Pin the Toolbox

Mmm I did think about that...

I guess the editing and layering options are the same for all objects though?

Maybe if there were placeholders for the options even if they're not always applicable...

A lot of the time products cheat and bury the object specific options in a right click!

It's a difficult one!

A lot of products have "Properties Windows" that can be docked to the sides of the viewport, and which have different properties visible depending on what has the focus in the main area. Examples: Firebug in the Firefox browser, diagramming and modelling tools like Visio and Enterprise Architect, IDEs like Visual Studio and Eclipse. Come to that, end-user programs like MS Word now have Style panels etc that open pinned to the side of the view port, so I think if Balsamiq Mockups was to have a dockable or pinnable toolbox, no one would really be phased by seeing the contents of it change or get enabled/disabled as the focus changed.

I'm not sure what the answer is - there are some good ideas here already - I personally would like to be able to pin it or float it somewhere (like Adboe products).

With the layout I'm currently working with, having the properties box automatically moving itself near the object really gets in the way. The problem is if it isn't pinned somewhere (say off to the right, outside the mockup) and there is a UI element you want to get at that is below the properties window, you have to constantly drag it out the way - waiting for it to fade out is no good because the minute you try to get to the control underneath where it was the properties appear again!

It's not a problem all the time, but it is a problem when you constantly have to drag it out the way.