A couple of years ago, I created a topic - Manager Navigation Feedback
where I proposed a new design for menu navigation. Some were in favour, some were against. I have no intention of rehashing the discussion again as everyone made their views clear and the discussion got quite heated, so there is little point in going over all the points again.
What I would like to request is that Manager offers a customise menu option - similar to the concept of Control Panel in Windows - where you can click “View by Category” or “view by large/small icons”. Currently Manager menu is view by large icons essentially. For users that wish to retain the current menu design they wouldn’t need to do anything as the default view could be “View by large icons” and for those users who wish to have a more compact menu structure, we could enable “View by Category.”
In the view by category format, one could have a design format as suggested by @Ealfardan in this post - Manager Navigation Feedback - #26 by dalacor where the menu items are categorised by accounting departments such as Sales, Purchases etc.
I fully understand that users who posted in the original topic and Lubos himself was not sold on the idea of changing the menu structure for all users. Which is why I am proposing a solution that should work for everyone and that is a “View by” option in Manager settings, where the default view is what we currently have and for those users who want to drastically reduce the number of tabs from circa 25 down to around 8, we could use “View By Category.” I know some people use View by Category for Control Panel in Windows and other use “View by large/small icons.” Why not offer the same choice for Manager users as there are enough users in both camps for a “View By” Manager setting.
I would like to remind everyone, that we all debated the pros and cons of changing the menu structure in the previous topic and I see little point in having the discussion again as it was clear that many were in favour of changing the menu design and many were very much against the changes. The original topic got quite heated because many were opposed, so I don’t want to re-open that particular discussion again!
My request here is to have a simple on/off Setting in Manager that will allow users to default to the standard tab menu’s that we currently have or to choose if they prefer a Category View. So could the discussion be restricted to implementing a “View By” option in the settings tab in Manager and if necessary for those that are in favour of the category view - what, if any amendments you would make to the proposed View Category Design as suggested by Ealfardan.
For those of you who are happy to use the current tab menu design, this proposal will not change how Manager works for you. This topic is aimed at users who would like a “View by Category” design structure.
I am happy to provide more clear information on how the View By Category would actually work if @lubos is interested in implementing a “View By” Settings option as there was some confusion in the original topic as to exactly how the menu category would open and display items. Until the feature request made in this topic has been achieved, there is no point discussing the exact implementation of the category design.