UI - One click to hide/unhide panels

[ben]

Hi Mario,

I would like to have an easy solution to quickly hide/unhide my current panel configuration.

The AutoHide functions works fine, if you have one panel attached to the right screen side.
If you have configured two (e.g. metadata panel at the top right, keywords at the bottom right) you have to unhide one after the other to use it again.
A simpler way would be to unhide both at the same time.

I think there are different possible ways to implement it.
Very small button or by clicking on the left edge of the panel.

I hope it's clear what i mean.
Anybody interested in that as well?

Shouldn't be too high priority on your list, though.

Nik

[ubacher]

I find the method to hide a panel inconvenient. My suggestion:

Hover over tab: Un-hide
Click on tab     : Un-hide and pin
Click on HIDE icon on the title bar: hide panel. There is currently no consistent way to make a panel close.
(Where a HIDE icon is to be placed beside the PIN icon and the CLOSE (X) icon. See mock-up screen-shot attached)

And having the same functioning in the Viewer would be consistent and also convenient.
i.e. Tabs for panels and hide/open

[attachment deleted by admin]

[ben]

hey ubacher,

and what about the case that you have two or more panels above each other?
I would expect that the hide button, would hide ALL open panels.
Clicking on one of the tabs would un-hide them again.
Same understanding like yours?



[attachment deleted by admin]

[JohnZeman]

Just as an aside I know Mario has his reasons for doing things the way he does but FWIW one of my favorite Lightroom library keyboard shortcuts is to use the TAB key to toggle all of the panels on/off.

[photoken]

Just as an aside I know Mario has his reasons for doing things the way he does but FWIW one of my favorite Lightroom library keyboard shortcuts is to use the TAB key to toggle all of the panels on/off.

I agree that having a global hotkey for hiding/unhiding all panels is an excellent feature.  PhotoLine uses "F11", RawTherapee uses "m", most other programs have the same feature.  It's great.

[Mario]

IMatch has that in the Viewer as well (<Backspace>.

But when you hide all panels in normal mode, what would remain? Only the file window, with not panels at all? Only the file window and the view panel?...

[photoken]

But when you hide all panels in normal mode, what would remain? Only the file window, with not panels at all?

Nothing would remain -- just the file window with no panels at all.  The more I think about it, the more I realize that this "hide all panels" feature would only be useful if any of the panels were pinned to always be visible.  The "Auto Hide" option for the panels is an outstanding feature of IM5, and for my style of working largely eliminates the need for a "Hide Everything" hotkey....

[Ferdinand]

Just as an aside I know Mario has his reasons for doing things the way he does but FWIW one of my favorite Lightroom library keyboard shortcuts is to use the TAB key to toggle all of the panels on/off.

+1.  Also in Photoshop, where what it does is hide all panels, and then on a second press restore them as they were. I.e. those that were hidden are still hidden and those that were displayed are shown in the same size and location.

[sinus]

But when you hide all panels in normal mode, what would remain? Only the file window, with not panels at all? Only the file window and the view panel?...

Only the file window. I use this for example quite often in 3.6, when I want sorting the thumbs in the "light table" (custon in IM5). Then all panes does hinder this, specially, if you have a lot of images.

[sinus]

Just as an aside I know Mario has his reasons for doing things the way he does but FWIW one of my favorite Lightroom library keyboard shortcuts is to use the TAB key to toggle all of the panels on/off.

+1

[ubacher]

May I expound on the problem I have with getting a panel to Auto-hide:
I have a thumbnail selected. I now open an out-hide panel and click something in it (to set a category for example).
Now the panel will not auto-hide until I click somewhere in the file window. This forces me to click on another thumbnail
which happens to be visible even though I do not want to select it. Once the panel is closed I can then return to "my" thumbnail.
(If an empty spot exists on the window or a file header I can click on it to avoid this. So where I have to click to close is also inconsistent).

Thus the wish for an icon which causes the panel to hide.

[Mario]

You can click anywhere outside the panel to hide it, you don't need to click on a thumbnail. The user interface toolkit hides the panel when the focus is set to another window.

[ubacher]

You can click anywhere outside the panel to hide it, you don't need to click on a thumbnail. The user interface toolkit hides the panel when the focus is set to another window.

anywhere is not quite right. In another panel, yes, if I have one open. Else it has to be within the window which displays the thumbnails or
the (gray) header, if visible.

PS: If the open panel happens to hide all of that one is out of luck. A problem easily avoided however.

[ben]

1)
I wouldn't need a function to hide/unhide ALL pannels.
I would rather prefer to hide/unhide all pannels of a certain screen side (left, right, ...).
This would be really usefull to quickly free up some screen space to get more space for the file window (e.g. for sorting pictures)

2)
The implementation could be done in several ways, depending on what the ui-component of Mario can offer.
  - small arrow button next to auto hide button
  - double clicking the edge of a pannel (e.g. for the pannel on the right side of the screen, one would double click the left edge of the pannel)
  - global hotkey (i think other users would prefer that, but i don't since i keep forgetting hotkeys)

[ubacher]

Please see also topic 3786 (archived) for a similar/identical request.

I am sure this will come up again and again - we just need patience till Mario finds a way.

[ben]

Added a direct link ubacher mentioned.
It discusses a very similar request.
https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=3786.0

I am using zoner parallel to iMatch and i am really used to quickly hiding/unding side panels by one click. It's just much more convenient.

[Mario]

More questions...

How to deal with the file window?
The file window displays a number of thumbnails per row (depending on the setting of the slider in the toolbar).
If you hide panels (or automatically hide panels), you won't see 'more' thumbnails in the file window, just bigger onces. Because hiding a panel does not affect how many thumbnails the file window displays per row.

What if a user wants to hide all panels, but wants to keep the 'View' panels (Media & Folders, Categories, ...) open? Just quickly hide all other panels to get more room for the file window?

So this feature would not only need ways to store file window settings for the "normal" and "all panels hidden" case, but also options so users can configure which panels to hide...which makes things of course even more complex.

All this is already covered by workspaces, of course. A work space does not only store the open, hidden, closed, and floating panels and their sizes, but also the file window settings. But switching a workspace involves more work (aka slower), because all panels need to be re-initialized from the database. This is not the same as just hiding/showing panels and switching some file window options.

[ubacher]

Code Select Expand

All this is already covered by workspaces, of course.

Yes and No. When you switch workspaces you also switch the folder you are on.
Completely useless unless the workspaces to switch between were stored while working on the same
folder. Switching workspaces is for switching between completely different working conditions, for instance between
working on audio files and working on images.

( I have been planning to add a feature request along this line: Have a "switch panel layout"  which would work
like the switch workspace but remain on the currently selected Folder. All that would change is the screen layout: what panels are open and
where.)

Also: we are dealing with different requests here:
One is a key to hide / unhide all open panels: Difficult as Mario points out. Maybe restricting it to auto-hide panels would make it manageable.
The second is to have a button to (reliably/consistently) hide an auto-hide panel

One could also think about icons which could be clicked to open/close panels i.e. to replace the need for pressing F9-x keys.
( Since F9-x keys work only if you happen to have the input focus on the right place.)

[Mario]

The second is to have a button to (reliably/consistently) hide an auto-hide panel

I don't get this. Auto-hide panels (as the name suggests) automatically hide when the panel loses the focus - because you click into another panel or window. No other button or command is required. If you don't like auto-hide panels, use normal panels and close/open them as needed via the button in the caption bar. That's what this X button is for. This also conserves resources and speeds up IMatch.

[Carlo Didier]

I think it would be nice if the auto-hide panels would hide automatically after a certain delay (1-2sec for example) when the mouse pointer leaves the panel. That would remove the need to click anywhere else.

[ubacher]

Mario says:

Code Select Expand

Auto-hide panels (as the name suggests) automatically hide when the panel loses the focus - because you click into another panel or window. No other button or command is required.

If your thumbnail window is full - and the currently selected thumbnail is covered by the auto-hide panel , then you have
no other choice but click on another, visible thumbnail and select it in order to make the auto-hide panel hide.
Then, when the thumbnails are showing again, you have to click on the one you had selected before the panel opened to return
to where you were.

Code Select Expand

If you don't like auto-hide panels, use normal panels and close/open them as needed via the button in the caption bar.

Yes these normal panels are easy to click closed. But how do I click it back open? I can't.
( I have a feature request posted where I ask for panel open/close icons inside the viewer where the open/close situation is even worse.)

[Carlo Didier]

If your thumbnail window is full - and the currently selected thumbnail is covered by the auto-hide panel , then you have
no other choice but click on another, visible thumbnail and select it in order to make the auto-hide panel hide.
Then, when the thumbnails are showing again, you have to click on the one you had selected before the panel opened to return
to where you were.

That's exactly my problem which I posted in another thread some time ago.

[Mario]

no other choice but click on another, visible thumbnail and select it in order to make the auto-hide panel hide.

Hm,...when I click somewhere outside a thumbnail in the file window, or on a group bar, it gets the focus and the auto-hide panel closes. The selection in the file window is not changed. This should work for you too. I never gave this a second thought because it just works.

Or I click on the caption bar of another panel. Basically any window which can get the focus.

A window in Windows does not lose the focus when you move the mouse out. And closing a panel just because you move the mouse out would be not a good idea anyway, because then the focused window would be invisible (if the panel is closed).

Yes these normal panels are easy to click closed. But how do I click it back open? I can't.

When you close a panel, you need to open it again via the View > Panel menu or the keyboard shortcut. I do that all the time. I press <F9>,<X> to show the Import & Export panel. I press <F9>,<X> again when I no longer need it.

[Ferdinand]

There are two issues for me, and perhaps they are the same, or perhaps a second FR is needed.

I like the idea of the OP.  In PS & LR I often use the tab key to clear the screen and the press it again to restore the panels the way I had them.  If this could be done at modest effort then I'd really appreciate it.

The other issue is one that I've raised before.  Like other posters, I find the auto-hide feature too slow, especially having to click somewhere to trigger auto-hide.  I don't want to sound like an Adobe fanboi, but I prefer the way that LR does it.  I only have to hover over a hidden panel and it displays.  I remove the mouse and it hides quickly.  I only click on the panel to turn off auto-hide and have it display, or the reverse.  LR auto hide and display is quick and convenient.

I recall that the last time we discussed this, you said that you were constrained by the UI toolkit.  I assume that's still the case.  Perhaps neither of these can be done.  Then so be it..  We are just doing as you often say and telling you how we would like to work and you can tell us whether it's reasonably possible or not.

[ubacher]

Mario says:

Code Select Expand

When you close a panel, you need to open it again via the View > Panel menu or the keyboard shortcut. I do that all the time. I press <F9>,<X> to show the Import & Export panel. I press <F9>,<X> again when I no longer need it.

That works when the panel is not floating. Try it when you have a free floating panel:
F9-X opens it. Another press of F9-X does nothing. You have to click in the M&F panel first so that f9-X will close the panel.

The same with other free floating panels.

Now to the filter panel - I just played with the f9-L keys:
Filter panel open, attached, filter active:
F9-L closes the panel and turns off filtering.
If I close the filter panel via mouse - autohide, and then press F9-L it just turns filtering off but does not open the panel
until a second F9-L is pressed. Then it opens the filtering panel and filtering is back on.
Conclusion: F9-L can not be used to close the filter panel unless one wants to turn filtering off.

Part of this open/close panels can be solved by using the script John Zeman has posted for the "Quickview" panel.
Putting this script as a favorite lets you click on it to open or hide the panel. Modified versions can be made for the other panels.
Just means you must have the favorites on the screen.

[Mario]

The same with other free floating panels.

Windows sends keyboard shortcuts to the active window. If you work with floating panels (which is different from auto-hide) and the floating panel (or whatever other window has the input focus) receives the keypress. IMatch then cannot react. Please understand that neither the UI toolkit nor myself can cater for all usage scenarios. Trying to everything is futile.

[Mario]

The other issue is one that I've raised before.  Like other posters, I find the auto-hide feature too slow, especially having to click somewhere to trigger auto-hide.

I think I have found a way to make the panels show/hide faster. I did some work on the tab handling and had to derive and re-implement some of the classes of the UI toolkit (Geez) to make it work. While doing so I've found some hidden options I can now control in my own class. Let's see. This is undocumented so I may need to make some experiments. And then hope that this does not cause side-effects on the wide range of machines out there...

As for hovering...if I move the mouse over the tab of a hidden auto-hide panel, it displays automatically. When I move the mouse out of the panel, it automatically hides. Only when you activate the panel by clicking into it (or the caption), you basically stick it, preventing auto hide until you set the focus to another window. This is required, because else the e.g. metadata panel would hide when you accidentally move the mouse to another application or window.

[Ferdinand]

As for hovering...if I move the mouse over the tab of a hidden auto-hide panel, it displays automatically. When I move the mouse out of the panel, it automatically hides. Only when you activate the panel by clicking into it (or the caption), you basically stick it, preventing auto hide until you set the focus to another window. This is required, because else the e.g. metadata panel would hide when you accidentally move the mouse to another application or window.

You are quite correct.  (Which is no surprise.)  For some reason I had gotten into the habit of clicking rather than hovering.  I'm not sure how that happened.  My apologies.  I'll have to retrain my mouse hand.

Faster manual hiding sounds good. 

I still like the idea of the OP, but with these discoveries it's perhaps (even) less pressing.

[Ferdinand]

I replied too quickly without adequate testing or reading of your reply.  I can hover and then move my mouse away and un-hover, and it's all fairly fast and painless. 

But if I hover and then click on something in a panel, then I've lost the ability to auto-hide simply by moving my mouse away.   I now have to click elsewhere to trigger the auto-hide to work.  This is my issue. 

Your reply makes this sound like an intentional design issue.  I can't see the problem with activating auto-hide by removing focus from the panel.

[Mario]

But if I hover and then click on something in a panel, then I've lost the ability to auto-hide simply by moving my mouse away.   I now have to click elsewhere to trigger the auto-hide to work.  This is my issue. 

As I said, when you click the panel, it's caption or the contained window, you glue/stick the panel. It will no longer auto-hide until you click on another window. This is required or else the Metadata Panel, Keyword Panel, Category Panel would vanish when you move the mouse out of the panel, even when the focus is still on the (then hidden) panel, all keyboard commands go to it. You move the panel out, and if you don't activate it, it will hide itself again when you move the mouse out of the panel. You move the panel out and click/activate it and it will not hide without you explicitly unsticking by activating another panel or window. No way to change that in any sensible way. Hiding a panel with an active MD editor, KW editor or whatever is not a good idea.

[Mario]

How about this new speed?
See attached video (you'll need VLC or Kodi or MediaPlayer, QuickTime any x264 compliant video player.

I have made the new speed the default, but added a fallback option so you can restore the current speed.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Ferdinand]

 

[Mario]

Merci. I take this as a LIKE 

[ben]

LIKE from me as well for the new speed. :-)

Though i like this, it's not what i originally meant.
I would like to be able to switch between two differen panel layouts very quickly.
I use the workspace presets as well, but those need 1-2 secs to be loaded, thus are not fast enough.

So, let me define two screen/pannel layouts:
    Layout-1: Different panels pinned to the right side of the screen, i.e. not overlapping the file window
    Layout-2: Pannels hidden, like in marios video

I would use them as follows:
    1) I would like to work with layout-1 for a while, without disappearing of the pannels when i select another image.
         I don't want the pannels to overlap the thumbnails, since i cannot chose a new image properly.
    2) Then sometimes, i would like to free up as much space in the file window as possible, e.g. to sort some pictures into the right order.
    3) After that, i continue working with the pannels, e.g. adding keywords for several pictures one after the other

  -> So, i would use layout-1 for (1) and (3) and layout-2 for (2).



Ok, now to answer some of your comments:

>Mario: One is a key to hide / unhide all open panels: Difficult as Mario points out. Maybe restricting it to auto-hide panels would make it manageable.

No need to hide/unhide all open panels, but only those of one screen side to make the file window bigger.
This has to work, even when different pannels are attached to the right screen side, but one at the top and one at the bottom.

>Mario: What if a user wants to hide all panels, but wants to keep the 'View' panels (Media & Folders, Categories, ...) open? Just quickly hide all other panels to get more room for the file window?
>So this feature would not only need ways to store file window settings for the "normal" and "all panels hidden" case, but also options so users can configure which panels to hide...which makes things of course even more complex.

Ok, this might be too complicated. Just limit it to one (each) side of the screen, so no need to let the user configure it. No Hotkey, just a button or similar.

>Mario: All this is already covered by workspaces, of course. A work space does not only store the open, hidden, closed, and floating panels and their sizes, but also the file window settings. But switching a workspace involves more work (aka slower), because all panels need to be re-initialized from the database. This is not the same as just hiding/showing panels and switching some file window options.

Right, those presets seem to save much more information so it needs more time to restore them. Could panel layouts be handled faster?

>Ubacher: One could also think about icons which could be clicked to open/close panels i.e. to replace the need for pressing F9-x keys.

Yes

>Mario: If you hide panels (or automatically hide panels), you won't see 'more' thumbnails in the file window, just bigger onces. Because hiding a panel does not affect how many thumbnails the file window displays per row.

Ok, this seems tricky, but hiding pannels should result in more thumbnail rows to be shown.

[Mario]

I know this was not your original request. This discussion was side-tracked as so often.
As I outlined in response to your and similar requests, some things are just not possible. Either because the UI toolkit does not support them, there are technical reasons in IMatch itself.

2 seconds for switching a workspace is already amazingly fast, considering what IMatch has to do. You must have a very fast computer. That combined with the ability to float, dock, open/close and auto-hide panels gives already a great deal of flexibility in how you design your personal IMatch user interface.

Hiding all panels with a shortcut would be possible, but then the file window would just switch from 4 small thumbnails to four large thumbnails (because you configure how many thumbnails you want per row with the slider, not their size). If you use a tabular layout, There would suddenly a lot of wasted space on the right. So an hide all panels feature would not only need to hide all panels, but probably also load another file window layout to be useful. After implementing this, another user comes up and tells me "Hey, I don't want to hide all panels all the time. I want to keep panel X always visible, just hide all others". I can see why this is useful. And if you think this through, you'll end up with, yes, workspaces...

[ben]

After implementing this, another user comes up and tells me "Hey, I don't want to hide all panels all the time. I want to keep panel X always visible, just hide all others". I can see why this is useful. And if you think this through, you'll end up with, yes, workspaces...

Ok, i see your point. You see too many technical difficulties.


I was hoping, that there might be a solution in between (not the perfect one).

• Hiding/Unhiding only all pannels on the left or on the right.
• Nothing to configure
• I use workspaces as well (very nice!) but they are not suitable for me to quickly free up some more space -> too slow.

[ben]

Hi Mario,
I would like to ask you to rethink this original feature request.
I worked a lot with imatch this year on my one screen laptop and I have missed this quite often.

I would like to hide/unhide all pinned panels of one screen side to free up more space for the filewindow.

Thanks a lot for considering this,
Ben

[Mario]

No change in the UI toolkit in this area.

But you can hide an entire group of panels with a single mouse click..?
Or use different workspaces?

[JohnZeman]

Hi Mario,
I would like to ask you to rethink this original feature request.
I worked a lot with imatch this year on my one screen laptop and I have missed this quite often.

I would like to hide/unhide all pinned panels of one screen side to free up more space for the filewindow.

Thanks a lot for considering this,
Ben

Why not enable Auto Hide on your panels on one side so they're normally collapsed but slide outwards when you hover your mouse over them?

[ben]

No change in the UI toolkit in this area.

Uff, i was hoping for.

But how did you implement the other arrow to quickly maximize a panel?
We would "just" need another arrow.

But you can hide an entire group of panels with a single mouse click..?

Really, did i miss anything?
I am using panels on the right screen side. I have two "groups", one at the top of the screent and one at the bottom. And each group consisting of several different panels tabbed next to each other.

Or use different workspaces?

Not an option. I takes 1-2s to load which seems to be quick considering what iMatch has to do in the background. But it's slow from the perspective "quickly close it"

Why not enable Auto Hide on your panels on one side so they're normally collapsed but slide outwards when you hover your mouse over them?

Hm, the problem is that then the panels (e.g. metadata) is not visible when i work on the thumbails in the file window.

[sinus]

No change in the UI toolkit in this area.

But you can hide an entire group of panels with a single mouse click..?
Or use different workspaces?

With one single mouse cklick hiding an entire group?
Sounds promising, how can I do this?

Different workspaces for me is simply too slow.

[Mario]

When you click on the Pin icon in the caption, the UI toolkit hides the entire group of panels.

[ben]

When you click on the Pin icon in the caption, the UI toolkit hides the entire group of panels.

True, but not helpful when i have two groups of several panels above each other.
Please see my screenshot.
I am using one group at the top right side (red) and one group at the bottom right side (green).

When i click the Pin icon of the red group, then the red group gets hidden and the green group gets enlarged.

Maybe we could change the feature request to:
i would like to hide and unhide both groups at the same time.

Ben

[Mario]

I have added a feature which auto-hides / un-auto-hides all panels to IMatch 2018.
You can trigger this command via View > Panels > Show/hide all panels, or via the keyboard shortcut <F9>,<Backspace>.

[ben]

Cool, thank you!!
Waiting for it to see it in action.

Any idea how far iMatch 2018 is away for us?
I know you don't like telling it, but maybe a hint? ;-)