Asher - In Studio, go to Window > Preferences and select Call Studio /
General - and deselect the first check box: Expand elements in Elements
View. Then restart Studio.

Regarding:

>>>>>>>>> Window > Preferences - Call Studio / uncheck Expand elements in Elements View

I always uncheck this. When you build big applications (I have made some with over 200 pages), the element expansion in the outline pane is the most annoying thing you can imagine. (I never really grasped how someone would use the element view anyway.) The outline pane then becomes really useful in an application with a large number of pages for navigating to pages.

What this does bring to mind is a naming convention for pages, because the list in the outline pane sorted alphabetically – and if this matches the layout of the pages across the bottom, it becomes REALLY useful for navigation.

My convention is to name pages like 001_Entry, 002_Initalize, 003_Welcome, . .999_Exit – you get the idea. I leave large holes in the numbering because I know I will come back later and sometimes insert pages – so it’s good to have big gaps (based on functionality) and keep all the numbers in order. I also name the page entry element EXACTLY the same as the page (except for 001_Entry where Cisco called it “Start”), which makes Page Connectors easy to align.

With this convention, the layout in the outline pane matches the tabs across the bottom. Yes, sometimes I get caught out and have to do a bit of renaming, but it’s totally worth it. The page “numbers” get applied in lots of ways to the elements on the page – all designed to make those long and convoluted activity logs useful when debugging complex call flows.

Regards,
Geoff

Curious… you said you don’t see how someone would use the element view. How do you add elements to your callflow?

Also, wow, I thought my applications were getting big at 20 pages, but 200 is just insane. Many props to you for figuring out how to keep that manageable!

>>>>Do you follow the same rule I do of not letting pages need scrollbars unless absolutely necessary?

I do. And I try to keep the functionality appropriate. So sometimes the pages are quite small – like 020_AcctNum – to get the account number from a caller. I try to think about reentry points. But sometimes (processing database results) ends up with quite a complex page.

I use Classic view for elements, not Studio5 view (I just hate those huge adorned boxes that all look the same) so I can pack the elements a lot tighter together if needed.

So yes – no scroll bars. I want to run Documenter at the end and get all the screen shots into the .rtf file – convert to Word and edit so each diagram starts on a new page. I sound quite anal about all this – probably true. ;-)

>>>>Curious… you said you don’t see how someone would use the element view. How do you add elements to your callflow?

Sorry, we are not talking about the element pane on the left hand side under the project pane. We are talking about the outline pane on the right hand side.

Regards,
Geoff