Data Inspector vs Visual Preview: Preferences? Use cases? Tips?

The first thing I do whenever opening FME anywhere is select Inspect with Data Inspector when Visual Preview window closed in the options.

The only time I ever use Visual Preview is generally for answering a question here where I want to show the workspace and output in one screen print.

I like the fact that I have everything at my fingertips in a single application with Visual Preview, but it’s a constant battle for screen real estate, especially on a laptop. So maybe I should give Data Inspector a try again and see how I like that.

I do seem to notice in the more recent versions of FME that Visual Preview is not behaving quite right. For example, it always opens the Feature Information panel (even when I close it, exit Workbench and start it again, it keeps popping up) and that is the one that I prefer to only use when I need it.

Data Inspector only. Even when I work on a single screen, I still use de Data Inspector and Alt-Tab between it and workbench.

I believe the Feature Information window is important (especially for new users) because this is the only place where you can see all the unexposed attributes. And if you do not know something exists, it is hard to look for. But in the newer versions these are collapsed, making something easy, harder to work with. 🙄

When using Visual Preview, most users sacrifice the Translation Log for screen space. More often then not have I assisted users with an issue which would be obvious when blue and/or red text is passing that window.

I also only use the Data Inspector! Visual preview is very small and if you have a lot of data it is to small to see what you need.

I dont use FME on 1 screen because of this reason. 

I'm a Data Inspector shill mostly because of some of the stuff others have mentioned; I have multiple screens anyway, I want to be able to read the log easily after translation, I cannot see anything in the visual preview because it has to condense so much information in a small area, and I need the Feature Information window.  I am already shivering at the idea of having to navigate 3D data in the visual preview window in a poststamp viewport.

Rightly or wrongly, I often have views numbered well into double figures in the data inspector too...

It depends.

On small screens with a limited number of features I prefer the Visual Preview.  Also when I want to look  at the data at several locations in my workspace I tend to use Visual Preview (with data caching enabled).

When I want to view large feature sets, or want to keep access to the data for some time, I switch to the Data Inspector.

In 2023 and older versions I always added a button to the toolbar to ‘Show/hide the Visual Preview window’ to make switching between Visual Preview and Data Inspector easier, but in 2024 this option is no longer available. And I also set the option to Inspect with Data Inspector when the Visual Preview window is closed.

I like to use the Data Inspector when working on a task myself or troubleshooting problems and I use the Visual Preview when demonstrating the process and results to others. Sometimes I also use the Visual Preview to do quick checks with smaller datasets while using basemaps from my organization.

Thanks for the overview - it seems like the overwhelming majority of replies here still use the inspector, same as me