Easily access Search Presets from main browser UI + other preset tweaks

Ideas for improvements and requests for new features in XnView MP

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Franolich
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2024 12:45 pm

Easily access Search Presets from main browser UI + other preset tweaks

Post by Franolich »

I'm using XnViewMP for the first time and am really enjoying it so far. There is one piece of functionality that would be extremely useful but which I believe is currently missing, namely to have an easy way to execute search presets from the main browser UI.

As a concrete use case, say I have various files with filenames beginning with "Test" scattered across several folders and with category "Failed". The files matching these criteria changes over time. I would like to access a list of all such files via the main browser UI instead of habing to open the Search dialog and choose a preset.
  • Quick Search is no good as it is not recursive and cannot handle more complex search criteria.
  • Could use Albums but that means having to manually add files to an album. It would be easy to accidentally forget to add files, especially if the search criteria for adding files are complex or there are a lot of files that meet these conditions.
  • Could assign all the relevant files to a new Category but again this requires manual effort and could clutter up the category list.
I suggest introducing one or preferably both of the following:
  1. Make the Search button in the browser toolbar have a dropdown arrow next to it which, when clicked, shows a list of Search Presets. Clicking on a preset executes the search.
  2. In the Catalog Filter Pane, add an entry listing the search presets. Again clicking a preset performs the search.
    Right clicking on a preset should show options such as "Edit preset", "Delete preset", etc.
As I am setting up quite a few search presets, I found the following niggles with the preset UI:
  • There is no easy way to update or rename a preset. If I add a new preset and then want to tweak it, I have to click the add button again and type in the exact same preset name if I want to update it.
    I suggest adding a Save Preset button. When clicked, a dialog pops up showing the current preset name in a text box, giving the opportunity to rename the preset.
  • The preset list should be ordered alphabetically but currently seems to be ordered by the time of preset creation.