1.5.3 (64bit) - Draw - Tool menu layout very ineffective

[FlyBee]

XnView: MP 1.5.3 - 64 bit
OS: Windows 10 22H2 - 64Bit

Draw Tool - Menu arragenment shifted from one menu at bottom of screen to two menus - left and right - splitting the fucntions.

Effect: Excessive mouse movement is requires as EACH function requires input left (select function) and then right (define parameters)
Previously in one menu, the mouse movement was much shorter.
We use Draw to comment a lot of pictures and the mouse movement is so excessive that we have hand pain.
Yellow arrow marks the current mouse movement.


Correction:
Move the right menu pane under hte left menu pane thus the mouse movement will be back to normal "distance" as before.
Mouse movement in blue shows how much less mouse movement will be required.

Cheers,
FlyBee

[winnylinny]

I agree, this is very important UI design. It would follow the same practical layout as GIMP and Photoshop.

This should be posted under "Suggestions", not "Bugs".

[user0]

you can check why it has been changed in Draw - rearrange controls
also there is solution for your "excessive mouse movement" issue:

some of the following improvements may help:
- detachable panels/toolbars, so user can reposition or make them float (eg like in photoshop, see image below)
- tools shortcuts (eg X - swap colors, D - default colors [bw], T - text, Z - zoom, U - rectangle,ellips,line [sequential selection, as in ps, but can be different])

Draw - tools - add shortcuts is in TODO list


ps

I agree, this is very important UI design. It would follow the same practical layout as GIMP and Photoshop.

I would not use "practical layout" and "GIMP" in the same sentence )

[xnview]

what will be better as layout?

[FlyBee]

Thx for sharing the link to the dev discussion - I could not find it when I was searching for the topic.. sorry

The split of left and right panel is logical for space utilisation - agreed.
Our Screen resolution is 1920 x 1200 px, most pictures are 4:3 standard size.
We use the right vertical clear space to place a Sticky Note (app "Simple Sticky Note") for standard comments which we copy/paste into the text box.

Splitting menu tools left and tool properties right makes sense in Photoshop/Lightroom etc as you work extensively within the one tool over more pictures.
Draw is for me a commenting tool - therefore the workflow is very different.
I swap a lot between arrow, boxes and comments. Therefore there is a lot more action of tool selection, adjustment of tool (mainly text) and marking of picture. Next picture ->> Arrow, box, text, Next picture ->> arrow, text and so on.

So my suggestion would be - keep everything in the left pane , arrange tools icons on a top row, zoom in the bottom.
Make the left pane a bit wider to have a descent text box size.
Scrapping the right side menu will allow wide pictures (16/10) to utilise the space.


The order of the op menu is on purpose: Colour selection >> Point +back/redo >> Comment tools
Same on bottom: Show Zoom Factor and than zoom tools.

Maybe others like the layout as well, comments welcome.

Cheers,
FlyBee

[user0]

if not time yet for detachable functionality, maybe allow properties panel to stick to the left/right side via panel context menu

[FlyBee]

Works fine with me.
Everything ok, which reduces mouse movement.

[xnview]

See issue for current status and some details.

[xnview]

This problem is supposed to be fixed in XnView MP 1.5.4. Please check and confirm the bug fix here.

[FlyBee]

Bug Fix is there and working VERY nicely now.

Big THX !!

FlyBee