Suggestion: Image Navigator in image tab thumbnails

[dflock]

Hi,

Just a quick feature suggestion, with a mock-up, no less!

How about an image navigator built in to the image thumbnails in the top right toolbar - the document selector tabs?

If you've got a large image open, or you're zoomed in a lot, it can be quite difficult to navigate your way around an image, especially as your position is reset if you switch to another image and back.

How about making the image thumbnails themselves into an image navigator - that way when you switched images using the tabs, you could immediately move the viewport to the part of the image you're interested in working on, because the mouse pointer is right there. This might look something like this:

The black and red box overlaid over the first thumbnail represents the currently visible area of the image - dragging this box around the image with the mouse would move it - and move the currently visible area of the image. I would have this overlay box only appear when you hover the mouse over the current images thumbnail, not be visible all the time, or on all tabs. Clicking the current thumbnail would centre the current view on the spot clicked. Clicking any of the other thumbnails behaves exactly as it does now, except that once that tab becomes the current active one, the overlay box would appear, allowing you to navigate within the image.

Maybe images which completely fit inside the current Paint.NET window without scrolling wouldn't get an overlay box at all? Or maybe a full sized box that doesn't move, just for consistency?

This link explains how the image Navigation pallete works in Photoshop:

http://www.learnthat.com/Computers/learn.asp?id=2178&index=11

I envisage a mini version of that, built into the document tabs.

This sounds to me like a useful feature, that could be implemented without a huge amount of code upheaval and which wouldn't clutter the interface or impact users who don't care about it. It's also quite discoverable, as hovering the mouse over the tabs happens when you're switching images and clicking or dragging the box provides immediate visual feedback which directly corresponds to your actions.

What do you think? Good idea, bad idea or no idea what I'm talking about?

Dunc

[david.atwell]

This has been discussed, and the rules state no polls anywhere but in Overflow.

It is a good idea, but I believe Rick nixed it...

[Crazy Man Dan]

I don't believe Rick 'nixed it, but he did say he's thinking up an elegant way to handle both adding a navigator and enabling drag-'n-drop tab reorganization.

This was discussed at length in a thread, however I am unable to find it right now. Dare I say it "probably will" happen eventually, since Rick thought it a good idea. He just wants to implement it in the most user-friendly way possible.

[david.atwell]

Thanks for the correction, Dan; I wasn't sure. I want to say Myrddin brought it up last time, but I could be wrong...

[Crazy Man Dan]

I don't remember who started it, but I do remember I used this phrase:

"If I may be permitted the audacity of citing The GIMP as an example of good user interface design..."

I tried searching for certain keywords in posts I have made, and it says I have no posts that contain the word "audacity." I need to fix that... Oh wait! I just did. :wink:

[Myrddin]

@david: No, I was the one to post directly after the author and is the one who thought it not possible thinking it would be too tight of a squeeze on the MDI row. Rick quickly crushed my presumption.

I too can't find the topic at this moment...strange.

[david.atwell]

@Myrddin: I knew you were involved!

@CMD: That's audacious!

[Myrddin]

@Myrddin: I knew you were involved!

In the words of CMD:

<...<

>...>

[Deborah]

The old discussion

[david.atwell]

Thanks for dredging that up! I knew it had an abbreviation, but I couldn't remember what it was...

[dflock]

I did search the forums a bit before posting, but I didn't find that other thread. I also wasn't aware of the no polls rule - so, apologies on both counts - I'm new here.

For my part, I would much rather have the image navigator functionality, than tab re-ordering, if there's a choice.

As for UX for both, most images have a bit of empty space at the top of their tab - maybe a small amount of space could be reserved at the top of all tabs for dragging and dropping the tab?

Also, if the image is fully visible (i.e. no image navigator required) then the whole tab could be draggable? I know that consistency is very important in UI design, but this would mean that dragging a tab would probably 'do what you meant' in most situations.

Not sure.

Anyway, thanks for an awesome piece of software!

Dunc

[Rick Brewster]

The problem with having the UX work in the ways you're suggesting is that it requires the user to keep track of what state things are in before they do something. "Click + drag" is then context dependent, and I don't think that's a very good experience in this case.

Like I said, the problem isn't writing the code. It isn't hard. It's just figuring out the right, perfect UX (user experience) model that isn't obvious