Multi Commander > Support and Feedback
Color of selected files in the inactive panel.
Mathias (Author):
I will see if I can add an option for disabling the fade thing.
I try not too add more setting around the color since there are already to many, and also because there are so many there so there is a risk that when adding something, something else will break. Specially here where a lot of settings are connected. But I think that an option for disabling fade should, possible, maybe, be safe to add.
pmennen:
--- Quote from: Mathias (Author) on August 21, 2015, 12:39:59 ---I will see if I can add an option for disabling the fade thing.
I try not too add more setting around the color since there are already to many, and also because there are so many there so there is a risk that when adding something, something else will break. Specially here where a lot of settings are connected. But I think that an option for disabling fade should, possible, maybe, be safe to add.
--- End quote ---
That will be nice ... although looking at the enhancements section of the forum I suspect there are some higher priority items :)
If you decide to tackle this one however, I think I have a suggestion for you that will have almost no impact on the user interface. In the File Coloring Rules Editor you have an "Attributes" field with 17 possible values ranging from archive to placeholder field. Simply add three more:
1.) focus
2.) selected
3.) active panel
I believe that will also allow you to remove the eight "File and Folder state colors" in the explorer panel settings, thus simplifying and unifying the overall color selection interface.
One other minor idea for the explorer panel settings color page is to group the Active panel alternating background color and the inactive panel alternating background color selections underneath the checkbox "Alternating Background color". My reasoning is that with the current ordering it is not obvious that the two Background color selections apply when the alternating background color box is not checked. This had me confused for some time. Also it is not clear to me that you really need the first checkbox (Highlight the background on panel in focus). If you decided you didn't want such highlighting, couldn't you just set the background color of the inactive panel to be the same as the background color of the active panel? Yes, one more color selection you have to make (if you don't want highlighting) but still you benifit from a simpler easier to understand interface. If you decide to keep this checkbox, shouldn't it say "active panel" instead of "panel in focus". (You usually use the word "focus" for files not panels.)
The reason I'm offering all these suggestions is that I suspect there is a significant fraction of your users that have looked at the color selection interface and have given up trying to understand it, thus marginalizing a large fraction of your wonderful effort.
~Paul
Mathias (Author):
--- Quote from: pmennen on August 22, 2015, 19:11:59 ---
--- Quote from: Mathias (Author) on August 21, 2015, 12:39:59 ---I will see if I can add an option for disabling the fade thing.
I try not too add more setting around the color since there are already to many, and also because there are so many there so there is a risk that when adding something, something else will break. Specially here where a lot of settings are connected. But I think that an option for disabling fade should, possible, maybe, be safe to add.
--- End quote ---
That will be nice ... although looking at the enhancements section of the forum I suspect there are some higher priority items :)
--- End quote ---
Option for enable/disable fade should be a easy and fast and low risk.. (I Think)
--- Quote from: pmennen on August 22, 2015, 19:11:59 ---If you decide to tackle this one however, I think I have a suggestion for you that will have almost no impact on the user interface. In the File Coloring Rules Editor you have an "Attributes" field with 17 possible values ranging from archive to placeholder field. Simply add three more:
1.) focus
2.) selected
3.) active panel
I believe that will also allow you to remove the eight "File and Folder state colors" in the explorer panel settings, thus simplifying and unifying the overall color selection interface.
--- End quote ---
No that will not work. File Attributes and View state are totally different, A file can be shown in many view. And they can all have different view state.
But View states are coming to Rule based file coloring, But in another way
--- Quote from: pmennen on August 22, 2015, 19:11:59 ---One other minor idea for the explorer panel settings color page is to group the Active panel alternating background color and the inactive panel alternating background color selections underneath the checkbox "Alternating Background color". My reasoning is that with the current ordering it is not obvious that the two Background color selections apply when the alternating background color box is not checked. This had me confused for some time. Also it is not clear to me that you really need the first checkbox (Highlight the background on panel in focus). If you decided you didn't want such highlighting, couldn't you just set the background color of the inactive panel to be the same as the background color of the active panel? Yes, one more color selection you have to make (if you don't want highlighting) but still you benifit from a simpler easier to understand interface. If you decide to keep this checkbox, shouldn't it say "active panel" instead of "panel in focus". (You usually use the word "focus" for files not panels.)
--- End quote ---
I Know. I had it like that before. But it did not look good.
My plan is that when the Checkbox is enable. The alternating background boxes become enabled, and when checkbox is disabled.. they are also disabled
--- Quote from: pmennen on August 22, 2015, 19:11:59 ---The reason I'm offering all these suggestions is that I suspect there is a significant fraction of your users that have looked at the color selection interface and have given up trying to understand it, thus marginalizing a large fraction of your wonderful effort.
--- End quote ---
I been playing with the idea to create a step by step wizard.
pmennen:
--- Quote from: Mathias (Author) on August 24, 2015, 08:06:39 ---No that will not work. File Attributes and View state are totally different, A file can be shown in many view. And they can all have different view state.
--- End quote ---
I did realize that the view state is not really the same thing as the file attributes ... although I thought it still might work for them to be in the same place. By putting the view states first in the attributes rule list it would override the later file attributes settings. That could be all wrong of course. Clearly I haven't thought about the problem as much as you have :)
--- Quote from: Mathias (Author) on August 24, 2015, 08:06:39 ---I been playing with the idea to create a step by step wizard.
--- End quote ---
That sounds like a lot of work. Also not everybody will appreciate the wizard. Wizards work fine when the user actually knows what they want, but for color schemes users rarely know what they want right away, and running the wizard over and over again probably would be too painful. I suspect you will be better off sticking with your current method and maybe making a few simplifications and clarifications in the organization. I think your time would be better spend adding a collection of example color schemes with directions for how to achieve that result. (Perhaps a config file next to a screen capture would be sufficient). Try to solicit these examples from your users many of which will have quite divergent ideas of what looks good. I would certainly be willing to contribute my color scheme, which I worked pretty hard on and am quite proud of how good it looks.
~Paul
Mathias (Author):
--- Quote from: pmennen on August 24, 2015, 11:29:06 ---
--- Quote from: Mathias (Author) on August 24, 2015, 08:06:39 ---No that will not work. File Attributes and View state are totally different, A file can be shown in many view. And they can all have different view state.
--- End quote ---
I did realize that the view state is not really the same thing as the file attributes ... although I thought it still might work for them to be in the same place. By putting the view states first in the attributes rule list it would override the later file attributes settings. That could be all wrong of course. Clearly I haven't thought about the problem as much as you have :)
--- End quote ---
It might have worked if the color was evaluated from the rules every time the item was drawn. But that would be slow. Rule based file coloring does a lot of caching and other things. But I have some idea for it. If I get the time
--- Quote from: pmennen on August 24, 2015, 11:29:06 ---
--- Quote from: Mathias (Author) on August 24, 2015, 08:06:39 ---I been playing with the idea to create a step by step wizard.
--- End quote ---
That sounds like a lot of work. Also not everybody will appreciate the wizard. Wizards work fine when the user actually knows what they want, but for color schemes users rarely know what they want right away, and running the wizard over and over again probably would be too painful. I suspect you will be better off sticking with your current method and maybe making a few simplifications and clarifications in the organization. I think your time would be better spend adding a collection of example color schemes with directions for how to achieve that result. (Perhaps a config file next to a screen capture would be sufficient). Try to solicit these examples from your users many of which will have quite divergent ideas of what looks good. I would certainly be willing to contribute my color scheme, which I worked pretty hard on and am quite proud of how good it looks.
--- End quote ---
Wizard is and idea I played with in my head. Will probably never get the time to add it.
I been planing do add more information about how to customize in the documentation. But writing documentation are boring and takes a lot more time then you think. So it have not happened yet.
I do accept color themes to be added as presets in the quick setup.
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