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Replay Board Improvements

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Loomis

I like the replay boards that we can insert into forums, blogs, articles, etc. If I had a magic wand and could change them, I would change the following things:

 

1. The annotation box below the board is small, sometimes it's annoying to have to scroll on it.

 

2. The move list could be easier to navigate:

  a) I would remove the annotation from the move list, this is redundant.

  b) I would highlight the current move on the movelist so that it's easy to tell where we are

  c) Auto scroll the scroll bar so that the current move is in view

  d) Start a new variation on a new line so that it's easier to see where one variation stops and another ends

  e) Make the moves in the move list clickable so that I can jump to a specific position.

 

3. Be able to add square highlights. So that if I say in the annotation "the pawn on c3 is weak" I could have a red box around the c3 square (or yellow highlight, or whatever you can dream up). Along the same lines, arrows might be useful.

 

4. I would make them editable after they are inserted. 


erik

great feedback!

#4 is already doable. :)

we will make improvements! 


silentfilmstar13

Isn't 2e also doable currently?

 

Great ideas! 


Loomis

Thanks silentfilmstar, I didn't realize 2e was already implemented. Has this always been the case and I'm just a doofus? Seems likely to me.

 

How do we edit them after inserting? I suppose I can guess, does double clicking the place holder icon re-open the diagram wizard? 


erik
yes - to edit i thnk you either double-click, or select it and click on the board icon again.
Loomis
This is great, I never knew that before. It does remind me of another possible feature that might be difficult. Once you setup the board position and start making moves, you can't go back and change the board position. Sometimes I have just one pawn out of place and I have to start all over. I've learned to be very careful. :-)
Loomis

I have one more :-). Though I'm getting the impression that the more I use these the more cool things I will think to do with them.

 

It would be nice if we could switch from game/sequence mode to puzzle mode within one diagram. For example, in my blog post "Exchange Sac" I give the game up to a certain point and then the end of the game as a mating puzzle. It would be nice if I could have just switched the replay mode from game to puzzle when the game reached that point. Then there wouldn't have to be two separate diagrams.

 

Not a big issue for that post, but I could imagine a game where you could have several 2-3 move puzzles throughout. It would be cool if the replay board could switch to puzzle mode for those moves and back again so that we wouldn't have to use separate diagrams.

 

I can sense this might not be easy to program, but it would be very cool. 


TheGrobe
Loomis wrote: This is great, I never knew that before. It does remind me of another possible feature that might be difficult. Once you setup the board position and start making moves, you can't go back and change the board position. Sometimes I have just one pawn out of place and I have to start all over. I've learned to be very careful. :-)

This one has been a pet-peeve of mine as well.  I've had to discard a few boards after a fair amount of work because of something as simple as forgetting to declare that it is Black's move.


erik
good points!
MapleDanish

To be fair though... I should mention that this site already has the single best game annotation/publishing system in the online chess world.

A little tweaking but I can't see any major flaws.