Significant change coming in one week

One last (I hope) major change to the layout

Hi, bridge pals.

My bridge deal generator is intended for a computer with a large screen, and that is not likely to change—that is, don’t expect a version that is very phone- or tablet-friendly. I just don’t have the time or, frankly, the skills to make it adapt to all platforms.

So, I hope there are still a lot of desktop users out there, or folks with laptops with large monitors.

The change that I will roll out on April 28 revises the layout so that, on most browsers, when in full screen mode, you can set your zoom level at 110% and see the whole deal generator page with decent-sized, readable text. Nothing should shrink to unreadable size, no buttons or text fields should jump about, and nothing should scroll off the edge of the browser.

So far, all of the above works as expected on a Mac with a 27-inch monitor, on Chrome, Firefox, and Brave browsers. On my Mac 16-inch laptop, 80% zoom is as high as I can go and still have the whole page visible; it looks good, though of course everything is a bit smaller on a laptop.

This change is already in the beta version, here.

The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I buried the lede: the deal display panel has moved from the left side of the page to the right side, to make the predominant direction of information flow (left to right) more obvious. Also, the collection and file controls that were scattered about near the things that they collected and saved to files have been grouped together into one place at the lower right. This was done to allow me to make the Shaper and Cards panels larger and more readable.

Influenced by a well-reasoned user request accompanied by a nondescript satchel full of cash $$, I have added spacing between the cards in the deal display to enhance readability. However, the cards on the deal report PDF are still pleasingly tightly-packed, as they are in most print publications.

Finally, for those who prefer their deal display on the left, I will maintain a “Classic” version that includes all of the other visible changes, but which keeps the deal display (and the collection/file panel) on the left. It will remain functionally identical to the new version.

For anyone who doesn’t like all the whitespace on the right side of the deal display, try a deal with a 13-card suit in West or East (or both), and get back to me; I promise not to smirk at you derisively. Like Daniel Boone, some deals need elbow room.

While you may still be on high alert following my April Fool’s announcement, this one is 100% true, except possibly for the thing about the satchel full of cash $$ (though I am open to offers).

Happy dealing!