Showing the workbook columns for Layout fields displays columns for the (x,y) location of the vertices, as well as a field called Locked (Yes/No).
When I drag a node, the (x,y) position of that node updates properly. However, if I have a layout method (e.g. Fruchterman-Reinhold) selected and then click "Layout Again", and assuming Locked=Yes, then the (x,y) positions are not changed. However, if I manually drag the position of the node, the (x,y) fields ARE changed even though Locked=Yes. This seems counter-intuitive.
To me, "locked" means that the (x,y) fields will not be allowed to change at all. I can understand that there may be reasons to "ignore" the optional (x,y) fields, e.g. if we want to visually manipulate the look of the graph temporarily. However, in that case neither clicking "Layout Again" nor dragging node positions should change the (x,y) values.
Some insight: What I find very useful to do is to plot several versions of the same graph with different node colors / values (for comparison purposes). This means the layout must be the same across these two graphs, even though the node data will change.
One thing that would be very useful is to have a button on the "Document Actions" window (where the graph is drawn) called "Save Layout" that outputs the current layout to the (x,y) fields on the spreadsheet. This is useful because I only want to save the layout at certain points in time, so most of the time I want all points to be locked, but sometimes I want to unlock all points and save the current layout.
There seems to be some quirkyness with the (x,y) points saving to/from the sheet, i.e., as if the layout is stored internally and the spreadsheet only updates some of the time. That is confusing, and the first time I started using the (x,y) fields it took awhile before they started to be populated (i.e., I'd display the graph and all the (x,y) points would be blank, and I'd want to save them). After playing with things I noticed that suddenly the (x,y) fields got populated, but I'm not sure why.
Thanks - I hope this feedback proves useful.
Comments: ** Comment from web user: StevenCShearer **
When I drag a node, the (x,y) position of that node updates properly. However, if I have a layout method (e.g. Fruchterman-Reinhold) selected and then click "Layout Again", and assuming Locked=Yes, then the (x,y) positions are not changed. However, if I manually drag the position of the node, the (x,y) fields ARE changed even though Locked=Yes. This seems counter-intuitive.
To me, "locked" means that the (x,y) fields will not be allowed to change at all. I can understand that there may be reasons to "ignore" the optional (x,y) fields, e.g. if we want to visually manipulate the look of the graph temporarily. However, in that case neither clicking "Layout Again" nor dragging node positions should change the (x,y) values.
Some insight: What I find very useful to do is to plot several versions of the same graph with different node colors / values (for comparison purposes). This means the layout must be the same across these two graphs, even though the node data will change.
One thing that would be very useful is to have a button on the "Document Actions" window (where the graph is drawn) called "Save Layout" that outputs the current layout to the (x,y) fields on the spreadsheet. This is useful because I only want to save the layout at certain points in time, so most of the time I want all points to be locked, but sometimes I want to unlock all points and save the current layout.
There seems to be some quirkyness with the (x,y) points saving to/from the sheet, i.e., as if the layout is stored internally and the spreadsheet only updates some of the time. That is confusing, and the first time I started using the (x,y) fields it took awhile before they started to be populated (i.e., I'd display the graph and all the (x,y) points would be blank, and I'd want to save them). After playing with things I noticed that suddenly the (x,y) fields got populated, but I'm not sure why.
Thanks - I hope this feedback proves useful.
Comments: ** Comment from web user: StevenCShearer **
Tony, regarding the manual steps to set layout to 'None', I have a different (ie. novice) viewpoint.
Assuming:
a) ANY graph (regardless of how it was generated) results in X,Y co-ordinates being saved in the spreadsheet, and
b) manually dragging a node anywhere causes the new X,Y co-ordinates to be saved in the spreadsheet
then:
When I open the spreadsheet again, I expect to see the graph as I saved it. REGARDLESS of the layout setting. There should be no need for the user to mentally keep tabs on what state setting 'x' is in order to accomplish a task.
Thanks,
Steven.