I have had this hate-hate relationship with the Add-A-Block block taking up valuable left side space. In a recent thread, I was informed that it is theme dependent.
In what theme might this problem go away?
I'm lost... if you have editing on then you get that option. If you don't you don't. There's still loads of other stuff in that left hand column. What do you mean "all that space"? It's about 30 pixels high...
I'm obviously missing something - what do you mean "if I dock everything"?
You need to tell us what theme you are using and possibly supply some screen shots. This may be a broken/incompatible optional theme.
PS. Docking in themes is one of those things that passed me by. Despite several attempts by users trying to explain why it was a good thing I could never see the point and it just made theme development a real pain. I have never added it in any themes I developed.
Howard, I agree with you. When I used to use the More theme, I could "dock" blocks. However, I never did this. Don't know why, it just never seemed useful to me. But I did notice that some students used this feature. Oh well, I don't miss it.
However, what I do miss is the ability to "collapse" a block in Boost. Some of my blocks have a lot of information (like 30 students deep who are online.) I wish this feature was in boost. (Vote for MDL-57305.)
Well Steve, this is why I am using Boost. In my MoodleMoot presentation this year, I made that comment that "Boost seems to be the future direction."
Howard, yes, Clean and More had the ability to collapse blocks, but Boost does not. Somewhere along the way Martin implied that Boost never will have the ability to collapse blocks, but I am hoping that users and developers eventually see the advantage of this. No, I am not asking that blocks be "dockable," I just want a plus/minus added to collapse them.
One fix for what I see as a problem would be to have the left column set to a fixed width instead of a percentage of the entire window.
When I try to get more work space onto my screen, right now it is pull the right margin wider, find the s\horizontal scroll bar and shift left, repeat until I have what I need on the screen. This has to be sone every time I get back to this screen.
The left column continues to grow because it is coded as a percentage and therefore more and more wasted space takes up real state as I expand the the screen.
If it was fixed, Then I could simply move the column off the left side of the screen and expand the window once.
I am beginning to believe that I may be the only one that sees this problem.
Steve, I am not sure what you are seeing.
In my Moodle with Boost, the NavDrawer seems to remain a fixed width. When I resize my browser window, the NavDrawer remains the same width. I tried this in both Safari and Firefox, and the NavDrawer doesn't not change its size dynamically. Because Boost is "responsive", my right margin blocks move down when the browser window gets narrower, as expected.
Maybe we are not talking the same thing. I am using Boost. In your comments above, what theme are you using? Also, since I am using Boost, I refer to the "left column" as the "NavDrawer," not blocks.
As I have watched discussions about themes over the last five years, I have concluded that there is no perfect theme. In my case, where my main role is being a professor and not a theme developer, I tend to poke away a making minor changes to themes as I learn how to make theme changes. For me, I have concluded that it is best to stick with core themes (right now Clean, More, or Boost), get a sense of where moodle is heading in the future (Boost), and then do my best to use the utilities within a theme, including CSS, to improve the appearance of my Moodle. With CSS, one can do a lot. I avoid making any "code" changes. Custom CSS entered into the themes "custom CSS dialog textbox" will persist, meaning that when you upgrade your moodle you custom CSS stays put (unlike code changes.)
So my simple advice is to adopt Boost, then start modifying it via settings.
Some folks love the NavDrawer in Boost, and some hate it. I have come to like it, a lot. I like Gareth's Collapsed Topics the most, and I wish it would become part of core moodle. I enter 2018 with my moodle looking real good. All that I need to do is to upgrade my server to php 7 so that I can move to moodle 3.4 (I am working on this.)
(Incidentally, I have used Blackboard, Desire2Learn, and Canvas, and none of these product's "themes" come close to matching Moodle. My students' will sometimes begin the semester saying "Hmmm, this moodle is different" and then never say anything more. In fact, they love that they can use my moodle from their smartphone's browser.)
"What do you mean "all that space"? It's about 30 pixels high..."
30 pixels high is only the measurement of the add-a-block block image. The problem is that it still takes up all the space below it.
"what do you mean "if I dock everything"?"
Maybe it is a problem with terminology. I see docking as being able to send all the elements in the list to the left border.
"You
need to tell us what theme you are using and possibly supply some
screen shots. This may be a broken/incompatible optional theme."
I have More and Clean available to me on my system and both have the same problem.
"Despite several attempts by users trying to explain why it was a good thing I could never see the point"
In my experience, all objects in the left column can be pushed either into the left border or into the right column except the "Add-A-Block" block. When no objects exist in the right column it disappears and the center column expands to fill that area. This allows for more work space.
The inability to dock the offending block to the border or to the right side forces the left column to exist all the time in edit mode which ties up that width for the entire length of the page. It is not just a matter of turning off the edit mode because there are times, in edit mode, when it causes the problem.
If this is still a theme issue, is there a theme that deals with the problem?
Can I choose to rid the screen of the left side column when I need the editing space? I seem to recall, when I had access, that the admin side had this privilege.
The left column is also programmed in the software to be a percentage width that grows when I expand the width of the window. It would go a long way in easing the problem if the left column was either a fixed width or controlled with a limited expansion.Steve, a new feature in Boost is the left NavDrawer. You collapse it by clicking on the "hamburger" (see graphic.) When one does this, the NavDrawer is "closed," even if you are in edit mode. By closing it, you get more screen real estate, even on a smartphone.
Are you really disturbed by having the ability to add a new block while in edit mode? To me, this seems rather mild, and it is also an appropriate block to show while in edit mode because in edit mode one might want to add a new block. Having said that, once I have my course configured I seldom have the need to add a block. But seeing it at the bottom doesn't bother me at all.
"Are you really disturbed by having the ability to add a new block while in edit mode? "
It isn't a matter of not liking something that can be done rather it is this obscene loss of work space in not being able to get rid of the left column.
I wonder if the reason we are not connecting here is in the themes. I have access to wither More or Clean and that in itself may be the problem.
As I mentioned, I will look into Boost.
Yes, if we are referring to the same thing.
In boost, the left hand column is sometimes referred to as the "NavDrawer." It can be collapsed (or maybe I should say, closed to the left) with the little "hamburger" on top. But the right side blocks cannot be collapsed as they could in Clean and More.
Okay Steve, we might be connecting.
To summarize, I am attaching a screen shot showing how my course looks in my moodle, with the elements that we have been discussing, the Boost theme, the NavDrawer, the right-side blocks, and Collapsed Topics add-in.
The left column, i.e., navDrawer, can be tucked away by clicking on the hamburger. The right blocks are defined by you, but they do not provide any ability to "collapsed." In the center, i.e., topics, I use Collapsed Topics to provide the ability for topics to be collapsed.
This is the standard Boost theme that I modified (colorized plus a bit more) using CSS. It is Moodle 3.3.3+.
