1.98 Annoying features to fix

[scooterXnview]

[XnView 1.98 German, Windows XP SP3]

Annoying features
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These are XnView 'features' which should be corrected or improved in order to facilitate the work with XnView and to minimize the need for mouse clicks.


UI:


(1) The list in 'Info,Plug-Ins Information' is not the same as in 'Tools,Plugin' (note the spelling of 'Plugin' as well). You better rename the second to 'Tools,Add-ons.'


(2) With dialogs, leave a bit more space for label texts for other languages; otherwise, the text in the non-English language would be cut off.


(3) View menu: It is time-consuming if you have to make multiple clicks to find the settings you like. You better use a big dialog that updates the UI each time you check a setting, so you can test the result and accept the layout which suits you. Your approach - splitting the layout settings into multiple menu entries - is quite antiquated.


(4) 'Tools,Export' should better be called 'Tools,Convert.'




BROWSER:


(5) There still is no proper drag 'n' drop under Windows, which is a major restriction! Though you can move a file to another folder by pressing the left mouse button and dragging the file to the folder, it would be much better to follow accepted Windows rules by offering a dragging mode via the right mouse button. Your solution (Copy to folder/Move to folder) is helpful with copying/moving a number of files to a single folder. But what if you want to copy/move to different folders? By now you have to perform troublesome chooses of the destination folders.


(6) The progress bar used for indicating the reading of a new folder in order to create thumbnails ignores folders and the time needed for creating up to four thumbnails in the folder's thumbnail, so in a huge folder with many sub-folders XnView seems to do nothing until it reaches the single files, at which time the progress bar suddenly appears.


(7) If you mark multiple files and call the Properties dialog of the context menu, XnView sometimes opens such a dialog for each file marked. Better rely on the default behavior of a single properties dialog for all marked files. Otherwise, create a particular context menu entry 'Properties for all.' At other times, XnView opens a Properties dialog for only the first marked file.


(8) With a folder containing a vast amount of files: Scrolling via the scroll bar is much faster than scrolling via the mouse wheel, for with the wheel, the UI seems to rebuild the partial view each time, which doesn't happen when using the scroll bar. But this might be an effect of the layout used by your programming language.


(9) If you want to copy/move a file and there already is a file in the destination folder with the same name, XnView displays a dialog. If you choose 'Skip', this file is skipped, but the source folder is reread unnecessarily (view flicker).


(10) A thumbnail for a PDF content is generated each time the folder is accessed and is not stored to database.


(11) XnView should always display a sandclock when there are time-consuming file operations oder conversions.


(12) Context menu, 'Copy Image Data': There is no hint what this entry is good for, not even in the help file.


(13) When XnView claims to have no EXIF data for an image file, you still can find some by other tools, such as JPEGsnoop. So XnView displays only parts of all available data.


(14) Why does XnView use a dialog with complex tabs at the top, as with 'Edit IPTC data,' with using a clearly arranged dialog as with 'Tools,Options?' Simplify!


(15) 'Edit,Metadata'Recreate EXIF thumbnail' has the same effect as Context menu's 'Rebuild thumbnails', except that the new thumbnail is slightly smaller. So the purpose of it is not recognizable.





AUTO-REFRESH:


(16) Ctrl+R refreshes the current folder only, unfortunately. This seems to be no problem, but the common behavior in most other applications is the complete view to be refreshed, or all of the thumbnails of the current folder, resp.


(17) Auto-Refresh in the Folder View is done automatically only when you click in this view. If you don't, you will encounter a folder being renamed in the Thumbnail View while still labeling the original name (or 'New folder' after creating a folder) in the Folder View.


(18) While moving/copying of html iles moves/copies the companion folder as well with the View auto-refreshed, this is not the fact with deleting html files.




CANCELING XNVIEW:


(19) Right-clicking on a view tab and choosing 'Close All' is much faster in tab removing than the tab removing while canceling XnView by clicking the Cancel button or by right-clicking the Windows task bar entry 'Close XnView.'




DELETING FILES/FOLDERS:


(20) An open file view in any XnView instance window locks this file for other XnView instances, so you have to switch to each instance to find which instance has this file opened in a view in order to close it abd being able to delete it eventually.




IMAGE FULL VIEW:


(21) You can rename oder delete the image file, but not copy and paste it to other folders of any XnView instance; you first have to switch to the Browser.

[XnTriq]

- Peek before your post!
Please search the forum a bit before posting your question/problem. Often, a specific question or problem has been asked before and has been answered, already. The answers provided in forum XnView - FAQ might answer your question immediately.

- One problem/question per post.
Please start one topic per problem/question. This will make answering easier.

[scooterXnview]

Hi XnTriq,

thanks for the mild reprimand . In my defense, I must say I had little time for posting then, so I just copied a report I typed earlier. Moreover, the subject didn't fit entirely into the forum topics 'Bugs' and 'Suggestions,' but at least I numbered the individual items, so anybody seems to be able to reply without problems.

I promise to make individual posts next time.

[XnTriq]

Hello scooterXnview

Thanks for your requests and bug reports.
It's in our own best interest as users to make it as easy as possible for Pierre (the sole developer of all things Xn) and other forum members to respond to posts.

Welcome to the forum!