@dan There is a bug in Elements where if you drag a component into the NODE BROWSER the component will be selected in the editor, but it will not be selected in the node browser. More importantly it will also not be selected in the settings inspector, no settings will be visible.
Additionally, this causes another problem, as when you drop the component, if there had previously been a component selected. Then that components settings will be displayed in the settings inspector, even though that previous component is no longer shown as selected in the editor. This has caused me all kinds of problems when I’m head down and powering along thinking I’m editing the settings for the component shown as selected when I’m not, yikes!
This can be really disconcerting as sometimes you don’t notice this.
There is a general problem with selections across these three panes where a selection does not scroll into view in the associated panes. This means you can sometimes be editing settings and not even see what it is you are editing in either the node browser or the editor. This can be dangerous as sometimes you are editing something you did not intend to edit.
For my workflow this is one of the single most critical problems in Elements. The selection really needs to be well synchronized across all of these panes. But more importantly, the selection should always be scrolled into view in the editor and the node browser. I find myself constantly having to scroll either the node browser or the editor in order to find the current selection. Not very productive.
I’d like to see these problems fixed as it would have a big impact on productivity.
Okay, having read through this carefully, I think there’s just two main things that need to be fixed:
When dragging a Component into the Node Browser, it needs to be selected correctly (in the Node Browser, Editor, and Inspector).
Ensure the Node Browser and the Editor stay in sync, so when you select a component in one of the views, the other scrolls to show its position (we possibly want an option to turn this off/on as it may not be to everyone’s taste).
A component should be “active” when dropped into the node browser and the selection should be reflected in the editor.
The selection synchronization is critical I think and as you mentioned it should work both ways from either the node browser or the editor. Having a switch for this option might be useful but I cannot see a situation where I would ever use it.
There is another surreptitious reason I think the scroll into view option is useful. Because we have the all powerful node browser, if I’m working on a page that is long and I need to go to the top (bottom or middle), I can just select a node at the top of the node browser and the editor will scroll to the top. Less mouse or trackpad scrolling.
There is something else related to all this that needs to be addressed as well. Often it is the case where if you go into the inline text editor you will get “stuck” there. Nothing you click on will switch you out of the inline editor. The only way to rectify it is to open a different page and then return to the one you were working on. My hope is with the selection sync this will fix the problem.
