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

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 1:14 am
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
01_About_as_tab_mock-screenshot.png (105.14 KiB) Viewed 6551 times
an example of an integrated 'user Help' file right from within the 'About' interface:
01_About_as_tab_USER-HELP_mock-screenshot.png
01_About_as_tab_USER-HELP_mock-screenshot.png (191.23 KiB) Viewed 6551 times
This is not an essential feature needed but still one to consider for the future.

What does anyone think of this proposal so far?

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

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 4:18 pm
by xnview
budz45 wrote:What does anyone think of this proposal so far?
Interesting if there is help in about tab :)

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

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 2:04 pm
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.

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

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 8:45 pm
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.

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

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 9:19 am
by xnview
Please check XnViewMP 0.48

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

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 11:50 pm
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

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

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2012 11:55 pm
by budz45
Thank you. Fixed in XnViewMP 0.50 :)

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

Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 12:06 am
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... :?: