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CHAPTER 2
Container Views
Roll Views 2-27
Roll Views 2
In a roll view several discrete, fixed-size subviews are arranged one above
another like pictures on a filmstrip. A roll view invariably contains more
subviews than can be displayed in full detail at once. To see a subview that’s
not currently displayed, a user can scroll through the subviews. Alternatively,
a user can see an overview consisting of one-line subview titles.
In most applications, users don’t find roll views useful. Studies show that
users tend not to use scrolling to access different subviews, finding it easier
to pick from a list than to remember the relative position of subviews. Usually
it makes more sense to implement the subviews of a roll view as individual
slips, and list their titles in an overview. For example, the overviews of the
built-in Preferences and Formulas applications list the titles of individual
slips, and users cannot scroll from slip to slip.
For more information on scrolling and overview, see “Scrolling” on page 2-36
and “Overview” beginning on page 2-44.
Roll views bear some resemblance to the paper roll structure of the Notepad,
but there are several major distinctions. For one, users can create new notes
in the Notepad but cannot create new subviews in a roll view. Users can also
vary the length of notes in the Notepad, but a roll view’s subview sizes are
fixed. Moreover, a roll view’s summary cannot scroll and can display at most
16 one-line subview descriptions. There can be more than 16 subviews; to see
beyond the 16th subview, a user must scroll subview by subview, starting
with the 16th one.