Info Text Features

[IanGoldstein]

While none of these items are critical, it might be nice to have a bit more flexibility in the layout of the "Info Text"...

(1) A dockable window to show info for the currently selected image in the contact sheet. I know we can turn on "Info ToolTips" to view this info, but a docked window would be a nice alternative.

(2) Separate Info Text definitions for Preview Window and Info ToolTips (and a separate definition for a Contact Sheet docked info window if it gets implemented). There is a lot more room to display information when using the Preview Window, whereas ToolTips might be more useful it we could specify an alternate, shorter list of info to display. The right-click "Image Info" option could probably show the same info as the Info ToolTips.

(3) Since we have the ability to load and save several Info Text layouts (via the snapshot button), it could be nice to be able to switch the layout from within the Info panel on the Preview window. A simple drop down box at the top of th einfo box to select from among the save snapshots would work very nicely. This would let us setup various "pages" of info. Alternatively, a tabbed layout of the pages would work quite well, but it might be simplier to just implement a drop-down box to select the info to display.

(4) I think this may have been suggested before, but the ability to add color and/or bold text could be useful. Perhaps color/font tags could be inserted using special variables such as {bold}, {red}, {blue}, etc.

(5) Horizontal separator lines, especially for Info Tooltips and Right-Click Image Info would be helpful. Perhaps blank lines could be rendered as horizontal lines for these displays.

Thanks,
Ian

[Kirk Baker]

Ian,

While none of these items are critical, it might be nice to have a bit more flexibility in the layout of the "Info Text"...

(1) A dockable window to show info for the currently selected image in the contact sheet. I know we can turn on "Info ToolTips" to view this info, but a docked window would be a nice alternative.

(2) Separate Info Text definitions for Preview Window and Info ToolTips (and a separate definition for a Contact Sheet docked info window if it gets implemented). There is a lot more room to display information when using the Preview Window, whereas ToolTips might be more useful it we could specify an alternate, shorter list of info to display. The right-click "Image Info" option could probably show the same info as the Info ToolTips.

I can see doing #2 for sure.

(3) Since we have the ability to load and save several Info Text layouts (via the snapshot button), it could be nice to be able to switch the layout from within the Info panel on the Preview window. A simple drop down box at the top of th einfo box to select from among the save snapshots would work very nicely. This would let us setup various "pages" of info. Alternatively, a tabbed layout of the pages would work quite well, but it might be simplier to just implement a drop-down box to select the info to display.

I like the popup button idea.

(4) I think this may have been suggested before, but the ability to add color and/or bold text could be useful. Perhaps color/font tags could be inserted using special variables such as {bold}, {red}, {blue}, etc.

(5) Horizontal separator lines, especially for Info Tooltips and Right-Click Image Info would be helpful. Perhaps blank lines could be rendered as horizontal lines for these displays.

As long as we keep it simple without having to make people have to balance open/close tags and other HTML-like stuff, I can see doing it.  #5 could likely be accomplished by using a row of underscores "________________".  Maybe styles just run until the end of the line or a new style is encountered so you could do things like:

{red}{bold}ISO: {black}{plain}{iso}

and have it come out like

ISO: 200

-Kirk

[IanGoldstein]

Kirk,

Thanks for taking the time to review my suggestions. I really do appreciate it.
I'm glad some of these ideas may one day be a part of PM.

-Ian

[IanGoldstein]

As long as we keep it simple without having to make people have to balance open/close tags and other HTML-like stuff, I can see doing it.

I definitely agree that it needs to be simple.

#5 could likely be accomplished by using a row of underscores "________________". 

Are you suggesting we just use understores in the present Info Text settings box, or are you saying you could implement it using underscores as a feature of PM?

Maybe styles just run until the end of the line or a new style is encountered so you could do things like:

{red}{bold}ISO: {black}{plain}{iso}

and have it come out like

ISO: 200

Basically, that was what I was thinking. Unless someone had a really good need for more, you wouldn't really need to support much more than basic font styles (e.g. plain, bold, italic) and some basic colors (e.g. black, red, blue, green, yellow, white).

-Ian

[Kirk Baker]

Ian,

As long as we keep it simple without having to make people have to balance open/close tags and other HTML-like stuff, I can see doing it.

I definitely agree that it needs to be simple.

#5 could likely be accomplished by using a row of underscores "________________". 

Are you suggesting we just use understores in the present Info Text settings box, or are you saying you could implement it using underscores as a feature of PM?

Yes, you could currently just enter a bunch of underscores yourself to get the effect you were looking for.

-Kirk

[IanGoldstein]

Yes, you could currently just enter a bunch of underscores yourself to get the effect you were looking for.

I guess I'll just do that for now.

If/when you implement the color and font style "codes", perhaps you'll consider adding a {separator} code which will result in a true horizontal edge-to-edge line.  The advantage of an actual separator line is that it takes less vertical space which would result in: (1) a smaller Info Tooltip box, and (2) more room for text in the "Info" panel of the Preview window.

-Ian

[Kirk Baker]

Ian,

Yes, you could currently just enter a bunch of underscores yourself to get the effect you were looking for.

I guess I'll just do that for now.

If/when you implement the color and font style "codes", perhaps you'll consider adding a {separator} code which will result in a true horizontal edge-to-edge line.  The advantage of an actual separator line is that it takes less vertical space which would result in: (1) a smaller Info Tooltip box, and (2) more room for text in the "Info" panel of the Preview window.

The UI widget that currently renders the text is just a styled text editor.  It would need to be more of an HTML renderer in order to do what you're suggesting.  I may replace the text editor with a HTML browser component in order to make the implementation easier.

-Kirk

[IanGoldstein]

The UI widget that currently renders the text is just a styled text editor.  It would need to be more of an HTML renderer in order to do what you're suggesting.  I may replace the text editor with a HTML browser component in order to make the implementation easier.

One place it might be easy and beneficial to add the horizontal line is in the Right-Click Menu "Image Info" option that appears to be rendered as a menu.

As far as the Info ToolTips and the Preview Window Info Pane, while a true horizontal line is nice, you are right that a series of underscores or perhaps even a some box drawing characters (e.g. Unicode 0x2500 or 0x2501) should do the trick nicely.

-Ian