New Desktop UI Release 2022

Add me to the users requesting the ability to see both the metadata card and the document preview simultaneously. When we have a large quantity of files that need metadata manually keyed, we can't waste time switching tabs to find the values we need to key. I realize that the toggle feature disabled the configurations but adding extra mouse clicks to an already laborious process seems like a large step backwards.

I've seen a lot of comments from the admin perspective, but not as many from an operations perspective, in which this feels like an impending train wreck. The web version seems to have got it right. Perhaps I missed a thread where a good solution was provided for the desktop client?  

And another.  I don't pay much attention to what M-Files is doing as it's been visually the same forever.  Today came into auto update of a pretty big change in UI.  Now my users who are filing large amounts of paper data have to look at the paperwork while filling in the metadata instead of seeing it all on the screen.

I thought this was the "Bottom Pane" view option, but that just seems to make the empty box under the files list different sizes.  Options should be "Off, Blank, Metadata".

I hand-keyed over 500 files this weekend, just to get a feel for the new UI. I like the metadata card better in a popped-out window than at the bottom now. You can drag it wherever you want, and it stays on top of the view that you're working on.

In this case, I was entering invoice numbers for a bunch of invoices that had printed too light for the barcode to be read, so the data I needed was always in the same spot. I put the metadata card right over the preview pane, underneath the invoice number to locate it faster. I ended up using a two-handed approach, using the mouse to highlight the data in the preview, select the metadata field and to select the next record after each save. Keyboard hand did copy and paste and CTRL-S to save the card. 

I pushed this registry key out to about 400 users last week, and they all have it in the new version. I also sent out an advanced notice email to all users with some screenshots and instructions on how to use the single popup metadata card. We have had zero help desk tickets on this so far.

I'm not sure this is the correct way to do it, but it worked for us. It's vault-specific and version specific from what I can tell, so adjust this for your situation.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Motive\M-Files\22.10.11903.5\Client\MFShell\YourVaultName\]
"EnableSingleMetadataPopupMode"=dword:00000001

I hand-keyed over 500 files this weekend, just to get a feel for the new UI. I like the metadata card better in a popped-out window than at the bottom now. You can drag it wherever you want, and it stays on top of the view that you're working on.

In this case, I was entering invoice numbers for a bunch of invoices that had printed too light for the barcode to be read, so the data I needed was always in the same spot. I put the metadata card right over the preview pane, underneath the invoice number to locate it faster. I ended up using a two-handed approach, using the mouse to highlight the data in the preview, select the metadata field and to select the next record after each save. Keyboard hand did copy and paste and CTRL-S to save the card. 

I pushed this registry key out to about 400 users last week, and they all have it in the new version. I also sent out an advanced notice email to all users with some screenshots and instructions on how to use the single popup metadata card. We have had zero help desk tickets on this so far.

I'm not sure this is the correct way to do it, but it worked for us. It's vault-specific and version specific from what I can tell, so adjust this for your situation.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Motive\M-Files\22.10.11903.5\Client\MFShell\YourVaultName\]
"EnableSingleMetadataPopupMode"=dword:00000001

Just tested this out.  It works for our needs.  Hate relying on a registry setting and would prefer user selectable options. But in this case, I would think that this should be the expected behavior of the popped out metadata card so I'm OK with applying it broadly.

We use registry keys to set global settings for M-Files, like automatic logout timers and auto-filling of metadata. I've just been going through that file to clean up all the old ones that are now built into the application. M-Files update now copies the old registry settings forward, so it's not the maintenance headache that it used to be.   

You can enable the client setting via Advanced Vault Settings so you don't need to distribute the registry key via other methods, please see this post: https://community.m-files.com/forums-1552881334/f/general-discussion-feedback/7404/new-desktop-ui-full-release-q-a/21190#21190

Once the client setting is enabled in AVS, the users will get it when they next log into the vault.