I AM EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED IN THE NEW RELEASE OF WPDATATABLES!!!!!!!!

I am glad I made a backup of my website, so I can revert to the older version!

It seems for the benefit of a “live” view of the datatable, you bogged down what used to be a powerful tool.

1.  It is painfully slow, both on the front and back ends:

     * Back End

          - Now, each time I change a column I must wait for an update.  Your “live view” is no better than the old ‘preview’, except I’m forced (as if I hit preview after each column change) and I …….. wait…………! 

               -- If I want to make 5 columns invisible, I have to mark each column and wait each time……….

               -- If I want to make 4 columns integer, I wait four times…………

               -- If I’ve laid out the 100% width of an 8-column table, I have to set each, and wait in between. And if need to adjust the array, I have to wait again.  What used to take 3 minutes now takes 20……………………………

     * Front End

          - User tables that used to take 2 seconds to load now take 6-8 (unacceptable)  

 I see very few useful improvements, save turning on/off a few option blocks and some grouping.  What I lose is substantial.  You need some way to bulk update column settings or a way to turn off the forced updating.  And, for back-end development, I’d rather see how all the options are set, side by side (like the old version)

Here are a few other suggestions.  Many of them are related to wasted display space and layout restrictions.  I can’t help that my 20 years of product/software development pops out!  

1.  Some global options should be table options or column options.  For example, I would like to set fonts and font sizes at the table level, so a table with more columns or more text could have smaller fonts to fit across the page, but a table with fewer columns or text could be larger.  I should be able to set skins by table (and you need more choices).  I should be able to set decimals at the column level (e.g., some dollar columns and some more precise measurement columns), varying by table needs.  I should be able to set sorting and filtering by column – maybe it only makes sense to filter by three columns and sort by two.  

2.  To set column widths, I must turn off the scroll feature, and I can’t get word wrap in that case.  I should be able to set a container width [full screen/theme default and mobile], and have width control, scrolling, and wrap within that container.  

3.  Conditional formatting should optionally work for hidden columns.  If I have a “new employee” flag to make new employees highlighted in red, I shouldn’t have to waste column space showing the flag.  And if I also highlight transferred employees, retired employees, and promoted employees, now I have to show four useless columns!  

4.  I have “flagged” columns which are narrow.  A single letter title plus your “sort” icon take up three times the space I need across the page (e.g. columns that are simply ‘Y’ or ‘N’.  There should be a table option to have 2-line headers, with your icons on a second row.  Along the same lines, I should be able to set the padding around each cell to tighten up space as much as possible.  

5.  Column headings should be allowed all caps, mixed case, and/or bold.  Empty column heading labels should be allowed, not restricting visibility.  

I could keep on going, but I’m sure I’ve overwhelmed you already.