Calculator: Request: Have an option to open the conversion panel on the side

[Zitchas]

Problem Statement

• Doing a multiple conversions than using those in calculations requires switching back and forth between "calculator mode" and "conversion mode." This wastes a lot of time, especially when one needs to frequently do calculations using mixed units.

For instance, regularly working in feet+inches while needing to do calculations with metric formulae.

Evidence or User Insights
My personal use involves heavy use of the conversion panel, which usually eventually entails doing calculations with those numbers. Typically, converting imperial measurements into metric, then using those converted values in various formulas or comparing to standards.

Proposal
Have an option that opens the conversion panel on the side instead of in place of the calculator. The fact that the old windows calculator did this was one of the reasons I used it for so long.

Goals
User can perform conversions and keep them visible while doing other calculator tasks that may or may not involve those comparisons.

Low-Fidelity Concept
This calculator, and the conversion panel, have some strong improvements over the old calculator. Especially the fact that conversions can go both ways. I really appreciate that. However the fact that the conversion panel and the calculation panel are now mutually exclusive is a downgrade.

Requested Assignment
I'm just suggesting this idea. I don't have the ability to implement it.

[msftbot[bot]]

This pitch looks like it has everything it needs for review. In the meantime, we'll keep this idea open for discussion so the community has the chance to provide feedback. Check out our New Feedback Process for more info on the user-centered process we follow for new feature development.

[MicrosoftIssueBot]

This is your friendly Microsoft Issue Bot. I've seen this issue come in and have gone to tell a human about it.

[grochocki]

Thanks for the detailed pitch! We recognize the problem you are describing, though we are curious if the solution might be a combination of other existing approved pitches.

• #594 looks to drastically simplify the converter interface so you do not need to constantly switch between different converter.
• #589 looks to make it easier to find and select units.
• #277 brings back insert from history.
• #114 prevents history from being cleared when navigating between modes.

Taken as a whole, we feel like this might address your feedback. Thoughts?

[Zitchas]

Those look like good pitches. #114 would reduce the pain somewhat, and the combination of #594 and #589 would definitely speed up the switching task-flow. That being said, none of them will actually solve the underlying problem of needing to switch back and forth between different modes.

My current workflow is currently to have the calc open on the converter page, and use a spreadsheet to do everything that the regular calculator does. Takes up a lot more screen real-estate than the old windows calc does, and it is definitely overkill in terms of capabilities, but it works. Even with the above alternative pitches implemented, I don't foresee any of them speeding up the switching process enough to forgo using multiple programs to accomplish the task.

[grochocki]

Have you tried using multiple Calculator windows? Something like:

If that also doesn't work well for you, I would be interested in better understanding why to see if there is a creative solution here. Incorporating converters into another mode is not impossible, but it does increase the complexity, which is not ideal.

[Zitchas]

I have. It is a toss up between using multiple instances of Calc and using calc+spreadsheet. When I'm going from memory (in terms of the material I'm working on), this works quite nicely. When I have to include a step jumping to a reference document or three in the middle, I usually end up losing one of the two calc windows behind other documents. Hence my suggestion of having the conversions as a side panel, which means they stay attached.

An alternative that just occurred to me: If Calc could recognize other instances of itself and have the option of "locking" its borders to other instances of itself; and thus being brought back to the foreground together, that could solve this problem, with the bonus of allowing even more flexibility.

[mdtauk]

Resizing the window will already put the conversion side by side with the keypad, so if there was some kind of setting to "pop-out" a second instance of the converter - it would still work.

[grochocki]

Hmm, that reminds me of something else. In Standard/Scientific/Programmer modes, the keyboard is tightly coupled with the _one_ input field. This sidesteps some focus management issues that would arise if we had to handle multiple input fields. To work around this, we would need to enable free-from input via #620.

While converters today do have multiple input fields with the same style of keyboard input, we have received substantial feedback about the confusing interface. #594/#589 aim to improve the UX while independently enabling free-form input for converters.

We were able to work around this in graphing mode, but only because of the capabilities of the separate graphing engine we use for his mode and by taking an OS dependency to render math expressions in RichEditBox.

[Zitchas]

Just wondering if there's any other info missing? I note the "waiting for more info" tag, but I don't see anything that I can provide more input for. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of this.

As a side note, what does Pri:2 mean? I'm guessing priority 2 but I don't know what that means in terms of development.

[ghost]

@grochocki I think @Zitchas wants to have something like we had in the Windows 7 calculator, in which there was an option to open the unit converter on the side of standard or scientific calculator.

Sorry, I can't get the screenshot as I no longer use it.

[Zitchas]

Yes, exactly. While the Win 10 version does have some advantages, being able to have the conversion panel sit next to the rest of the calculator was really useful.

Here's a random image showing what I mean. (and what I'd like).