XnView Software

To throw in my 2 cents: i think double-clicking on an EVEN THINNER seperator would be hard to do. I think it's ok as it is - i don't care about 2 pixels more or less.

One minor thing though: the resize icon with 2 lines ( <-||-> ) is normally being used if there's a completely collapsed (invisible) coulmn between 2 visible coloumns. So the icon with just one line would be more appropriate: <-|->

I think the new, thinner separator is as functional as old one, while freeing a bit of space and adding lightness to XnView appearance.

I would like to note, that it looks to me like size of active area of separators are the same, so arguments about not-so-easy grabbing of separator are invalid and come out of user auto-suggestion. Also XnView does not care for accessibility features so I don't see any reason it should care here.

Olivier_G wrote:-> Pierre, is it possible to include that outline into the active area?
That would make the active area 8 pixels large (compared to 5).

No, it's not possible

xnview wrote:

Olivier_G wrote:-> Pierre, is it possible to include that outline into the active area?

No, it's not possible

Thank you for the answer, Pierre.

So what about this suggestion:



- Active button has been enlarged to 8 pixels in width and 39 in height (vs: 6x31 for previous ones).
- 3D outline (ie: inactive area) is only 1 pixel large.
-> It is slightly smaller than the previous large separator while offering 60% more width for useful/active area. I think it is a good compromise of the various opinions expressed previously.

Olivier
PS: For comparison, here are current implementation (left) and previous suggestion (right):

I like Olivier_G's suggestion and support it.

ckit wrote:I like Olivier_G's suggestion and support it.

Me 2.

That border around the folder tree pane and stuff in ß5 looks damn ugly. And it's a waste of space as well. I say: be gone.

As far as I understand the issue:
- The 3D effect is handled by the GUI manager and Pierre has little control over it: you'll get a 3-4 pixel inactive outline anyway. The only thing you can do is choose the type of outline -> it might be somewhat improved here.
- It might be possible to skip completely that 3D effect and include it in the design of the separators (+whole separator would be active). The issue is that it requires more testing and design work and can't be implemented for 1.90.

Summary: Pierre might come with a slightly better looking solution for 1.90 (with the same active size, etc...). And that's all we should hope for now...

Pierre, is this accurate?

Olivier_G wrote:As far as I understand the issue:
- The 3D effect is handled by the GUI manager and Pierre has little control over it: you'll get a 3-4 pixel inactive outline anyway. The only thing you can do is choose the type of outline -> it might be somewhat improved here.
- It might be possible to skip completely that 3D effect and include it in the design of the separators (+whole separator would be active). The issue is that it requires more testing and design work and can't be implemented for 1.90.

Summary: Pierre might come with a slightly better looking solution for 1.90 (with the same active size, etc...). And that's all we should hope for now...

Pierre, is this accurate?

Yes, but currently i can't change it for this version

Not sure whether this has been discussed before or not:

In Beta 6 all separators "blink" when moving the mouse onto the arrow for minimizing/maximizing the pane area. I.e. the separator is shown in dark gray (instead of light grey). This is a nice gimmick, but
a.) the user is irritated (at least I am whenever moving the mouse onto such an arrow).
b.) if the user happens to move the mouse over the area, the whole separator blinks for a quick instant which is again irritating.

I strongly recommend not to make the separator dark gray. Changing the symbol is enough visual feedback.

Sorry to disagree with you Helmut... but I like the new momentary highlighting of the separators. Very communicative.