Geoprocessing "Back" arrow should return to the previous GUI Pane

[Anonymous User]

In ArcGIS Pro 3.0, a user can navigate to a Geoprocessing Toolbox by using the Catalog Pane.

It looks like:

Catalog > Toolboxes > Some_Custom_Toolbox > Some_Custom_Tool

And the tool is opened under the Geoprocessing Pane.

If the user then clicks the "Back" arrow in the Geoprocessing Pane, the GUI does not go back to the Catalog Pane. The GUI goes back to the previous state of the Geoprocessing Pane.

To me, this is unexpected and non-intuitive behavior. "Back" should always go back.

[wayfaringrob]

I agree - I am frequently opening tools from my GP history, and when I click the back button, I expect it to return me to History, not arctoolbox. Same for tools opened from the catalog.

[KoryKramer]

This Idea has been implemented in ArcGIS Pro 3.2. Please see the What's New documentation for more new features in Pro 3.2.

The Your Ideas in ArcGIS Pro 3.2 blog and video have been posted to the Esri Community blog. You can take a look at these to see your idea and all others that were implemented in this release of ArcGIS Pro.

[SH_DH]

I'm not sure this is the same behavior that was implemented, but I find it annoying to have to select geoprocessing twice, which I run into daily. Here's an example:

I run a geoprocessing tool from my history > perform edits in other panes (symbology/labels/etc) > want to run a new geoprocessing tool > click on geoprocessing tab > this opens the last run tool (which was run from history) > want to use a different tool so I hit the back arrow > this reopens the history pane > I have to open the geoprocessing tab again to search for a new tool

I guess my idea is - can the geoprocessing pane default back to its home view rather than the last run tool after x amount of time? If I wanted to open the history tab I would have done so.

[wayfaringrob]

@SH_DH one solution would be to go back to how it works in ArcMap - a separate toolbox with tools opening in their own window. Since tools are typically temporary, but sometimes need to be rerun, they could just include a checkbox to close the tool pane or dialog window when complete (as in ArcMap). This would mitigate the irritations with going back to toolbox or history, as the original window/pane would still be there behind the tool.

[DrewFlater]

@wayfaringrob an easter egg for an Honored Contributor: you can hold down right-shift keyboard key when clicking to open a tool, and it will open the floating tool dialog box. Running the tool in this mode also uses the foreground thread execution with blocking progress dialog, similar to ArcMap. 

@SH_DH we received more feedback than the 2 kudos above that it was desired for the back button to return to the previous active pane used to open the tool. But based on your feedback we may need an option for the user to choose which behavior they prefer. Since this is the implemented idea related to navigating back to the previous non-Geoprocessing pane, it would be good for you to make a new ArcGIS Pro Idea about this option to change the behavior. 

Also consider this: the Geoprocessing pane has a Recent section at the bottom with access to previously run tools, and the little menu will help you see the messages and reopen tools with parameter populated that were used previously. Internally I call this the Geoprocessing pane mini-history. 

Also, rather than switching to the Catalog pane to access project toolboxes/tools, the same toolboxes are available in the Toolboxes tab of the Geoprocessing pane. 

The Geoprocessing pane Recent (mini-history) and project Toolboxes were both added to keep you from needing to pane-switch as much, which would both help in the case you use the Back button since it would stay in the Geoprocessing pane.

[wayfaringrob]

@DrewFlater  interesting shortcut, thanks!