It’s always difficult to make changes to an established product, and SourceTree for Mac 1.9 was no exception. Our goal with 1.9 was to make some of the core views more approachable to new users while retaining what brought more advanced users to SourceTree in the first place. We prototyped, user tested and dogfooded for some months and believed we’d got the balance right.
Things are never that simple though, right? The feedback we’ve received from the wider SourceTree community since indicated that although many people did like the new style and found it more approachable, a lot of existing users thought we simplified things too much, and removed some of the options they really liked in the file view and were core to their workflow.
We listened; today, we’re releasing an update to address the major points you raised.
More View Modes
You can now choose between 3 core view modes in the file list:
- Flat list (single column) – this was the only option previously in 1.9
- Flat list (multiple columns) – splits the flat list into separate columns for file name and path
- Tree view – clearly very popular and makes a comeback in this release
If you’re using a Git repository, you can also choose how you view staged changes:
- No staging – ignore the index and simply commit files that you check
- Fluid staging – staged and unstaged changes are in one list with headers between (previously the only option)
- Split view staging – the view is partitioned vertically into staged & unstaged panes which scroll independently. This also brings back drag & drop to stage/unstage.
Commit Selected
The ‘Commit Selected’ option was removed in 1.9 because you can do this by checking the boxes (when not staging) to commit files, but it became clear that it was still a useful shortcut for people. So the feature is back; if you’re not using staging it simply flips the right checkboxes for you and opens the commit popup, if you are using staging then SourceTree temporarily switches to the ‘No staging’ view and checks the boxes so you can commit selected files, then flips back to the staging view afterwards (with the staged changes from before preserved if you didn’t check those files).
There are other changes too:
- Fixed a ‘stuck refresh’ case
- Line selection in diff views is now preserved over refreshes
- More details in the full release notes
Thanks for your feedback and understanding, we hope you enjoy the new release.