XYplorer Beta Club

Hello-

I am a long time Dopus and XYPlorer user. I use XYPlorer exclusively, although I have an active license of Dopus still.

One thing Dopus does is just below the TAB for the pane you are on is display the path - the beginning of the path and the end of the path (... in the middle). This line also has some commands on the right part of it - up, down, swap panes, etc. What I do like is this line has an Active color and an Inactive color. This limits the color flashing issue - yet it is visible enough to clearly mark which pane is active. The little bar on the top of the tab XYPlorer uses is not quite visible enough for me personally, yet I am sensitive and agree with some of the other posts with regards to large sections of the screen flashing. I can provide a screenshot is desired of Dopus - but I trust the author will most likely have another creative solution.

As I work for a software company what we attempt to do is not provide solutions - but provide issues / problems for the developers. So the issue is this: currently in dual pane mode it is too difficult for some people to visually see what pane is active. A more visible method of determining the active pane is suggested. Please consider this enhancement request.

Thanks for your time - I love the product and am so happy with it thus far.

Let's try to recap the situation...

1) Some users are worried of lost space, because Menu, Toolbar, Address bars/Breadcrumbs and Tab bar are 4 "lines". Don said we first need a working and completed dual pane and later he may see what can be done about it

2) We need a way to highlight the active pane. I think it depends on what UI elements are shown or not, because a colorized address bar if we have two address bars (and I personally would see this as a clear enough sign) or the mark on the active tab for those who use tabs and don't disable it (this is much more subtle), are a sign for the active pane, so we already have a partial solution, the problem is for those who hide or disable UI elements or want an even clearer sign

2.a) Some users want something more than colour or a stripe, they would like dimming the inactive pane. Other users think it's annoying because of the alternating colours and the flashing effect. The only solution seems to be making it an optional choice

2.b) Some users would like a coloured frame instead of a stripe, others think it's ugly. At the moment Don said he tried it and it does not look good

2.c) Some users said a stripe might work but Don said it can't live "inside" the list and it needs to be somewhere else. We also need a solution that works with both horizontal and vertical panes mode

admin wrote:Question: When is it necessary to know which is the active pane?

If I ever use DP i would want to know about active/inactive pane all the time. Imagine the disaster if I were to run a script in a wrong pane. I still think dimming would a good option but i guess you already have something in mind. Just to throw out more ideas,
1) a small translucent icon (maybe XY) on a fixed place on the list could indicate an active pane.
2) the column header "Name" (only column which cannot be hidden) can have a highlight or something.
3) a thin line over all header columns is enough too (didn't ale make this?).

TheQwerty wrote:I made this mockup of how I think it should look on that user configurable day, nothing else should be user configurable as all users are morons.
As you can see it's very subtle, and I think it's a fair compromise between the various techniques we've been discussing.
You'll notice the soothing transparency affect ensures the user will not be distracted by this method, and will be able to see the full list contents.

Your sample and comments were so funny that I really did LOL!

But back to reality...serendipity's item 2 re color of Name col hdr has some potential maybe as it doesn't take up any more space...and as long as the color is user selectable, should be able to be as minimal or maximal as desired.

j_c_hallgren wrote:But back to reality...serendipity's item 2 re color of Name col hdr has some potential maybe as it doesn't take up any more space...and as long as the color is user selectable, should be able to be as minimal or maximal as desired.

And for the non-Details views?

TheQwerty wrote:

j_c_hallgren wrote:But back to reality...serendipity's item 2 re color of Name col hdr has some potential maybe as it doesn't take up any more space...and as long as the color is user selectable, should be able to be as minimal or maximal as desired.

And for the non-Details views?

Good point. I will think about more examples.

serendipity wrote:

TheQwerty wrote:

j_c_hallgren wrote:serendipity's item 2 re color of Name col hdr has some potential maybe as it doesn't take up any more space...

And for the non-Details views?

Good point. I will think about more examples.

But...also remember that (IMO) it's details view where space is more/most of a premium, so having less interference in lbr of lines there is good...maybe having a small stripe (where the col hdrs normally go/show) for other views could then be a idea? Like about 1/2 height of hdr stripe or less? Could this be done by a "col header" that has no text?

I wouldn't have a problem with being able to set the entire col hdr color for active to my preference instead of just Name...had we discussed that way before? I'm losing track..

Okay, enough, I found the solution on a Rhine river boat trip today!

Let me first draw your attention on one use case that was not covered by most of the presented ideas (simply because it is not possible in the current version, but it will be in the next version): The 2nd pane can be the only pane! So, in single pane mode, simply marking the active pane does not tell you whether it's the 1st or the 2nd (and I guess you'd like to know that, too, once in a while) -- it also would be completely redundant, of course, to mark the active pane in single pane mode.

So here is the solution that covers a bunch of things with one stroke -- a toolbar button with a pushed state and two clearly distinguished graphics for each state... you'll see:
And for those of you who say "baaah!" I will provide good old background coloring of the inactive pane as an option.

admin wrote:
So here is the solution that covers a bunch of things with one stroke -- a toolbar button with a pushed state and two clearly distinguished graphics for each state... you'll see:

And for those of you who say "baaah!" I will provide good old background coloring of the inactive pane as an option.

I can't say that appeals to me. I don't even look at a toolbar unless I'm trying to find a button I plan on using. What you're proposing makes it even harder to see than the current system of showing the active tab.

One of the reasons why it is not a good solution is because the status is not localized where it needs to be. A user should be able to look at a pane and be able to tell instantly whether it is active or not. It makes no sense to have to look somewhere completely different in order to figure it out.

Someone brought it up before, but coloring the column headers is another option. The inactive pane can have column headers that are dimmed (or some other customizable color). That makes it subtle, yet clear enough to be seen, and local to the panes.

Edit:

Here's a mockup - I modified my earlier one, so you're seeing both the 2 pixel line for the active pane as well as the shaded column headers for the inactive pane.

Mesh wrote:Someone brought it up before, but coloring the column headers is another option. The inactive pane can have column headers that are dimmed (or some other customizable color). That makes it subtle, yet clear enough to be seen, and local to the panes.

The problem with column headers is that there are no column headers in modes different from details mode. And the colours of headers seems to be provided from Windows, so there are users for example with high contrast colors where these headers may be black with white text.

But I have a question if you don't mind... which UI elements do you have or haven't usually on between toolbars, tabs and address bar?

ale wrote:
The problem with column headers is that there are no column headers in modes different from details mode. And the colours of headers seems to be provided from Windows, so there are users for example with high contrast colors where these headers may be black with white text.

But I have a question if you don't mind... which UI elements do you have or haven't usually on between toolbars, tabs and address bar?

My usual setup is roughly what you see in my mockup - I have the toolbar and tabs enabled, but not the address bar.

As for the column headers, I keep forgetting about alternate views.


So, what about shading the entire tab bar, like this:

admin wrote:Okay, enough, I found the solution on a Rhine river boat trip today!

Let me first draw your attention on one use case that was not covered by most of the presented ideas (simply because it is not possible in the current version, but it will be in the next version): The 2nd pane can be the only pane! So, in single pane mode, simply marking the active pane does not tell you whether it's the 1st or the 2nd (and I guess you'd like to know that, too, once in a while) -- it also would be completely redundant, of course, to mark the active pane in single pane mode.

So here is the solution that covers a bunch of things with one stroke -- a toolbar button with a pushed state and two clearly distinguished graphics for each state... you'll see:

Code: Select all

    + DP: Now the second pane can be the only pane. And now, if you turn 
      off DP, the currently active pane will become the only pane (before, 
      always the first pane was auto-activated).
    + Menu Window: Added command "Toggle Active Pane". Together with the 
      enhancement described here above, this offers a very nice option 
      even for single paners: You can easily switch back and forth between 
      two completely independent sets of tabs!
    + Toolbar: Added button "Toggle Active Pane". It not ony toggles the 
      active pane, but also shows you which pane is currently active --
      even if only one pane is visible.

And for those of you who say "baaah!" I will provide good old background coloring of the inactive pane as an option.

Hmmm, what if someone doesn't have toolbar visible? Seeing all the posts i think the best test would be to uncheck everything from menu "Window" (except DP ofcourse) and switch to non-details mode and then see if the two panes are still distiguishable.

Mesh wrote:

ale wrote:
The problem with column headers is that there are no column headers in modes different from details mode. And the colours of headers seems to be provided from Windows, so there are users for example with high contrast colors where these headers may be black with white text.

But I have a question if you don't mind... which UI elements do you have or haven't usually on between toolbars, tabs and address bar?

My usual setup is roughly what you see in my mockup - I have the toolbar and tabs enabled, but not the address bar.

As for the column headers, I keep forgetting about alternate views.


So, what about shading the entire tab bar, like this:

Nope, consider those who have their tab bar hidden.

I am pretty convinced that the solution to pane distinguishability should come from the list itself.