← All use cases

1. Read the header

   Five controls sit in the header. The first four scroll away with the page. The sparkle stays in the corner, because it belongs to the phone app.

   1. Tap the Portico mark to come back to the console. Hold it to show a QR code for porticonow.com.
   2. Tap the word Portico to refresh this screen. Hold the word to sign out. Console under the word means you are on the console. Inside an app, that line names the app or the Thing you opened.
   3. Live is a status, not a switch. Live means this screen can reach Portico. Offline means it cannot. Connecting… means it is still checking.
   4. The double chevron shows or hides the pill row. Chevrons pointing up mean the pills are open, as in this shot. Chevrons pointing down mean the row is hidden.
   5. The sparkle in the corner belongs to the phone app. Tap it for connection status. Hold it to freeze rotation, and hold it again to unlock. Tap it once more to close the sheet.

   Elena's console with the pill row open: Live, the up chevron, and the status sparkle in the header. Account, Agents, and Apps are blue. Help is gray. The other pills are rose.01-pills-open.png

2. Show the pills, then put them away

   The pill row is a map of the page. It starts hidden on every visit so the panels have the screen.

   1. A new visit starts with the pills hidden and the chevron pointing down. Tap the chevron. The row opens and the chevron points up.
   2. Tap the chevron again. The pills leave. The panels stay exactly as they were.
   3. That open-or-closed choice lasts only for this visit. The next time you open Portico, the pills start hidden again.

   What the phone remembers: which panels are on the page, and which of those are folded. It does not remember that you had the pill row open.

   The same console with the pill row hidden. The chevron points down. Account, Agents, and Apps are still on the page.02-pills-hidden.png

3. Blue is on the page. Rose is hidden.

   A pill does not open a new screen. It puts that panel on this page, or takes it off.

   1. Tap a rose pill. Its panel appears, the page scrolls to it, and the pill turns blue.
   2. Tap a blue pill. That panel leaves the page and the pill turns rose.
   3. On Elena's phone, Account, Agents, and Apps are blue, so those panels are on the page. Help is gray, so the short tips are off. Split, Friends, Invitations, Things, Conversations, Reminders, Alerts, and Settings are rose, so those panels are not on the page.

   • Blue — on the page
   • Rose — hidden
   • Gray — off, for Help

   The number is not the color. Alerts (2) means two alerts are waiting. The rose color still means the Alerts panel is hidden. Help is gray while tips are off, as in this shot, and turns blue when you tap it to show the tips. Split stays rose until split screen is on.

   Split screen: open Settings and pick the two panels Split should show, one above the other. Then tap Split. Those two panels fill the screen and the pill turns blue. Tap it again to leave.

   The open pill row on Elena's console, with Alerts showing a count of 2 while the pill stays rose01-pills-open.png

4. Fold a panel without removing it

   Folding tucks the body of a panel. The heading stays, so you can open it again with one tap.

   1. Tap a panel's heading. A short tap folds the body, or opens it if it was folded.
   2. The mark beside the name points right when the body is folded, and down when it is open.
   3. On the shot below, Friends and Apps are folded. Agents and Things are open. All four panels are still on the page.

   Buttons on the heading are separate from the fold. + adds something in that panel. The person-plus on Friends adds a friend. The square with an arrow opens that agent, app, or Thing.

   Friends and Apps folded, Agents and Things open, with the pill row hidden03-fold.png

   Friends, Agents, and Apps folded, with Things and Conversations open04-open-and-closed.png

5. Hide a panel until you ask for it

   A long-press takes the panel off the page. Its pill is the only way back.

   1. Press a panel's heading and hold for about half a second.
   2. The panel leaves. Its pill turns rose. A note names the pill that brings it back.
   3. Tap that pill when you want the panel again.

   A short tap still only folds. If your finger slides, the hold cancels, so scrolling past a heading does not hide the panel. The phone keeps a hidden panel hidden the next time you open the app. Turn Split off before a long-press. Split screen will not hide a panel.

   Account, Agents, and Apps still on the page after the pill row is hidden. Friends and Things are not here because their pills are off.02-pills-hidden.png

6. Sort with the small pill

   The little pill under a heading is a sort. It is not a show-or-hide control.

   1. Look for Recently used, Recent, or Most recent under a heading.
   2. Tap it to move to the next sort. The rows reshuffle. The pill's words change.
   3. Hold that pill to choose which sorts a tap cycles through. At least one stays checked.

   Conversations and Things open, each with a Recently used sort pill. Grocery has an open button.05-sort.png

7. The header follows you into an app

   Lists, Files, and a single Thing use the same header. The pills on that screen belong to that screen.

   1. From the console, open Lists in Apps, or open a Thing such as Grocery.
   2. The mark, Live, the chevron, and the status sparkle stay. On Elena's Lists home, the big word is Elena and Lists sits under it. Inside Grocery, the big word is Grocery and Elena sits under it.
   3. Tap the chevron on that screen the same way. Its pills are for that app, not a copy of the console's pills.
   4. Tap the Portico mark when you want the console back.

   Same controls on every phone. Jonas's console has the same header, the same Agents panel, and the same Apps panel. What changes is whose agent you are looking at.

   Elena's Lists home. The header reads Elena and Lists, with Live, the down chevron, and the status sparkle. Most recent sorts the rows.06-inside-lists.png

   Grocery open, header reading Grocery and Elena, with Live and the down chevron still in place08-inside-thing.png

   Jonas's console with the pill row hidden, his agent online, and Files and Lists under Apps07-jonas-console.png