Fill-in Transition List Table Gone?

support
Fill-in Transition List Table Gone? kchiti  2022-03-23 08:50
 

Hello,

I am new to Skyline and have just been using the PRM Small Molecules mode. I usually just fill in the transition list table after going to edit>insert>transition list but after updating to the 64bit 24.2 when I go to insert my transition list the only option I have is to paste it in. Is there a way to get the table back so I can directly fill in?

Thanks,
Kat

 
 
bstewart responded:  2022-03-29 07:02

^ I second this, please add this feature back, I have been unable to do work without reverting to a previous version of skyline, and this makes things difficult to collaborate with colleagues due to version discrepancies.

Kat, My solution has been to go to download "Skyline Unplugged", click "I agree" then "archive". this gives you access to all old distributions of Skyline. This feature was removed in January, so I've taken the version before.

https://skyline.ms/wiki/home/software/Skyline/page.view?name=install-64-disconnected_21_2

Hope to see this feature added back soon, I don't understand why anyone would intentionally remove useful functionality from software.

 
Brian Pratt responded:  2022-03-29 10:19

Hi Kat,

The redesign of the transition list input was intended to smooth out the experience of pasting in a transition list from other sources - the previous implementation was awkward in terms of columns setup and was a source of frequent complaints from users. The ability to type directly into the grid wasn't something that users seemed to value - but clearly that's not uniformly true, and I'm sorry that you're finding the new design inconvenient for your accustomed workflow.

I'm curious, though - is it really that problematic to compose your transition list in Excel or Google Sheets, or even Notepad, then copy and paste to Skyline? I'd strongly discourage taking the backward step that Brandon (bstewart) suggests - it's always best to stay current with Skyline.

If there's a compelling need for typing directly into the form we can certainly look into it, but with our limited resources we do have to pick our projects carefully.

Thanks for using the Skyline support board. We greatly value this kind of user feedback.

Best regards,

Brian Pratt

 
kchiti responded:  2022-03-29 10:30

Hi Brian,

I was unaware the feature was gone completely and just hoped I needed to check something in settings to bring it back. My problem is I'm not always sure exactly what I need to include in the transition list, so having the option to check for errors was extremely helpful and user friendly. I also need to further educate myself on what all the column names mean because even after exporting a transition list from an old Skyline file and importing it into a new one I find the column names are different and can't quite get the same result. I have instead just been using "save as" to further modify my files.

I'm sure it won't be difficult to learn how to make a transition list with the many tutorials offered, I was just surprised when this feature was gone.

Thanks,
Kat

 
Brian Pratt responded:  2022-03-29 10:56

"Check for errors" is still there, of course, but I agree that it's a different kind of awkward when you have to fix any problems in Excel instead of right there in Skyline. Lots of people use Skyline in lots of different ways, and it's difficult to please everyone - but I can see that in this case we probably didn't get this as right as we'd hoped. I'll enter an issue in our development queue to see what we can do about this.

It sounds like what you would really value is not so much the ability to compose a transition list in Skyline, but rather the ability to tweak its contents once it has been pasted into Skyline. Is that fair to say? If we can assume an initial paste into Skyline, then we don't have to add a bunch of UI for creating an empty grid with the right number and order of columns (that was the part of the old UI that users really, really, did not like).

Also, which older column names are not working as expected for you? It should be the case that Skyline recognizes them as synonyms.

Best regards,

Brian