Top level annotation can't fully expand(?)

[AA12]

I’ve just upgraded to Studio 2024.10.6 and I see that my top level annotations aren’t fully expanded like they used to be. Now, it shows only 3 lines of text before I have to scroll down and read the rest. This is very annoying since I just want the annotation to be fully expanded, that is much more readable than how it is now.

Was this an intended feature, or am I missing something? I can’t seem to make the annotation box bigger.

[AA12]

It seems that this is an intended feature. I cannot imagine anyone thinking this is a great idea Reverting this would be GREAT!

[Raluca_Laic]

Hi @AA12 ,

Thank you for your feedback regarding this functionality, this is indeed the intended functionality. I was interested to learn more about how you use annotations in your workflows to better address this feedback:

• Do you use them during design time, for documentation or both
• If you use them during design time, how do they help?

Many thanks,
Raluca

[AA12]

Hi Raluca,

Thank you for your reply! My apologies for the late response as I was off from work for the past 3,5 weeks

The way we use annotations is mostly for documentation. Our (back-up) developers need to be able to open a workflow and immediately understand it based off of the annotations. These annotations can consist of multiple paragraphs depending on how big the workflows are.

Was this helpful at all?

[Whynotrobot]

@AA12

The way we use annotations is mostly for documentation. Our (back-up) developers need to be able to open a workflow and immediately understand it based off of the annotations. These annotations can consist of multiple paragraphs depending on how big the workflows are.

Was this helpful at all?

Same here. It is (/was) our best practice to start each XAML with an annotation describing the XAML function and purpose. This helps during development, peer-reviews and support afterwards.
But not anymore.

We’d like to be able to read the complete text.
And the scrolling is extra awkward since the scrolling down the text immediately continues scrolling down the design panel, losing the complete annotation out of sight.

[Whynotrobot]

I’m curious, what is the reason behind this ui change?
The annotations in all other sequential activities have no limit, but only the top level has one now. Why is there a need to limit this, instead of leaving it up to the developer?
Or is it Studio-web related?

[Raluca_Laic]

Hi @AA12 ,

Thank you very much for the additional context. The reason for this change was to maximize the design area in order to make it easier to build & implement Flowcharts and other similar canvases.

Raluca

[AA12]

Thanks for the reply. If that’s the case, then there could’ve just been an option added for the developer to collapse that area if needed instead of making it the default? It’s like @Whynotrobot said, this makes scrolling awkward and the annotation just gets lost.

[Raluca_Laic]

Thank you for the additional information here, I’ve filed this as an insight on our side.

[AA12]

Thank you, hope it gets taken into consideration

[Whynotrobot]

I’m trying to ad an annotation in a Flowchart XAML file. The annotation text area is not visible at all. I’ve scrolled all to the left and all to the top. Am I missing something?

[Raluca_Laic]

Hi @Whynotrobot ,

Is this an annotation on the Flowchart canvas or on an activity on the canvas? If it’s on the Flowchart canvas, you can find the annotation pinned at the top of the page like in the picture below

Alternatively, if the annotation is unpinned, it’s displayed on the header of the canvas with the icon:

If that’s not the case, please share a sample project and the Studio version where this occurs and we can look into it.

Thanks,
Raluca

[Whynotrobot]

Yes. it’s visible like you mentioned. I’m not sure why I didn’t see it when I created the annotations using Shift F2, but it’s here now.