The 'About' window as a tab (for future)

Ideas for improvements and requests for new features in XnView MP

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budz45
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The 'About' window as a tab (for future)

Post by budz45 »

Hi,

Originally I am more than happy with the 'About' interface of XnView MP displaying as a separate window. It is fine just the way it is.

But as an idea and in line with some users healthy vision of non-modal-'ness' in XnView MP, it would be nice to think about 'About' window opening as a tab in the same way that "Batch Rename" can currently open with a tab (v0.39) via holding the Shift key.

Rationale for this idea:
  • It would allow for a wider-screen viewing of the 'About' interface and it's sub-tabs
  • Would unify the whole GUI more (less/non-modal) (example. Opera web browser also opens it's 'About' as a webpage tab)
  • A future program Help file (.chm) with inclusive search box could be better viewed in this tab way (under About)
  • A tab method could probably aid in reducing program crashes (separate windows of MDI apps can contribute more to program crashes)
  • Would allow for Fullscreen viewing of a 'Help' info (see mock-screenshots below)
Below is are two mock-screenshots I have just created to illustrate all of this:
01_About_as_tab_mock-screenshot.png
an example of an integrated 'user Help' file right from within the 'About' interface:
01_About_as_tab_USER-HELP_mock-screenshot.png
This is not an essential feature needed but still one to consider for the future.

What does anyone think of this proposal so far?
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xnview
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Re: The 'About' window as a tab (for future)

Post by xnview »

budz45 wrote:What does anyone think of this proposal so far?
Interesting if there is help in about tab :)
Pierre.
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JohnFredC
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Re: The 'About' window as a tab (for future)

Post by JohnFredC »

Help in a separate "About" tab is a brilliant idea. Perhaps implementing it as an internet browser would offer the best flexibility.

MP would default to a local HTML file (to provide functionality when the internet isn't available) but link to the XnView website upon user request.

Really, this is a fantastic idea.
John
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XnTriq
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Re: The 'About' window as a tab (for future)

Post by XnTriq »

Adobe Photoshop Elements, which is also based on Qt, has a help (“Hints”) and a recipes (“How To”) palette/docker.
XnTriq (19/Jan/2011) wrote:Our friend oops66 mentioned LPROF.
The Win32 binaries of this ICC profiler are build with Qt and come with an HTML-based help system:
  • lprof-setup-1.11.4.1.2.exe (7-Zip)
    • \bin\assistant.exe
      \share\lprof\data\help\lprof-help.adp (XML)
      \share\lprof\data\help\*.html
      \share\lprof\data\help\*.jpg
      \share\lprof\data\help\*.png
Note: You'll have to move \lprof.exe to \bin\lprof.exe. Otherwise it won't find assistant.exe.
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xnview
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Re: The 'About' window as a tab (for future)

Post by xnview »

Please check XnViewMP 0.48
Pierre.
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budz45
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Re: The 'About' window as a tab (for future)

Post by budz45 »

xnview wrote:Please check XnViewMP 0.48
Thank you for implementing the option for "About" as tab, it looks really nice with a spacious layout as a tab :D

...Now for in the future is the next challenge of implementing a 'Help' item within this about tab
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budz45
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Re: The 'About' window as a tab (for future)

Post by budz45 »

Thank you. Fixed in XnViewMP 0.50 :)
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JohnFredC
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Re: The 'About' window as a tab (for future)

Post by JohnFredC »

Well, yes the new About dialog is nicely tabbed... but I was responding positively to the idea of About (and Help and the rest) appearing in a document tab, not a modal dialog! :?

I guess that wouldn't work for users who abhor tabbed documents and disable the tabs... :?:
John