XYplorer Beta Club

I've not been a user of Home or Locked tabs, so these features are still a bit unknown to me but I was trying them to see how it might work for me...however, the problem that I quickly saw was that there was no indicator on a tab itself that it had a "Home" defined.

There are underlines (solid/dotted) to indicate locked or locked+home, but when a tab could go home, the only indication I see is that the toolbar icon is not grayed out, but if user didn't have that icon on TB, I don't see how you'd know it...plus I'm not used to looking on TB for a indicator such as that.

Also, if one has now used newset feature to iconize a tab, how would one know that it was locked or locked+home?

So...I'd suggest maybe a variant on the lil blue overlay that Favorite Folders uses...I was initially thinking that one could just overlay a "L" on the folder icon for locked, etc., but that maybe wouldn't work if you had a non-folder on tab, such as Desktop or a drive...I'm sure there could be some small overlay that would indicate what option(s) are set for that tab.

Having a home indicator on tab could possibly make someone think that particular folder was the home folder but it would simply show that a home was available for that tab.

Those are some very good points.

Something like how Firefox does it might work well but XY has even more cases.
If you lock a tab (it remains at the current location but can still be closed), it overlays a red and white "No" sign in the top left corner.
If you protect a tab (location can change but tab can't be closed), it overlays a yellow shield with an exclamation point on it in the bottom right corner.
And if you freeze a tab (both of the above), it uses both icons.


And to show that a tab has a home, perhaps change the folder's icon to the home icon? Though that might interfere when a folder has a custom icon.

I'm not sure it would be visible enough but it could be neat to change the icon to a home icon with an open door if it has a home, and a home with a closed door if it is locked to the home.

Just my two-cents worth.


OT question: I've never seen a blue overlay for Favorite Folders, how does one get that?

I'm not sure about this... I mean there's already overlay for the default tab, for VF, I'm not sure we need more.

I guess one for the Home would make sense (although i'm completely fine without one) given how it's a Tab thing, and there might not be any visual indicator otherwise (excluding the TB button, which obviously relates to the current tab only). But really, is the Home concept something worth that kind of permanent indicator ?

I for one would be perfectly fine if the tab's tooltip would receive a little more info, like its title (would be nice now with iconizd tabs) and when present it's Home location. I don't think I need a "permanent" reminder of which tab has a Home.
(Maybe also someting on the Tabs list, like a "[H]" suffix, might be handy for keyboard guys, I'm not sure...)

Edit: Oh and I meant to add: I don't think there should be any thing more than what we have now when it comes to (Home) Locked. Although, once again especially when iconized, that (Home) Locked state might be nice on the tooltip, since then the underline isn't showing.

TheQwerty wrote:OT question: I've never seen a blue overlay for Favorite Folders, how does one get that?

Check menu View|Tree Style|Mark Favorites (Icon)

jacky wrote:...[more good points]...

Hmm.. also good points. I guess I don't really care either way. Well no.. I think there needs to be another visual way to see home and locked status, but I'm drawing blanks thinking of a good way to show this.

jacky wrote:

TheQwerty wrote:OT question: I've never seen a blue overlay for Favorite Folders, how does one get that?

Check menu View|Tree Style|Mark Favorites (Icon)

I knew there had to be a setting for this somewhere that I kept overlooking. Thanks!

Now just because jacky may not need to know which tabs have a home doesn't mean that others (me for one!) might not benefit from it! I'd agree that having the home location show in tooltip would be an extra benefit also.

I'm thinking of some overlay that would go on upper left for one setting and another on upper right for the other...which is which doesn't matter.
Maybe something in red for locked, and a black "H" for home?

Now since there can there be multiple overlayss, it would thus allow all four overlays (Default, VF, Home, Lock) on one icon.
This would make it easy for keyboarders as it would show whether iconized or not, and might be easier for newbies to remember than what those underlines mean...I'd not remove the underline but make this an addition.