Hey,
I have been using Axure for more than ten years and I have always come back to it because it offers features that other tools lack – plus, I have learned to work around its quirks and hidden depths.
Last year, I have used Axure 9 for a bit and I just started to do so again. Unfortunately, (back then, and still today) Axure 9 feels buggy, less polished and lacking in many places.
Find below a short list of things I have noticed by using it to build three small prototypes in the last couple of days .
(I took screen grabs of a few of the issues mentioned below. I could provide them as well, if you want.)
Canvas – User selection does not show its position nor size
When selecting elements you cannot see the size nor the position of the selection (try CMD+A to select all). I am pretty sure that you were able to see it in Axure 8. But it is shown for elements with in a dynamic panel state when you open it, but not when you select all the elements. This means I cannot enter position for the whole selection.
Outline – Not being able to multi-select elements in different groups
It is really annoying that I cannot select elements across groups. Groups are there for a reason, I don’t want to break them, just to be able to select elements.
Outline – Why does the Pages tab still exist?
I don’t get why there still is a Pages tab. I’d just include all pages (and folders) on the Outline tab (not only the active one) and get rid of the Pages tab. It already feels deserted with the outline tab there on top. There are already too many tabs you need to switch frequently when working with Axure.
Interactions – Why are there “more options” hiding key options?
“Show hidden” and “Push/Pull” are important settings for the panels actions. Why are they hidden? They occupy like 60pixels of space. And after you set them you can see them in the summary but they are still not visible when re-opening the action editor. So you have to click on “more” to see them. Just show them always, please.
Interactions – Push/Pull should automatically set "Fit to content"
Since push/pull only works with the “fit to content” option set, why do I need to remember to set it?
Axure should do this for me.
Interactions – Enable Case requires an additional click on "add logic"
After I chose to add a condition to an event, why do I need to click the “Add Logic” button? Just add an empty row initially.
Interactions – Error message for incomplete interactions are not always shown
Sometimes I click left the the interaction editor in the tab by clicking on the canvas while the action was still incomplete. But this resulted in no error indication This happened several times.
Interactions – Be able to see a summary of all incorrect/broken interactions
It would be nice to have a popup/list allowing me to quickly navigate to all the broken interactions.
Interactions – Drag and Drop of actions does not always work
I have to revert to copy & paste to move them. as drag & drop often does not work…
Interactions – Changing the element in question loses all existing options
If I set an action to show the next panel state, add rotate and add push pull options, all the settings are lost if I change the target panel. (Which makes sense in a way). But it would be very nice to keep all these settings (as you need quite a few clicks to add them) if they are applicable to the new element (as in the case above…).
Interactions – The OK Button in the sidebar editor
Why is there an “OK” button on the interaction editor in the sidebar? Clicking on the canvas keeps what was entered anyhow… Feels confusing.
Interaction Styles – The red number indicator block for applied style effects.
This element is really confusing to me. It looks like a warning (red?) and then it somehow shows me how many elements are affected by the style effects – at least that’s my guess. But this information seems strange/wrong as I can define style effects to group elements as well… Don’t understand the benefit nor purpose.
Style – Widget Style Manager & Format Painter
These seem untouched since way back. It’s hard to find what you are looking for, since there are no groups for the different properties. Please group the entries somehow.
The interaction of clicking too many checkboxes in the Format Painter is also really painful.
Style – Why are the interaction styles moved to interactions
I get the idea – they are triggered by an action, but now you have a limit style selection window in the interaction tab and only clicking on “+ More Style Options” gives you the full view.
Style – Mention the “defined style” for interaction styles, instead of showing a preview
When you use a defined style as an interaction style it would be helpful to display the name of the style (on the top in the interactions tab). Plus, the preview is mostly useless on the interactions styles, rather give a text summary as a tooltip?.
Style – Display the options for elements hidden away unter the ellipses in the interaction tab
Please show the “disabled” and “selected” checkboxes and not hide them.
Plus, when a checkbox is set, please apply the appropriate style for it (this is a very old feature wish, right?).
Style – Cannot reapply style
If you change a defined style (indicated by the asterisk) you cannot just reapply it. You have to select another and then go back…
Style – Widget Style dropdown too small/does not communicate well
The dropdown for selecting a style looks like it shows all available elements – even though it is not. It cuts off somewhere down the list. Please try to cut off the windows so that one can see part of a label to indicate that there are more elements on the bottom of the list. Or a better visible scrollbar?
Masters – Override to expand textfield
It would be nice to have an option (e.g. a checkbox) that allows the text we enter as an override to expand the textfield. This would cure that the text line breaks at the end of the textfield.
Repeater – Table Data Entry in sidebar
This offers clearly not enough screen estate to enter data. Below was the better option, as in Axure 7 (?). Or at least offer to open an overlay with enough screen estate.
Misc. – The return of the right click
It felt like more things were hidden again from the interface and put back into the right click or hidden behind secondary menus (e.g. ellipses on the interactions tab).
Misc. –Keyboard Shortcut to access location & size
It doesn’t matter if I enable one key or multi-key shortcuts. CMD-L (set location) does not work – which is my most used shortcut.
Misc. – Names of new paragraphs
New paragraphs are filled with fake latin (which is a bad practice to use) – and since they don’t have a name the fake latin is shown as a name in the outline which is really painful. Could you please change this to show (Paragraph) instead – just like you do for the basic shapes?
And no, this list is by no means exhaustive.
But these things were annoying enough to write them down and post them.
Hope you find (at least some of this) useful.
Cheers
l.