The community Taskforce initiative has now come to a close.
Thanks to everyone who made thoughtful and genuine contributions to the website.
All submissions will be kept publically available for the forseeable future for reference purposes.

This website is part of the community Taskforce initiative

Submission details

13 +16/-3 votes

Suggestion for Flip

Submitted by n49o7 on January 27, 2010 to Usability

Flip is always a little bit confusing to use. You generally find what you're looking for but things could be clearer.

I suggest this layout for Flip. The trick is to sort the windows by program name, like they are in the taskbar. In the screenshot, each program has a column. The result is kind of exposé-like when there are many windows open, only much more readable.
(As always, a third-party application could do this.)

Low

Low

Not fixed

Discussion (11 comments)

n49o7 wrote on January 27, 2010, 3:14pm

Added new image attachment.

RedSign wrote on January 27, 2010, 5:13pm

It's just called Flip. There is Flip3D and Flip. Oh, and + 1 for the idea.

Indrek wrote on January 27, 2010, 5:44pm

And what happens if a program has more sub-windows or tabs than can fit on the screen vertically? Or if you have more applications open than can fit on the screen horisontally (normally it'd just wrap over to the next line)?

n49o7 wrote on January 27, 2010, 6:50pm

@Indrek: then earth breaks in half

Indrek wrote on January 27, 2010, 7:08pm

In that case -1, since I don't want the Earth to be split in half.

n49o7 wrote on January 27, 2010, 7:22pm

@Indrek: fair enough

Indrek wrote on January 28, 2010, 1:10am

Seriously though, what would happen in the scenarios I described? Because I can't imagine I'm the only one who occasionally has more than 10 or so windows open.

n49o7 wrote on January 28, 2010, 1:05pm

Maybe apps with a single window open could be grouped in a column, or (better) in a separate row. Or maybe the thumbnail matrix could extend beyond the screen limits (not very convenient, though).

Comment edited on January 28, 2010, 1:07pm

broccauley wrote on January 28, 2010, 4:43pm

nice idea, but I'm not sure it will work. as alt-tab is usually the most useful when you want to quickly switch to the last used window, therefore the windows are ordered wrt the last used. Perhaps it would work if there were a button to allow you to select how the windows are sorted (just like a folder in windows explorer).

Another similar idea here:
http://www.windows7taskforce.com/view/3420

n49o7 wrote on January 28, 2010, 5:15pm

There is no reason for my suggestion to interfere with the normal alt-tab usage. In fact, a dedicated button could make it more convenient to use, as it was already suggested for the current Flip.

n49o7 wrote on January 28, 2010, 5:16pm

Changed title from [Suggestion for Flip2D] to [Suggestion for Flip].
Changed problem description.
Changed solution description.

xombie wrote on January 29, 2010, 1:44am

+1.

And you must tell me how you got Never Combine + Hide labels. Please.

You might also be interested in...