One of the most common navigation structures in software is the tree view directory.

It’s logical, it makes sense, it’s easy to quickly find what you’re looking for and it’s immediately recognizable for just about any computer easy old or new.

My only gripe is that it takes up so much room when you’re two or three levels into the navigation.

As you can see from my screen grab from Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 2005, there’s a lot of wasted space on the left of the tree.

At the bottom of this post I’ve added another picture where I’ve sliced out some of the extra white-space that’s to the left of the tree sections.

Granted in that image it’s not precise and probably needs a little more white space between, but I’ve saved quite a bit of space.

Then again, the other solution for me may be to just get a larger, widescreen monitor when I’m working. However, when you’re using a laptop remotely you don’t have many other options.

Images: Screen grabs from SQL Server Management Studio 2005

Post from: EveryJoe

Use Less Space on Tree View Navigation

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