XnView Software

For XnView testing I reset my configuration quite often to default settings. What I find really cumbersome is the long list of formats when saving. One of the strengths of XnView are the many supported formats; but I guess there are few users who open exotic formats and even fewer users that save their images in exotic formats.

Suggestions:
A - By default only the most common formats should be available when saving images (drop downlist of "Save as" dialog)
B - When opening an image and saving it using "Save" dialog the format must not be changed - even if it is an exotic format.
C - In Tools » Settings | Interface » Formats | Saving there should be a button "Most common" which selects most common formats (just like in XnView Classic)

Note:
In XnView Classic (see link below) the most common formats were listed at the top and separated by a separator all other formats except the common formats at the bottom. Today (12 years later), I can say that this didn't work out well: The list was still very large and people searching entries in alphabetical order didn't find them because they were listed at top as common format. Either the list should contain only the common formats (which can be chosen by the user) or the list should contain common formats at the top and *all* formats at the bottom in alphabetical order.

Related topic:
- "Most common" file types

helmut wrote:For XnView testing I reset my configuration quite often to default settings. What I find really cumbersome is the long list of formats when saving. One of the strengths of XnView are the many supported formats; but I guess there are few users who open exotic formats and even fewer users that save their images in exotic formats.

Suggestions:
A - By default only the most common formats should be available when saving images (drop downlist of "Save as" dialog)
B - When opening an image and saving it using "Save" dialog the format must not be changed - even if it is an exotic format.
C - In Tools » Settings | Interface » Formats | Saving there should be a button "Most common" which selects most common formats (just like in XnView Classic)

Would it be practical to have a drop-down list in the Save as... dialog to allow quick selection of show 'Common formats' or 'All formats' as required?

The existing Save as... format dialog drop-down list is very wide, so a separate drop-down list could possibly be placed alongside it?

cday wrote:Would it be practical to have a drop-down list in the Save as... dialog to allow quick selection of show 'Common formats' or 'All formats' as required?

The existing Save as... format dialog drop-down list is very wide, so a separate drop-down list could possibly be placed alongside it?

Hmm, perhaps a solution. But from I can read it's hard to impossible to modify the standard dialogs using QT (see discussion about "Format settings" button in "Save as" dialog).

helmut wrote:

cday wrote:Would it be practical to have a drop-down list in the Save as... dialog to allow quick selection of show 'Common formats' or 'All formats' as required?

The existing Save as... format dialog drop-down list is very wide, so a separate drop-down list could possibly be placed alongside it?

Hmm, perhaps a solution. But from I can read it's hard to impossible to modify the standard dialogs using QT (see discussion about "Format settings" button in "Save as" dialog).

QT has it limitations but if it can be implemented it would provide better usability...

It could also easily be extended to show a third option 'Custom formats' (selected in settings) for the ultimate in on the fly usability...

CorelDraw allows users to customize which file formats are available/visible for import/open and export/save. File formats are grouped into categories (“Sort type”: Raster, Vector, PostScript, Text, Animation etc.), and you can specify the order.

• WebReference: CorelDraw 101
  • Import/Export Overview
  • Import and Export Filters

Take care here: disabling formats "by default" means that these formats does not "exist" for a lot of newbies.

Besides that I think that Tools | Settings | General | "Show All Formats" must be enabled by default.

I think helmut is right that at present format selection is not ideal: it often involves a lot of scrolling that is tedious, and in XnView Classic I've often found that the 'common' formats listed at the top are out of sight above the full list and so rather hidden.

So including all formats in the full list as suggested would be at least a small improvement, although 'MP doesn't have the divider at present anyway.

But usability could be substantially improved if it were possible to select between the short 'common' format list and the long 'full' format list directly in the Save as... dialog. That way only the short list would normally be shown, but it would also be easy to select a format from the long list when required.

Is there is a way of implementing that, with a drop-down list for example...