XnView Software

Do you think that if i add for preview pane, a popup menu to enable or disable pane (Histogram, EXIF, XMP, IPTC, MAP, ..) will be good?

xnview wrote:Do you think that if i add for preview pane, a popup menu to enable or disable pane (Histogram, EXIF, XMP, IPTC, MAP, ..) will be good?

You mean here for the "Info" item ?

If it's the case, yes, why not, I support - +1

oops66 wrote:

xnview wrote:Do you think that if i add for preview pane, a popup menu to enable or disable pane (Histogram, EXIF, XMP, IPTC, MAP, ..) will be good?

You mean here for the "Info" item ?

Yes, some users don't need for example XMP, and would like to remove the XMP tab.
What do you think?

Yes, I support +1

Pierre

Hello !

• I support a customizable tabs row too !

KR
Claude
Clo

I must say, the way the info (and preview) pane works is not exactly intuitive currently.
I managed to lost the preview pane today with no way to make it reappear.(I just clicked view > info pane > use tabs, and bam no more preview !)
the relationship the preview pane seems to holds with the info pane is particularly confusing. why is 'preview' listed under the menu: view > info pane ?
I'm not sure I understand the 'use tabs' under the same menu, is that just to allow people to gain a tiny bit of space (the height of the tabs) if they only want to view one info content view at a time (and then having to choose what view they want to display by going through the menu view > info pane >..) ?
The 'attach preview pane' item in all panes context menu also really stand out as an anomaly, attach where? ah.. in the info pane! (is that just to have horizontal tab on top instead of vertical -or only bottom- ones when you dock the preview pane in the info pane ?)
I have a feeling many of the obscure commands in the view menu are there because for some reason the info pane child views are not following the modular behavior of the rest of the application.
to add to the confusion some terminology is currently "wrong" ie: there isn't a "tree pane" like the menu suggests, there is a folder, favorite and category panes grouped within a tabbed nav.

the way we can tear and dock pane in xnviewMP is absolutely awesome, extremely intuitive and actually nicer that some other classic implementations.
I'm glad qt allowed you to implement that natively.

I believe that simplifying the current panes/tab hierarchy and making the tearing and docking generic across the whole ui, would make things more flexible, easier to maintain and easier to understand for both the new and the experienced user.

I see there any way that the info pane child tabs could also be made tearable. (the current behavior does allow some funky nested vertical/horizontal tabs, but it does feel more confusing than it should imho).
would it be possible to create horizontal tabs instead of vertical ones when docking panes ? or even let the user decide the tabs orientation for each group of tabbed panes.
it seems like you are having difficulties to implement tearing/docking pane with horizontal tabs ON TOP.
A thematic hierarchy should be maintained within the "view" menu,(with corrected terminology) but ui wise I would try to avoid fixed view nesting and keep all views on the same level.
having the properties/histogram/categories/etc.. as tearable/dockable pane would make everything fall in place suddenly.

the ideal solution would be to:
.Keep the current behavior for the docking behavior (perfect).
.Be able to tear off any views by dragging it's tab directly (instead of having to drag from a pane title bar only).
.Allow tabs on top/bottom/side through a contextual menu for any grouped views.
.Have some close action on the tab itself.
.Avoid nested tabs.

thibaud wrote:I managed to lost the preview pane today with no way to make it reappear.(I just clicked view > info pane > use tabs, and bam no more preview !)

You can always reproduce it?

the relationship the preview pane seems to holds with the info pane is particularly confusing. why is 'preview' listed under the menu: view > info pane ?

Perhaps the label is not good. Info & preview are in the same pane...

I'm not sure I understand the 'use tabs' under the same menu, is that just to allow people to gain a tiny bit of space (the height of the tabs) if they only want to view one info content view at a time (and then having to choose what view they want to display by going through the menu view > info pane >..) ?

Yes it's that

I have a feeling many of the obscure commands in the view menu are there because for some reason the info pane child views are not following the modular behavior of the rest of the application.
to add to the confusion some terminology is currently "wrong" ie: there isn't a "tree pane" like the menu suggests, there is a folder, favorite and category panes grouped within a tabbed nav.

So which term will be better?

I see there any way that the info pane child tabs could also be made tearable. (the current behavior does allow some funky nested vertical/horizontal tabs, but it does feel more confusing than it should imho).

The tabbed panes in info (properties, exif, ...) are not "dock" widget (like folder, favorites, ...).
I use for all info panes, a tab widget. I can hide some tab when the info is not here (like xnView 1.97)
If all panes are "dock" widget, i can't hide them easily.

.Be able to tear off any views by dragging it's tab directly (instead of having to drag from a pane title bar only).

Currently there is no way in QT

.Allow tabs on top/bottom/side through a contextual menu for any grouped views.

How that?

.Have some close action on the tab itself.

ok

.Avoid nested tabs.

You means Properties/EXIF/XMP/... tabs?

xnview wrote:

thibaud wrote:I managed to lost the preview pane today with no way to make it reappear.(I just clicked view > info pane > use tabs, and bam no more preview !)

You can always reproduce it?

yes. win 7 x64 default ini. preview image is gone but preview pane is still there. when checking "use tabs" again, the preview image reappear right under the info pane tab nav.

xnview wrote:

thibaud wrote: the relationship the preview pane seems to holds with the info pane is particularly confusing. why is 'preview' listed under the menu: view > info pane ?

Perhaps the label is not good. Info & preview are in the same pane...

they are not in the same pane when xnviewMP is first launched. it would be far much better to let the user have them in the same pane through a tear/dock action just like for the rest of the ui. instead of some obscure menu command that are nothing more than a workaround a current ui limitation.(which could be avoided if the several info views were dock widgets and not restricted in a sublevel of the ui)

xnview wrote:

thibaud wrote: I'm not sure I understand the 'use tabs' under the same menu, is that just to allow people to gain a tiny bit of space (the height of the tabs) if they only want to view one info content view at a time (and then having to choose what view they want to display by going through the menu view > info pane >..) ?

Yes it's that

then, again having them as dock widget would allow just that.

xnview wrote:

thibaud wrote: I have a feeling many of the obscure commands in the view menu are there because for some reason the info pane child views are not following the modular behavior of the rest of the application.
to add to the confusion some terminology is currently "wrong" ie: there isn't a "tree pane" like the menu suggests, there is a folder, favorite and category panes grouped within a tabbed nav.

So which term will be better?

the terms "pane" suggest a ui view. I think it should be avoided as views can be arranged/grouped in many ways and will not always reflect the default ui arrangement. a thematic hierarchy should be used like (just an example, not a real proposal ):
NAVIGATION >
.folders
.favorites
.categories
INFO >
.properties
.EXIF
.etc..
VISUALISATION >
.Preview
.histogram

the "show" command under the same menu is also problematic/useless as I could have the folders/favorites/categories in 3 distinct places in the ui, I think it's far easier to close the tabs individually by clicking the close button on the pane title bar.or even better, provide grouped pane tab navigation own menu like: close (close selected tab), close tab group, split horizontal, split vertical, tabs on top/left/right/bottom, ...

xnview wrote:

thibaud wrote:Is there any way that the info pane child tabs could also be made tearable. (the current behavior does allow some funky nested vertical/horizontal tabs, but it does feel more confusing than it should imho).

The tabbed panes in info (properties, exif, ...) are not "dock" widget (like folder, favorites, ...).
I use for all info panes, a tab widget. I can hide some tab when the info is not here (like xnView 1.97)
If all panes are "dock" widget, i can't hide them easily.

I understand, yet the simplification this would bring to the whole ui would be worth the effort , otherwise what about just disabling them, certainly less elegant, though one could argue that actually seeing the disabled info properties labels helps identifying quickly the missing ones (instead of guessing which ones are missing by having to read the ones present)

xnview wrote:

thibaud wrote: .Be able to tear off any views by dragging it's tab directly (instead of having to drag from a pane title bar only).

Currently there is no way in QT

real shame, how hard would it be to customize that in qt ?
I've used some app developped with qt that did allowed that. (nuke 5.x is an example,check it out by installing the personal learning edition).

xnview wrote:

thibaud wrote: .Allow tabs on top/bottom/side through a contextual menu for any grouped views.

How that?

like that ?

just an example again, some explanation:
split commands may not be needed as the docking behavior is extremely flexible as it is.
float pane & close pane are also doable from the bar icons (on the right).
float tab should also be doable by dragging a tab.
close tab could be assigned on middle mouse button on tab.
show tab, allows retractable panel title/tabs when unchecked if you want to gain yet some more screen space. (taken from nuke 5 - definitely something I could live without).
the rest should be self explanatory.

xnview wrote:

thibaud wrote:.Avoid nested tabs.

You means Properties/EXIF/XMP/... tabs?

yes.

yes, would be good to remove some of those tabs IF it means you also process less data.