Not sure if I’m the only user who experiences the occasional grief of having Tiles wind up “in the wrong place” while trying to place new Tiles.
As an extreme example, I just “discovered” that it’s even possible for one tile to overlap another, under certain circumstances (explained below):
Let me illustrate what happened leading up to that situation in Edit mode.
START WITH…
consisting of (3) 2x1 Device tiles in left column, same on right, with a 4x3 Image tile at center, followed by an 8x1 Device tile at bottom.
COPY A TILE…
Specifically, the 8x1 tile from the bottom, and paste it, but don’t SAVE yet.
The new copy appears further down.
DRAG THE TILE…
All the way to the top, while other tiles jump out of your way.
OBSERVE THE FIRST PROBLEM…
See how the original layout is now completely borked? On the one hand, this is “expected behavior,” with each affected tile ducking for cover in the nearest available spot. But this “every man for himself” scramble illustrates the unpredictability of this “auto-rearrange” process. Namely, the image tile flew to the bottom (because it’s large), and the topmost 2x1’s leapt into the void it left behind.
CHANGE YOUR MIND…
Or at least try to put things back the way they were by clicking UNDO. Watch what happens:
Observe how the top row is now empty, while the image tile somehow decides to remain in the wrong place. Yes, the moved 8x1 tile dropped back to where it started, but is now sitting “atop” the image tile (that’s the snippet I shared a screenshot of, above). I didn’t even know this was POSSIBLE?!
KEEP UNDOING:
On the assumption that the “jumbling action” comprised a number of unseen “steps”, I keep clicking UNDO until I’m back where I started. After a total of four clicks, success…
ALTERNATIVE ‘SAFE’ APPROACH:
In order to achieve my goal of placing that new 8x1 tile at the top, I must instead move all of the existing dash elements downward 1 grid space, carefully(!) working from bottom to top. Let’s count the required moves: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Ten click-and-drag operations, each involving at least 3 mouse clicks, so that’s 30 discrete moves (plus Save) before the new tile can live at the top.
CASE FOR MULTI-SELECT?
Am I indirectly arguing that HV needs a “lasso” or “multi-select” feature whereby groupings of existing elements can be selected/moved as a unit? Or a “grouping” feature where adjacent/related elements can be “stuck together” forever and moved in unison?
Something to discuss. Because as ultraTiles and other complex designs emerge, I can’t be the only one dealing with “the scramble”. Can I?