My GUI requests and feedback on XnView MP

[budz45]

6. You still need to add a bottom UI borderline to distinguish the viewer from the status bar

Which borderline?

I mean if you can add a thin line at the bottom between the status bar and canvas, look here; http://i39.tinypic.com/6qz5ly.png or http://i42.tinypic.com/rm4oht.png - add it for both the 'viewer' and the 'browser' - could you add draw it in the next release?

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4. Thanks for changing it to "Options" in xnview mp 0.25. Do you plan on adding the 'Tools' drop-down menu in a next xnview mp release? I miss accessing "options" from that method

Oh I see you already have the 'Tools' drop-down menu in the 'Browser' window http://i41.tinypic.com/1i1xfd.png , so you could also add the same 'Tools' menu, and other other drop-down menu's, for the 'Viewer' window too in next xnview mp release. You still have to rename the "settings" to "Options" in the drop-down menu http://i40.tinypic.com/33mu2as.png http://i44.tinypic.com/rhihrt.png http://i41.tinypic.com/25rjskw.png

[budz45]

More comment:

- You Should do a rename 'Info' to "Help". The name "Help" is what you should use http://i44.tinypic.com/315c49h.png

- I think for Win XP, when the tab is active, the 16x16 thumb on the tab could adapt and have space between the active orange line and thumb picture because currently it looks squashed http://i43.tinypic.com/qsktw1.png when the tab isn't active the thumb looks fine - I hope it's not a QT limitation

[budz45]

........Also the current 16x thumb needs to be center displayed on the tab where as you can see it currently positioned slightly on the tab strip.
http://i48.tinypic.com/2dwhw7k.png

I would like the option in 'Settings' to instead display a 16x16 file icon on the tabs like this:
http://i45.tinypic.com/24ngrhw.png

Thank you Pierre for center-ing the 16x16 thumb icon on that tabs of xnview mp. Yes the second 16x file icon idea for tabs would be nice to see as an option in xnview mp - it could show internal xnview filetype icon OR system assigned filetype icon or offer the choice for both. Pierre, I think for this and more colourful tab features you could create a new Tab called 'Tabs' under Options>Interface and lay all future tab settings there.

Here is what I drew to visualize what I mean:



... and this is what each selection would do...


the blue arrow shows the setting I propose that would only and always display XnView's internal file icons, even same if image files have open with something else.

the green arrow shows the setting I propose for displaying icons as they appear on a user's system. Additionally if an image file is being associated with a default viewer or another viewer then on the tab it would show that same associated file icon.

the red arrow shows the current and only existing setting (currently still present in v0.25)

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Personally as a user, I would like to use the green option and show 16x16 system associated icons on the tabs.
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For file's with no extension, or otherwise no file icon, I think a nice plain Vista doc icon would look nice on the tabs:

download that 16x16 docu icon here

How do you like my mock-ups anyone?

[budz45]

Computer??

It should be named 'Desktop' (english)

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Info??

It should be named 'Help' (english)

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Quit??

It should be named 'Exit' (english)

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I'm just aiding your development

[budz45]

hi again,



Date??

It should be named as 'Modified' (english)



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This is XnView MP's 'details view' with the 'Sort Column Buttons' showing:



I would like to request a feature (enable/disable) to 'Always display sort column buttons' - I love this feature and always use it in my Vista folders and it even works on my Vista folders with large thumbnail displays.


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Could we have an option (enable/disable) for 'separate folder sorting' of files and folders together. I would like to disable it in XnView MP. In xplorer2 'separate folder sorting' is enabled by default:


'separate folder sorting' - I don't think it's known as that but as you can see in my screenshot of xplorer2 files that have been modified are sorted first over folders that have been modified and the same could be vice versa if a folder was the last item in the directory that was modified. In XYplorer I can disable it in it's configuration, here; http://i44.tinypic.com/2nhowh5.png

It's such a useful feature when editing an photo's and wanting to see an immediate difference in the file with date modified enabled.

[budz45]

= How do I enable/disable the showing of 'file extensions' and 'hidden files' in the Browser? Ok, if this feature is not yet possible but is planned then I hope this serves as just a reminder. No nags from me. Thank you.

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= XnView MP sometimes hangs in memory especially when minimizing and maximizing from the taskbar. The same sometimes when launching XnView MP. Perhaps it might be the lower specs on my other computer (Win XP) where I'm currently at. I didn't want to report this as a bug as I feel it's too early.

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= Would be nice for an option to 'keep focus' view of browser after file/folder changes

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= We need an option for XnView MP called 'Single instance only for XnView MP' - This basically means that if I have an instance of XnView MP already open and I drag n drop a picture to the xnview.exe it would not open a new instance of XnView MP but rather open the image in the current instance in a new or same tab according a to the users other options. You may be familiar with the feature in other applications especially media players like VLC. This option would sit nicely as a tickbox in the Options>Interface

[JohnFredC]

I would like to request a feature (enable/disable) to 'Always display sort column buttons' - I love this feature and always use it in my Vista folders and it even works on my Vista folders with large thumbnail displays.

Yes please! Support++++

One of the most convenient GUI enhancements, unfortunately not supported by most file managers/images viewers for thumbs display. TC (file manager) and Zoner (image manager) do support the feature (in a limited way), much to their credit.

The best approach for column controls is in Explorer, though. Wouldn't it be great to have that functionality in XnView?

Also, an interface to allow the user to select which columns to persist into thumbnail view would be very welcome.

[budz45]

I would like to request a feature (enable/disable) to 'Always display sort column buttons' - I love this feature and always use it in my Vista folders and it even works on my Vista folders with large thumbnail displays.

Yes please! Support++++

One of the most convenient GUI enhancements, unfortunately not supported by most file managers/images viewers for thumbs display. TC (file manager) and Zoner (image manager) do support the feature (in a limited way), much to their credit.

The best approach for column controls is in Explorer, though. Wouldn't it be great to have that functionality in XnView?

Also, an interface to allow the user to select which columns to persist into thumbnail view would be very welcome.

Yes like in Vista and 7's Explorer :

[budz45]

Yes I like the program icon in the mp "Options" window, please keep it for all future :

[budz45]

Computer??

It should be named 'Desktop' (english)

Yes this is definately a bug that I should have reported and I can still report.

The top one points to 'Desktop' but is named as 'Computer' and should be named as 'Desktop' because of it's icon. Then the second below one ('Computer' again) still points to the Desktop but should point to Computer/My Computer presumably since it has the correct icon for it.

This is how it looks on XYplorer:

It looks just normal on XYplorer's example.

Quit??

It should be named 'Exit' (english)

A forum member informed me about Linux users having it written as "Quit", I didn't know that. It's just on Windows I always see 'Exit' and if running on Windows 'Exit' looks better but whatever can be done so that all sides are happy then I support.

[budz45]

=If possible in the future I would really like to toggle the Browser display by using CTRL + Scroll function (like in Vista/7 explorer) to toggle different display views by scrolling (Details/Thumbnail/List/Thumbnail) so easily. It would be nice to see in XnView in the future.

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=It would be nice to have some more Thumbnail sizes in the browser display view. I think XnView has the capability of displaying 256x256 icons or maybe higher (512x512 Mac sizes).... I think this is planned but again just to serve as a idea reminder.


this file manager has it;



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= See this image below, I've ringed two menu items which could be slightly name changed:


'Toolbar' might be better named 'Action Toolbar'

'Small Toolbar' might be better named 'Folder Toolbar'

So that it clearly better indicates what toolbar is for what. Just a suggestion

[budz45]

1. Add an Option (enable/disable) for a 'Line counter' details view of Browser. It's a very useful feature:

(the pic is snapped from XYplorer)


2. It would be nice if when I clicked on 'Computer' in XnMP it could display Vista's icon overlay method of a disk space bar, to show free and used drive space on all drives.
Although, to be totally honest, I have never seen this on any File Manager yet. I wonder if it's possible? Any Win32 API needed or exist for this?:



3. I made a new larger sized Drag 'n' Drop icon which could be optionally used for drag n drop between MP and Explorer. I have seen a similar drag n drop icon on a WinRar skin and thought it might go nicely, in the far future, for XnMP:

OR

(To make the above I cut & edited this picture to then make this then finally the two above.)

[budz45]

Here are some more colourful but really useful feature requests (not too important now but in future XnView MP):

Launch a file from the address bar (like in win explorer):
I would really like to paste a full path to a file, from the clipboard, into XnView MP's address bar and press enter to launch the file in a Viewer tab. Just like how we can do this in Win Explorer's address bar. It would be nice since sometimes I have a full image file path like "C:\Downloads\cars1.jpg" (without quotes) and I wish to view the image in XnView MP immediately without going to the folder in the browser. in the current XnView MP, I cannot do this; http://i41.tinypic.com/124cz1g.png


A 'Copy Path' feature:
There are various explorer shell extensions which do this as well as some file-managers. Basically if I have any file of a folder in the browser and I want the file path to use manually for something then with the click of a button the full file path to the file on your system can be copied. Look at Shelltoy's 'copy path' feature, although explorer shell extensions can be problematic in this manner. It could work for both file and folder in the path copying. I would like to have this feature in XnView MP as both a right-click option (browser) and as a top menu entry under 'Edit'


A 'Open file from Clipboard' feature:
Like in VLC media player 1.0 we can do this. I also see a "Import clipboard" function that is under the 'Edit' menu in Xnview MP but I wonder if this is for editting only. May I propose a clone of that "Import clipboard" to also go under 'File' menu so that I can open files (images etc) from the clipboard also.
-The menu in VLC; http://i39.tinypic.com/14jn2ub.png , http://i41.tinypic.com/13zshtk.png
-XnMP already has; 'import clipboard' http://i39.tinypic.com/ieplwj.png so likely a menu copy of this could be made to put in the 'File' menu


A 'Tab tearing' feature:
I don't know of the obstacles for this request, but it would be nice if I could drag n drop a viewer tab out of the XnView MP interface for 2 reasons:
a. 'Windowless image viewing' - http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=17914 by dragging a tab to any place on the desktop to open this way.

b. Dragging tabs from XnView MP window to another XnView MP window (if the 'single instance' option is disabled)

[budz45]

Darn I've turned a simple feedback topic into a on-going request thread for XnView MP

I can't help predicting such great things for this software. It's going to be a great corss-platform app, the beta releases are showing this outlook.

Anyway, another idea:

=A 'Open in background' feature:

Wouldn't it be nice to open images from the browser in 'background' tabs as in they open as normal but it doesn't swithc immediately to that opened tab but stays on the current view of the Browser. Support for doing this by highlighting multiple-files would be nice also (highlight multiple files, right-click and 'open in background') and a message prompt could show warning the user of the amount of tabs that are about to be open. Sometimes I may be doing some file actions in the Browser with one image file and may want to open another image in 'background' for when I've finished handling the existing file.

It would be nice to see in Xnview MP in the future and is worth considering:

...With also hotkey support on this too, I recommend Ctrl+Shift+ENTER (Enter/left-click)

[budz45]

Some Tab Closing options:

Let me explain my scenario- Yesterday I had the Browser tab and two separate viewer tabs (images files) opened. So that's 3 tabs in total. I went back to the same Browser again in XnMP to open yet another image and viewed it and had fun. When it came to closing the tab of the image I found that the focus switched to the next left opened tab as I intended the view to switch back to the 'Browser' tab.

Like in Opera's preferences but other mdi web browsers have the control too:


For XnView MP I would like to see these tab closing options under "View" menu with a sub-menu for the choices for tab behaviour on closing a tab. This is a much needed feature.