Diving Log Blog

Today I want to show you the edit mode in Diving Log Touch. As this app runs probably mostly on small mobile devices like tablets, you’ll likely use it while on vacation to enter the basic dive data right after diving and merge it later on with the dive computer data in Diving Log 5.0 on the desktop. I ensured that entering data works nicely with the on-screen keyboard using a tablet, but also with a hardware keyboard. To enter the edit mode, swipe up from the bottom edge on a touch screen or right click with a mouse somewhere on the screen to display the app bar:

Then tap the “Add” button to add a new dive or the “Edit” button to edit the selected dive. The edit pane will slide down from the top:

For some items like country, dive site and buddy, you can simply pick an existing item from other parts of your logbook, without the need to type anything. When you tap on a textbox without hardware keyboard attached, the on-screen keyboard will slide in from the bottom. As you can see, the edit pane is designed in a way that no element is covered by the keyboard. Depending on the textbox data type, either the normal keyboard is displayed or a special numeric keyboard.

You can also use the handwriting recognition together with a pen digitizer to enter text more naturally:

You can also add photos to many items. When you tap on the large photo field, you can select an existing image somewhere from your hard drive with a file picker. When you tap on the photo icon in the upper right corner, you can capture a photo with the build-in device camera:

Your buddy can sign your dive right on the tablet, using either his finger or a pen. Just tap on the signature field at them bottom of the dive screen and the signature panel opens:

As you can see, data entry works great with or without hardware keyboard, with touch, pen or a mouse. In one of the next blog posts I’ll show you how to merge the data with the dive computer data in Diving Log 5.0.

This week I’ll show you in a series of blog post the latest addition to the Diving Log family – Diving Log Touch. Even though this app is optimized for touch, it runs on any Windows 8 and Windows RT device and you can use touch, a pen or mouse and keyboard or a combination of all. In fact, many upcoming Windows 8 devices are convertibles or tablets with dockable keyboards, which is great for entering data into your logbook.

When you start the app, you’ll be right in your logbook. The dive list is sorted descending by default, which means your latest dive is on top and selected. I’ve spend quite some time finding the right UI for the new touch optimized app and it wasn’t an easy task. Most existing Windows 8 apps feature a horizontal scrolling layout, but I found out that this doesn’t work well for Diving Log due to the vertical scrolling list on the left. So I’ve created a 3 column vertical scrolling layout, with the dive list on the left, the navigation tiles on the right and the content pane in between.

When you tap on one of the 4 center tiles, they will turn around and reveal more data on the back:

The asymmetrical layout allows you to navigate through the entire app just with your 2 thumbs, when it runs on a tablet for example. You can open the app bar by swiping up from the bottom edge (or right click with a mouse) like in every other Windows 8 app. You can navigate to other sections by either tapping on one of the nav tiles on the right, or by tapping on a blue text link (e.g. a buddy or dive site name). Tap on the back button in the upper left to get back to the previous view.

Your buddy can sign a dive either with the finger or a special touch screen pen:

To change the secondary profile type, tap on the profile label to display a popup list. When you tap on comments, photos or the profile tile, the content will be displayed in full screen. Tap again somewhere on the screen to exit the full screen view:

Below you can see the dive site view. Tapping on the coordinates will launch the Bing Maps app and display the dive site. In a future version I’ll integrate the Bing Maps control right into the app.

When you tap on your name in the upper right corner, you’ll navigate to the user information page, which shows all your personal data and certifications. The medical tile is also a flip tile, which will turn around when you tap on it:

And last but not least, the familiar statistics screen is also available. The statistics section will be also expanded in future updates, of course:

This was the first blog post about the new Diving Log Touch app running on Windows 8. It will be available in the Windows Store next month around the same time of the Windows 8 launch. Tomorrow I’ll show you the edit functionality.