Page 1 of 2
New menu "View > Explorer pane"
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 9:38 pm
by helmut
In XnView 1.90 browser there are new menu items:
Code: Select all
View >
...
Explorer pane >
Folders
Favorites
----------------
Show
Use tab
Preview >
Preview
Use tab
Instead, I suggest the following menu structure:
Code: Select all
View >
...
Tree pane >
Show
Use tabs
----------------
Folders
Favorites
Preview >
Show
Use tabs
------------------
Preview
Histogram
Properties
EXIF
Reasons for the changes are:
- Inconsistent naming
"Show" and "Preview" are used for showing the panes, this is inconsistent. It should say "Show" in both cases or "Explorer" and "Preview", respectively.
- Menu items for choosing tabs: Missing
There are menu items "Folder" and "Favorites" for choosing the tab in the Explorer pane, but there are no such menu items in the Preview sub menu.
- Menu items for choosing tabs: Position
Instead of listing the menu items for switching tabs at the top, I'd list them at the bottom. Advantage is that the menu items at the top are the same for both submenus.
- Mnemonics and/or shortcuts
I doubt that the menu items for choosing tabs are often used via mouse. For this reason we should provide shortcuts (Ctrl+<key>) and/or mnemonics. (Not so sure about this one).
- Explorer pane vs. Tree pane
When using the term "Explorer" you might run into licence problems and trials with a large software company. Also, the Explorer pane does not really allow for exploring, it's the combination of folder tree/favourites and file list. (Not so sure about this one, either).
- Use tab*s*
While we are at it: A minor bug in the translation (I'll report it here for the alpha but will repeat it for the beta). It should say "Use tabs" rather than "Use tab".
Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:29 pm
by JohnFredC
I personally don't care for either "Explorer pane" or "Tree pane" nomenclature.
How about this:
Code: Select all
View >
...
Navigator >
Show
Use tabs
----------------
Folder Tree
Favorites
"Navigator" would not conflict with functionality offered by possible/future subpanels, such as a new subpanel to filter the file/thumbnail list based on Tags/Categories.
Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 4:54 pm
by klumy
I think
Folder Tree
Favorites
should be removed from the menu. Because these commands are easier to access via the normal interface than with the menu commands.
Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2006 10:28 am
by helmut
klumy wrote:I think
Folder Tree
Favorites
should be removed from the menu. Because these commands are easier to access via the normal interface than with the menu commands.
Yes and no: I don't like the two menu items, either. In "View > Preview >" menu there will be even four of them.
But these menu items are needed in case you have deactivated "Use tabs", they will be the only way to switch inbetween panels.
Perhaps these menu items could be in quotes to indicate that these are labels of panels (Not quite sure whether this would make things clearer):
Code: Select all
View >
...
Tree pane >
Show
Use tabs
----------------
Folders
Favorites
Preview >
Show
Use tabs
------------------
'Preview'
'Histogram'
'Properties'
'EXIF'
Adding a prefix like "Switch to" would be too heavy, I think.
Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2006 10:40 am
by helmut
JohnFredC wrote:...
How about this:
Code: Select all
View >
...
Navigator >
Show
Use tabs
----------------
Folder Tree
Favorites
"Navigator" would not conflict with functionality offered by possible/future subpanels, such as a new subpanel to filter the file/thumbnail list based on Tags/Categories.
"Explorer" or "Navigator", I think both are good. The user explores or navigates in the folder structure, favourites, or what ever.
Re: New menu "View > Explorer pane"
Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2006 12:36 am
by Olivier_G
All previous suggestions have been implemented, there is only the Preview selector (in red) to implement:
Preview>
- Show
- Use tabs
------------------
- Preview
*Properties
- Histogram
- EXIF
- IPTC
Re: New menu "View > Explorer pane"
Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:22 pm
by Olivier_G
Olivier_G wrote:- Preview
*Properties
- Histogram
- IPTC
- EXIF
- XMP
Implemented in Beta 6.
Note: I would prefer "EXIF" just before "IPTC" because it's more frequent and IPTC & XMP are quite close.
-> Confirmed... as the fix should be easy.
Same order should apply to Preview tabs too, ie: Preview|Properties|Histogram|EXIF|IPTC|XMP.
Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:38 pm
by helmut
From what I can see, all changes have been made in RC1.
Now that I see what the menus look like, I'd suggest to change the order of the menu items, again. Currently we have:
Code: Select all
View >
...
Tree pane >
Show
Use tabs
----------------
Folders
Favorites
Preview >
Show
Use tabs
------------------
Preview
Histogram
Properties
EXIF
The menu items most often used are the ones for switching the tabs. The other ones are settings which are not changed that often. The menu items most often used should be listed first, so I suggest:
Code: Select all
View >
...
Tree pane >
Folders
Favorites
Categories
----------------
Show
Use tabs
Preview >
Preview
Histogram
Properties
EXIF
------------------
Show
Use tabs
If possible I'd like to see this both briefly discussed and implemented in 1.90.
Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:11 pm
by JohnFredC
In addition, the reuse of the word "Preview" might be a little confusing.
Maybe the word "Image" or words "Image Preview" would be better:
Code: Select all
Preview >
Show
Use tabs
------------------
Image
Histogram
Properties
EXIF
Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 12:39 pm
by helmut
JohnFredC wrote:...
Maybe the word "Image" or words "Image Preview" would be better:
Preview > Preview is really a bit strange - but not to bad.
Perhaps "Preview pane" > Preview would be better. "Pane" is short and lightweight in English, but translators in other language might have long translations. E.g. in German it could be "Vorschaubereich". So I think it's better to stick to "Preview".
Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 3:19 pm
by JohnFredC
Yet another example where the TC approach to menu configuration would make this a non-issue for XnView users. TC uses a menu definition in a text file that users can edit to make the menus anything they wish.
IMHO, Pierre's efforts would be better spent in creating generic methods and structures (such as a mechanism that would display a menu from a text file) than in trying to decide what menu sequence is optimum (no such thing!) and then hard-coding it.
Once the generic method is completed, menu definition and maintenance becomes a trivial effort.
Of course, such a schema requires a "cmd_" command for every single program action. I know that is a big task.
A worthy goal for some future version, anyway.
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 7:57 pm
by Danny
I don't like using the main menu at all, no matter what program. I'm a fan of context menus.
P.S.: Wrong forum, this is no bug.
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 9:49 pm
by ouistiti
JohnFredC
I agree totally, menus as texts ARE the only good solution…
Paul
(TC user for ages)
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 9:52 pm
by helmut
I still would like to see the order of the menus changed (see above).
This topic is very much in discussion stage, so as Danny suggested I move it back to Info & Feedback.
-> Info & Feedback
Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 10:12 pm
by helmut
In RC2 Pierre has changed again the order of the menu items as proposed above. Now, the menu items for switching the tabs are listed. I think it's good this way. Thanks, Pierre!