XYplorer Beta Club

Was trying out some options that I haven't used before or didn't see how they would benefit me...and the selected row "highlight" falls into another group: One that would be useful to me if it could be implemented a bit differently.

I'm maybe the only one but the underline just doesn't work for me, even when using another color...so if I could truly make it a highlight as Focused Row is, then it would! A very light tint would be enough to make it visible yet not obtrusive.

Yes, I've tried "Full Row Select" but that's TOO much color!

Well, it was "weird" to me too at first, but i got used to it I set it to the same color that's used as background for selected items (the system color, not an XY one. The classic "dark-blue" thing) and now I can easilly see which items are selected cause their data (especially those on the right on the List) are underline.

And I don't think it can be changed, it was made that way on purpose so one can see which rows are SELECTED, but also which one is FOCUSED and this at the same time !!

If the selected rows were to have a specific background color, you couldn't tell which is the focused one (or other way around, if focused wins, it's focused yes but is it selected too??)

jacky wrote:Well, it was "weird" to me too at first, but i got used to it
If the selected rows were to have a specific background color, you couldn't tell which is the focused one (or other way around, if focused wins, it's focused yes but is it selected too??)

Good! At least I'm not the only one...and thanks for pointing out what the reason for underline is...so...how to solve it in a different way? Here's a couple of ideas I'd maybe like jacky (as the 2nd most frequent poster) to comment on:

1) Alternate the two colors on columns...so the odd columns would have one color and the even ones the other...but if one doesn't have at least two columns showing, then this fails...so..
2) Combine the two colors when they are on same entry, so yellow+blue=green and such...with a check to make sure it differs from text color and doesn't go out of bounds...

--OR-- instead of just underline, how about the user defined color line around the entire entry, as in a box? Because I see the underline not as such but as a divider line mentally and having it enclose the entry would make it more like a highlight color but still allow the focus color to show.

This would make it easier to spot 'selected' at extreme right end (and left end) as it would be only those rows that would have a vertical line...especially when using grid colors also.

j_c_hallgren wrote:1) Alternate the two colors on columns...so the odd columns would have one color and the even ones the other...but if one doesn't have at least two columns showing, then this fails...so..
2) Combine the two colors when they are on same entry, so yellow+blue=green and such...with a check to make sure it differs from text color and doesn't go out of bounds...

I'm not sure how efficient something like this would be, and besides.. combining colors, is that even "doable", I mean sure for us it's easy to say yellow+blue=green ; but for Don to put that in code, especially when there can be a huge loads of different colors, obvisouly....

j_c_hallgren wrote:instead of just underline, how about the user defined color line around the entire entry, as in a box?

This could probably work yes, to have not an underline but some kind of a "border" for the line & all its columns, expect for one case:
File1
File2
File3

Now let's say File1 and File3 are both selected, well if a "border" is used, it means File2 would appear to be selected aswell, since a line would be there above (from File1) but also under it (the top-border from File3) !!
So it would obviously lead, I think, to more confusion than anything else.

I'm pretty sure Don already thought of a lot of different ways to implement this, and went for the underline as it seemed to be the best choice to do this.
I know the underline can seem/look "weird" or "un-natural" or something at first, but with time we get used to it: data underlined are selected.

jacky wrote:This could probably work yes, to have not an underline but some kind of a "border" for the line & all its columns, expect for one case:
File1
File2
File3

Now let's say File1 and File3 are both selected, well if a "border" is used, it means File2 would appear to be selected aswell, since a line would be there above (from File1) but also under it (the top-border from File3) !!
So it would obviously lead, I think, to more confusion than anything else.

I don't think that File2 would not appear selected since the file name would not be colored blue, true?...and that would distinguish it, right? Also, if the left and right vertical lines at ends of box were a few pixels thicker, that would also help 'enclose' the selected files...I thinking about this as I've been spending a fair amount of time in Excel, where everything is in a grid and any selected cells are 'boxed'.

j_c_hallgren wrote:I don't think that File2 would not appear selected since the file name would not be colored blue, true?...and that would distinguish it, right? Also, if the left and right vertical lines at ends of box were a few pixels thicker, that would also help 'enclose' the selected files...I thinking about this as I've been spending a fair amount of time in Excel, where everything is in a grid and any selected cells are 'boxed'.

hmmm.. mayeb yeah, but the main point of this little feature here is to be able to easilly know which datas are of selected files only by looking at those datas/columns, like Dates, Sizes, etc which are usually top-right; and this without having to look back&forth to the left-most column.

Allthough what you say is true for vertical lines, it would loose all its interest when it comes to easilly spot selected data; while the underline does the job just fine.

jacky wrote:Allthough what you say is true for vertical lines, it would loose all its interest when it comes to easilly spot selected data; while the underline does the job just fine.

Being able to easily spot the selected data is the reason I started this thread! Since the underline is, to me, so non-standard compared to box or highlight or both, that I find it distracting enough to not use it at all and just try to follow the file names over to rightmost columns (without any grid either) as needed...

Turn on grid, even using a light pale color, and the underline gets lost, IMHO...

Update: I've created an extract of list area as current, using underline and below that, a rough mockup of how it might appear as 'boxed':
(Clickable thumbnail)

j_c_hallgren wrote:Turn on grid, even using a light pale color, and the underline gets lost, IMHO...

Yes, these two do not combine very well. See it like this: I serve you a plate full of options and you choose what works for your taste and style.

Regarding the strangeness of the underline, it was for me as jacky said: you get used to it quickly and then it's real fun. For me, the fun-factor depends much on the color of the lines. Experiment!

j_c_hallgren wrote:Update: I've created an extract of list area as current, using underline and below that, a rough mockup of how it might appear as 'boxed':
(Clickable thumbnail)

That makes my eyes hurt JC. The colours, aaaaaaarghghghghghghhhhh!!!

But seriously, I find that far too busy personally, not to mention aesthetically ugly (hey, looking good's important too). Looks more like something that would belng in TC...

I would love to see zebra striping as an option mayself, along with a "whole line select" to go with that. That way you get the best of both worlds - highly usable and pretty (provided you get the right colours ). Just think iTunes. It may get a lot of stuff wrong, but the zebra striping and highlighting of selected files is among the best IMO.

lukescammell wrote:

j_c_hallgren wrote:Update: I've created an extract of list area as current, using underline and below that, a rough mockup of how it might appear as 'boxed':
(Clickable thumbnail)

That makes my eyes hurt JC. The colours, aaaaaaarghghghghghghhhhh!!!

But seriously, I find that far too busy personally, not to mention aesthetically ugly (hey, looking good's important too). Looks more like something that would belng in TC...

I would love to see zebra striping as an option mayself, along with a "whole line select" to go with that. That way you get the best of both worlds - highly usable and pretty (provided you get the right colours ). Just think iTunes. It may get a lot of stuff wrong, but the zebra striping and highlighting of selected files is among the best IMO.

Yes, ugly ugly!

Hey, "Zebra striping " is a nice term what I called "Alternate grid colors" (yes, it is there already!). I will borrow this term...

It's there?

/me goes off to find and play with it...

lukescammell wrote:It's there?

/me goes off to find and play with it...

Check "Show Grid" in menu view/list style and "Alternate Grid Colors" in Config/Colors. (Awkward... config logic needs some care...)

/me realises there's a new beta, downloads that first and *then* goes and plays with it...

j_c_hallgren wrote:Update: I've created an extract of list area as current, using underline and below that, a rough mockup of how it might appear as 'boxed'

Well, I'm not a big fan of your color scheme But honestly, I find the second part (boxed) less clear.
When I'm only looking at the first date column, it looks to me like all files are selected, whereas on the first part (underline) I can easilly see it's not.

BTW as mentionned, you should try out using grid with the Alternate grid colors option; makes things ever easier IMHO!

Here's what it looks like over here:

And it's perfect to me I can easilly see which items are selected only by going through the size or dates columns without having to look back on left or anything.

Ok...So I'm in the minority...oh well...

Then had this thought this morning...what if the non-name fields on selected rows could be in bold? That would make them stand out without affecting colors...