# View controller bar is thicker in Slicer-5.6.0

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/view-controller-bar-is-thicker-in-slicer-5-6-0/33238>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [December 5, 2023, 4:28pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/view-controller-bar-is-thicker-in-slicer-5-6-0/33238 "2023-12-05T16:28:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rbumm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/rbumm/32/9404_2.png) [@rbumm](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/rbumm)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 4:28pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/view-controller-bar-is-thicker-in-slicer-5-6-0/33238/1 "2023-12-05T16:28:32Z")

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The bars of the view windows are bigger than before - they take too much space - will this also be addressed?

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/slicer/original/3X/d/7/d7bbb515d40ffccaebc175976cb531384df3f004.png)

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**Author:** ![jamesobutler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/jamesobutler/32/7511_2.png) [@jamesobutler](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/jamesobutler)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 4:31pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/view-controller-bar-is-thicker-in-slicer-5-6-0/33238/2 "2023-12-05T16:31:39Z")

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The larger slice view controller buttons is by design and has been present in Slicer 5.5-Preview builds since September 13th.

> <https://github.com/Slicer/Slicer/pull/7219>
>
> If restyling ToolButtons as a whole through QSS with a fixed vertical size set, …but a variable width allowed, the fixed size specification in qMRMLViewControllerBar was still forcing these buttons to be 15px wide.
> 
> | \`main\` | This PR |
> |--------|----------|
> |!\[image\](https://github.com/Slicer/Slicer/assets/15837524/37f1351e-a30d-4c19-a063-52df2a026466)|!\[image\](https://github.com/Slicer/Slicer/assets/15837524/a113dd03-010a-4bb2-83ff-81f32ed4454a)|
> 
> Now these buttons are sized based on their contents which in this case is their icon. This results in a slightly different spacing and sizing as previously the FixedSize call was actually cutting off part of the ToolButton's normal margin/padding. However I think the end result is near identical and functionally acts the same. This change ultimately allows for better ways of restyling QToolButtons through QSS.
> 
> \---------------------------------------
> I could also issue a separate change to allow these QToolButton's in the slice view controller to be their default size based on their normal 24px icons (remove any fixed size or iconSize specifications for these QToolButtons). This will result in the buttons being the same size as those in the Slice controller floating pop-up widget which I think is more consistent and the larger size buttons make the accessibility better to avoid mis-clicks and speeds up the time it takes to click successfully. It would look like the following:
> 
> | \`main\` | Default size for 24px icon |
> |--------|----------|
> !\[image\](https://github.com/Slicer/Slicer/assets/15837524/cd5ae01d-a8c6-4136-b9fc-ad7e0e0cd7d1)|!\[image\](https://github.com/Slicer/Slicer/assets/15837524/db7f8720-ebab-4996-b1c9-45593bc6a451)|

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jamesobutler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/jamesobutler/32/7511_2.png) [@jamesobutler](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/jamesobutler)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 6:23pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/view-controller-bar-is-thicker-in-slicer-5-6-0/33238/3 "2023-12-05T18:23:18Z")

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We had discussed a comfort and cozy mode, but I don’t have full plans of how that will consistently be applied across the entire application for a common user experience.

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**Author:** ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 8:17pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/view-controller-bar-is-thicker-in-slicer-5-6-0/33238/4 "2023-12-05T20:17:59Z")

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I hoped that I would get used to the thicker view controller bars, because the difference is not all that much and the larger size makes the pushpin icon a bit easier to click. However, after several months of use on a large monitor, I still feel that these bars take up too much space.

If I run this line of code to hide the slice view controllers it feels like a breath of fresh air:

```python
slicer.util.setViewControllersVisible(False)

```

We can already display a vertical scrollbar to browse slices:

```auto
for slice in ['Red', 'Yellow', 'Green']:
    sw = slicer.app.layoutManager().sliceWidget(slice)
    sw.setSliceOffsetSliderOrientation(qt.Qt.Vertical)
    sw.sliceController().setVisible(False)
    #sw.setSliceOffsetSliderOrientation(qt.Qt.Horizontal)
    #sw.sliceController().setVisible(True)

```

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/slicer/original/3X/0/8/08088f23e129b6a3d137a27301d892ae93f9faba.jpeg)

If we implemented display of view color (e.g., as a colored frame) and some view information as corner annotations, and make the slice view controller available (e.g., in the context menu) then we could remove the slice view controller bars completely.

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**Author:** ![pieper](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/pieper/32/8_2.png) [@pieper](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/pieper)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 10:45pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/view-controller-bar-is-thicker-in-slicer-5-6-0/33238/5 "2023-12-05T22:45:01Z")

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+1 for uncluttering the views and displaying things only when needed, so long as it doesn’t introduce multiple clicks to do simple things. It would be nice too if the drag handles weren’t so prominent. Maybe if they only showed up when the mouse is over the drag area. This kind of behavior is nice in a lot of interfaces to remove clutter, but we should use it carefully to avoid lots of stuff flashing in and out of view as you mouse around.

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**Author:** ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 11:13pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/view-controller-bar-is-thicker-in-slicer-5-6-0/33238/6 "2023-12-05T23:13:12Z")

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Fully agree. There should be a lot of possibilities to declutter without impacting usability.

We could keep a vertical slider for slice browsing and buttons above it for resetting FOV and maximize view. We could display layout name, color, slice offset, etc. in corner annotations.

The rest of the options (that are shown when the pushpin icon is clicked) could be added as right-click menu, or maybe by clicking on certain corner annotations, or perhaps properties of the current view (where the user last clicked in) could be editable in the DataProbe… We should look at other examples that users like and see what makes sense to adopt.

Maybe we could create a project about this for the upcoming project week?