Inventory as Menus.

I've only been playing for a couple weeks now or so, and already my inventory is starting to get full. THe Inventory window is essentially a control panel for your character, so it should be clean and easy to use. I'd like to organize it further, but it'd be a pain clicking down through too many layers.

So, My suggestion is:

When someone mouse-overs a folder in the inventory, a 'menu' pop up after a second (like a tooltip) with the folders, subfolders and contents, just like the menus at the top of the screen (i.e. Debug>Rendering>Types>etc.) This would retain left and right-click functionality while providing an intuitive functionality to the Inventory list.

An alternative would be to have new folders open as separate windows, but that can get a lot of busy windows...what if some form of intelligent tabbed browsing were added?

Basically, you have a default tab that is displayed only if another is open, this is your 'root' (The contents of your inventory folder, would probably include the library folder too).

When you open a folder it opens as a tab (maybe if you're holding a key, or you right click once, right-clicking and holding would bring up the current options as normal).
Anyway, these tabs open to the side of the list, as their own little list, and are arrayed in hierarchial order, so if you open the Objects folder it will appear there, if you open the folder "My Objects" in there, then it opens that tab beneath Objects. If you go back to the beginning (leaving your tabs open) and then open the Clothing folder, it will appear above the Objects tab, as will any folders you open inside here.

In essence it's a way of building your own list of traversial as you go through, making it easier to jump about and go back.

Right-clicking a tab would close it.


Also, on a note, IMO Library and Inventory should be differentiated, I think it would be easier to have two tabs or icons at the top of the window to allow you to switch between them. This would be awesome if each kept a separate list of 'side tabs' that you had open, letting you move around quite quickly.

I'll try and knock up some examples if people don't understand.

Actually, maybe you can answer a quick newbie question for me. What is the difference/purpose of the Library and Inventory? I've been keeping everything in My Inventory since it seems like the appropriate place for my character.

I can give you a quick answer, from a newbie

Inventory is everything you have. The Library is a collection of standard items that Linden Lab makes available to everyone. If you actually use something from the Library, it gets copied to your Inventory and then used.

(If I'm wrong, I'm sure I'll be corrected....)

Short answer: The library is a read-only repository. You can use items from it, but can't add items to it. Your Inventory is the things you have personally collected.

I haven't noticed Library items getting duplicated into my Inventory, unless I rezzed an object from there, like a couch or a chair, and then took it back into my inventory.

The Library is a standard array of objects and textures that all users have. If you use textures directly from the Library, it uses the ID of the resource in the Linden's servers for the library. If you copy the same texture to your own textures folder, and apply it from there, then you're using your local copy, and the asset servers treat it slightly differently. But I think the only place this matters is in getting textures cached. For example, I built a merchant area that a lot of people will, hopefully, visit. Where appropriate, I used standard textures a lot, because they should rez just a bit faster for most users. At least, I think they should.

On the other hand, since all users have the Library items and textures, things get pretty boring if you just use those. Which is why people pay L$ for new and unique textures from artists like me.

And going back to the original topic, Gods yes! We could really use better tools for managing the inventory.

If you wear clothes from the library they get copied into your inventory.

Intelligent tabbed browsing eh? Why not just implement hypertree visualization while we're at it? (note: The link shows off hypertree visualization, but itself is not about hypertrees)

I would like the ability to move folder groups to the top level, like put my clothing folder outside of my inventory folder. Or have a "bookmark" toolbar for filters so you can memorize certain keywords and/or item combinations that would thin out your inventory considerably. For instance, say I wanted to find all my textures starting with W. If I just wanted to do it once, no need for the bookmark, but if I had to do it on a constant basis (say, for handing out these textures in classes daily), I'd save that filter to a bookmark button so I could just click on it and see all the relevant textures.

Just a thought, I have no idea how the inventory is implemented, but would it make sense to have objects separated from inventory folders? As things are, a no-copy object can't be included in more than one folder (outfits for instance). If permissions applied to objects and everything else was a link (as in a windows shortcut if you lean that way) it would be possible to organize an inventory and still preserve permissions (one instance of a no-copy object active at a time, but accessable within multiple folders). Let's face it, most of us have huge inventories, and permissions shouldn't interfere with how we organize them. Only with how we use them. Hope this makes sense.