Author Topic: Drag & Drop in Search results. UI tweaks  (Read 6400 times)

quarx

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Drag & Drop in Search results. UI tweaks
« on: July 15, 2020, 00:37:57 »
Hi there,

Firstly, I would like to congratulate you, I've recently re-discovered Multi Commander and I like it a lot! (in the past I used NC, Dos Navigator, MC, Far, and Total Commander so I have some experience with similar tools).

That being said I am a creature of habit. I spent the last decade (on and off) with Total Commander and MC so I am wondering if you could consider the following adjustments that would make my life easier:

A. Currently, it is not possible to drag files from the search result list and drop them onto another window. It is possible from normal explorer panels and it is possible to right-click a file and open it in a program, or just double click the file to open it with the default application. However, drag&drop is not possible (I'm guessing that's because the folder and the file name are in separate columns which was also a bit annoying because I tried multiple times to copy the full path to the file I found and I couldn't do it easily). This is something I do on a regular basis, multiple times a week, so it is a bit of a hassle for me.

B. As you can easily tell from the attached screenshot, I like the simplicity of the UI in TC so I already adjusted my Multi Commander a bit towards this direction (e.g. a command bar at the bottom is a must for me... otherwise I feel irked. I know it's irrational but I spent more than 20 years with programs that place this bar at the bottom), but I wish there were more options. Please take a look at the picture, and here are my corresponding comments:

1.  I'd prefer to remove most of the buttons I don't use and I would never use a button to close the tab. I always use CTRL-W so this button is just cluttering UI for me.

2. Here I would prefer if the "disconnect" button was completely hidden unless the tab includes an FTP connection. I also do not know the purpose of the other highlighted button (and I couldn't find an option to hide it).

3. This is again a personal taste (most of this post is about some tiny tweaks that I would like to see but I understand other people might be different) but I would prefer tabs to be under the bar with the drive selection and free HDD space status.

4. It would be awesome to have an option to customize the background color of the selected explorer column (like in TC, but maybe with color customization). Having an option to change the icon/glyph/colors of the up/down arrow would be nice too (but less important, the background color makes the explorer look much more modern and it is easier to instantly tell which column is selected so it is simply useful)

5.  I am not sure what is the purpose of this bar, but I would like to hide it. As you can see I am trying to save space wherever possible (I wish I could change the height of the bar above it too, I think there are a few pixels I could save there)

6.  I know this vertical border helps to adjust the split between panels, however, it looks very dated. I was a Win32 programmer 20 years ago and we used this style of controls a lot back then, but as of today, this border makes Multi Commander look a bit dated. I wish it could be more flat (or there would be a modern separator like in recent TC editions)

Please take my comments into consideration and thank you for all your good work!

Mathias (Author)

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Re: Drag & Drop in Search results. UI tweaks
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2020, 14:49:34 »
1. You can move that close button to the tab itself. But there need to be some button to close. Or someone will complain about that.

2. Currently it is not possible to micro manage that. Try clicking the last icon when you got a virtual device there. like after a search result.
The icon might not be the best. And is something I want to change. But have not found anything that fits.
Disconnect also do safe removal av removal devices (USB memory sticks) (Flushes all writes off the device)

3. That is not possible. Think like everything in the tab. (Everything under the Tab Label.) is like its own view. like a tab in a webpage.

4. There are some change planed for this. But not sure it will bu customize.. but some highlighting of active column is planned.

5. Status bar shows progress of background copy/move/delete process.. Show if admin helper is active.. show some other progresses for other background tasks..
and also shows some status info.

6. I tried to change it but looks even worse then. It looks different in v10 in darkmode. there it works if it is flat.



It is not possible to have settings to turn on/off every minor things. MC also have a settings hell, With way to many settings. and the more settings you add for something the possibility for bugs that happens because some weird combination of settings are in conflict.

Matthias515566

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Re: Drag & Drop in Search results. UI tweaks
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2020, 14:51:49 »
But there need to be some button to close. Or someone will complain about that.
Please make the Button optional, Close Buttons in Tabs are much worse.