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Open Feature request MC-413

ctrl key causes cross hair to stay visible when moving arrows & forces arrow to lock center at cross hair.
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6
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Description

I would like an option that comes into effect when moving arrows if you include the ctrl key when you left click on the arrow to move it. This would be very helpful and I am sure users would love it once they discovered what adding the ctrl key did. The user would move the arrow exactly the way they did now except the ctrl key would be pressed after the arrow is grabbed for moving (it must be after since ctrl pressed before changes the mouse pointer in preparation for moving the chart left or right - either that or a different key would be used). The cross hair would stay visible (or become visible if they user normally did not have it on). Also after the arrow was highlighted (if the CTRL key is subsequently pressed) the arrow would snap so the center of the arrow is perfectly centered with the cross hair. This would allow the user to every single time (and perfectly on the first try) allign the cross hair over the price bar and release the left mouse button so the arrow was directly over or under the bar they want. This becomes extra valuable if the arrow is in the price chart and the user wants to line it up with something in a different sub chart. Note that it is very important that if the ctrl key is NOT pressed that the current behavior remainds the same. The reason is the user may want to simply highlight the arrow so the MC_Arw_GetActive command can detect the arrow in its current position. If you were to make it an option so it was always snapping to the cross hair this would cause these arrows that were being simply highlighted to snap out of their proper position.

It may also be useful for moving vertical lines too (or maybe even forcing them to perfectly vertical as well as snapping them to the cross hair).

Steps to reproduce this issue

N/A

Comments (11)
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#0
user-offline.png John Bowles (bowlesj3)
Jun 19, 2011 - 10:44

I found I can not update the priroity. For me it actully should be high priority since I can use all the speed I can get during the trading day. It is especially important because I want to be able to use the cross hair to get a very accurate arrow drop when I move the arrow (perfect first time by lining the cross hair over the bar I want).

#0
user-offline.png John Bowles (bowlesj3)
Jul 01, 2011 - 17:58

It just occured to me that I could have a line that is normally hidden come up and move to where the arrow is placed after I remove the highight from it. It would be drawn right through the price bar. It would stay there until I highight it then it would vanish (or else it would stay a few seconds). This is a lot of work but it would help for sure. It would save me having to go back and do a zoom which I often do. However if I am moving all 6 arrows quickly it would not help much.

#0
user-offline.png John Bowles (bowlesj3)
Jul 01, 2011 - 18:11

I was thinking that if it is easier to program, when an existing arrow is moved, if the arrow was not centered on the cross hair during the move but rather the user positioned the cross hair over the bar where they want the arrow then upon release the arrow is forced to be exactly at the bar where the cross hair was located at the button release time then this would be just fine (pretty sure it should be okay). However I can not see the cross hair at this time so I am assuming only.

#0
user-offline.png John Bowles (bowlesj3)
Jul 01, 2011 - 18:29

It just occured to me if I grab the arrows that point down near the top of the text part (and now that the arrow is going to be properly centered) I can see the tip of the arrow such that I can get a pretty good lineup. However if I had the option to make that hand smaller it would make it a little faster. Maybe this is a simpler way to solve the problem.

#0
user-offline.png John Bowles (bowlesj3)
Jul 01, 2011 - 19:34

The bottom line is the original idea is the best idea (to simply have the cross hair stay visible when the arrow is grabbed and have the arrow snap perfectly in line with the cross hair). Here is the most important reason for this. It might be that the user wants to line the arrow up with something in the other subcharts (such as an RSI top or bottom swing or whatever) yet the arrow is in the price chart. If they do this often they are likely going to think this option is a great option.

#0
user-offline.png John Bowles (bowlesj3)
Jul 02, 2011 - 10:55

I found a flaw in my original request and have updated the subject line and description with the revision which uses the CTRL key.

#0
user-offline.png John Bowles (bowlesj3)
Jul 05, 2011 - 21:48

I guess I should adjust the main body of the description above. But this is a quick update for now.

I just realized that the press of the control key has to occur after the arrow or line is highlighted because if the control key is pressed first the program prepares for the user to left click on the chart area to slide the chart left or right. This is good however. I think it is better that the control key has to be pressed after the arrow is highlighted and grabbed and even after the user starts to move the arrow a bit.

#0
user-offline.png John Bowles (bowlesj3)
Sep 03, 2012 - 21:10

I think it is good that MC 8.0 has the cross hair on when moving arrows now. However it would be 2 times as good if the arrow could snap to the center of the cross hair as I suggested originally (maybe with the control key added in to make it do that).

#0
user-offline.png John Bowles (bowlesj3)
Oct 24, 2012 - 20:39

See this link for a potential improved idea for speeding up the process of getting arrows centered over a specific bar thus reducing the need to have the arrow centered over the cross hair using the control key.
http://www.multicharts.com/pm/viewissue.php?issue_no=MC-1141

#0
user-offline.png John Bowles (bowlesj3)
Mar 08, 2013 - 16:15

I have been doing a lot of indicator/study autoation recently and I have somewhat rendered this request obselete for myself at least. Here is what I have done. Some of the users of MC may get ideas from this.
. .
I use to drop arrows on the RSI subchart #2. Each arrow drop would be found by the script and the script would put the RSI value in the text box for the arrow. I could highlight these arrows and send that value out to a GV. Now the study scans the RSI and puts the arrows out there for me perfectly and cleans them off when required too. All that time spent trying to get them exactly positioned at the top/bottom of the swing is now completely removed by full automation here. If I wish, I can still highlight the arrow to obtain the value in the text box and have it sent out to the GV.
. .
I still move 6 arrows (which are created by a study) to the price swing highs and lows. This saves me the extremely difficult task of writing swing code that never really works to cover all the complex wave situations that occur (a bottomless pit of prgoramming). Here again it was a problem at times trying to get them centered exactly to the bar I wanted. I just changed the study so it searches ahead 5 bars to see if there are any Highs higher or Lows lower and if there are the arrow is placed perfectly automatically by the script to the price swing top/bottom. This saves me a lot of time since all I have to do now is move the arrow to within 5 bars of the high/low and presto it moves into place.

#0
user-offline.png John Bowles (bowlesj3)
Mar 08, 2013 - 20:55

I want to add to the comment below. I would still use the feature of centering the arrow on the cross hair. My useage would simply drop from maybe 500 uses per day down to 4 or 5 uses. Also I noticed the votes are at 6. That is higher than I expected. It seems to have jumped since the cross hair was included when moving a drawing object.

History
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Issue basics
  • Type of issue
    Feature request
  • Category
    Usability
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  • Status
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