Format colour: Improving user interface and .ini file

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helmut
Posts: 8705
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2003 6:47 pm
Location: Frankfurt, Germany

Format colour: Improving user interface and .ini file

Post by helmut »

In XnView 0.85 and before the user interface for setting format colours (Settings: File list | Format colours) has various flaws and causes a lot of confusion, see bug report 0.83: Format colors isn't working for custom file extensions. From my point of view the main reason for this confusion is the missing difference between formats and extensions in both dialog and config file.

Below please find some suggestions to improve the "Format colour" user interface and the entry in the config file:

Dialog: List of formats and colours: Columns "Format" and "Extension"
Format | Extensions
In "Format" column the full name of the format is shown, e.g. "True vision targa".
In "Extensions" column all the extension that are used by this format are listed.

Dialog: List of formats and colours: Column titles
List of formats and colours should have column titles ("Format" and "Extensions")

Dialog: Custom format in drop downlist
In the drop down list of formats there should be a custom format "<none>" or "<custom>". This means that this is a user defined format and only extensions are specified. Custom format should be listed at the top of the drop down list.

Dialog: Order of entry fields
One format has one or multiple file extensions. The user should first choose a format and then specify the extensions. When choosing a predefined format like "JPEG / JFIF" the extension field is disabled. Only when choosing a custom format the extension field is enabled and the user can specify extensions.

Config file: Different notation
In the config file there should be a clear difference between formats and extensions. If available, the full format name should be written in the config file, e.g. "JPEG / JFIF". And extensions should be written in a notation ".avi".
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