chart in circles and real fast too :D LOL the best time to do that is after a bad trade.
Yes, but I actually believe it's the natural way to move an image around. That's how most image editing software do it too. So, I truly think it's a must to be able to move the chart around with a simple click on the background, hold and drag of the mouse. Can't be any more intuitive than that. The CFD trading platform IGMarkets did this also, and I used it routinely when I traded CFDs all last year. It helped me a lot to move around very quickly to view recent history of the market that moved off the edge. I didn't have to take my eyes of the chart to find the scroll bar or fumble with special keys to do it. Click and drag - fast and efficient.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 06 Apr 2010

I 100% agree Janus. My joking about the circle motion was just a way of emphasizing that the feature would allow one to move it in a circle if desired. Joking around was the only reason I could think of at that moment.

A bit off topic but on this topic of clicking and holding the background, I wish there was a way of turning off the double click on that. I often want to highlight a chart or whatever and a simple click accidently becomes a double click and I get that popup that I never access from that method (I right click). In fact I would love to take that a step further and have a list of left mouse double click items that I can choose to shut off it I wish (all of them of course would have another way of getting at them such as a menu). My guess is I would shut off the ones that annoy me as I discover they annoy me. Having a central list would help me to remember where they are if I wanted to turn them back on. I had submitted a similar "central list" for popups that I can shut off from the popup but might want to turn back on and thus I could use the central list to remember where to turn them back on. So since there are now two of these central list ideas maybe TSS could put all these types of things in one options menu as a submenu (some day when its priority comes up). Double clicks you might want to turn back on. Popup reminders you might want to turn back on, etc.
Last edited by bowlesj3 on 08 Apr 2010, edited 3 times in total.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 06 Apr 2010

I have been thinking about this chart scrolling topic.
I think it is helpful to categorize it into two areas.
1/ repositioning something you can see already.
2/ moving it to find something and position something that is outside the current viewing area.

for #1 the click+hold+drag method that Janus wants (that Qcharts and other products use) is probably the best. I think the word fast/efficient is better than intuitive simply because it requires only one action to go in any direction (in other words, no other keys are required to switch direction from vertical to horizontal including anything between vertical/horizontal).

for #2 the arrow keys both (up/down and right/left) and page up/down keys need to be used as well as at times home and end keys. So for this area my main point is the trader probably already knows the speed they need to go to find what they want to find before they touch any of these keys. Therefore the alt and ctrl and shift keys should be used to adjust the speed. Also adding or removing these extra keys should instantly change the speed of the direction selection key. What I am saying is why should the trader wait for X amount of holding time of the key to get to the speed they want. That is a waste of time. I think the order that these extra speed up keys are added should not matter. In other words if the trader has already pressed left arrow to move the chart then shift or alt or ctrl should speed it up 2 times then adding one more of these keys should speed it up 3 times then adding the final key of these three keys should speed it up 4 times.

So (from my view point at least) we have a classification for keys.
1/ direction selection or action selection (arrows-left/right-up/down, page-U/D, home/end).
2/ speed selection or distance selection (no extra key, alt, ctrl, shift).
....So with these combos a total of 4 speeds (or distances) can be chosen.


Of note, cursor tracking is classification #1 where we use the view of another chart to change the position of our desired chart before refining the position.


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