V7 interface improvement sugestions

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anton peshkov
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V7 interface improvement sugestions

Post by anton peshkov »

Hi,

Like many other users I disliked the interface of the new version 7 and switched back to version 6. Nevertheless, I understand your need to these changes and have three suggestions that I suppose will make most users happy with the new interface.
First and most importantly, add an ability to switch to the classic mode for the browser plugins. Perhaps it is already possible, but I did not find out how.
Second, the ability to emulate or to switch to the native window frame look and not Win10 like one. I understand that you implemented the non-native frame to be able to put buttons on it. However, it is still possible to emulate the native window look as it is done in Firefox for example. Alternatively, I suppose that the people that want the classical interface does not care about these additional buttons. You could just use the native window with the classical interface. Do not forget that half of the windows users are still on Win 7 (and given that Exchange Editor is mostly used in corporate environment, this number should be much higher for your users). If people would want a Win10 window frames on their Win7, they would just install a corresponding Windows theme, they are plenty of them.
Third, the easier to implement for you; to be able to switch to old icons. They had a big advantage of being smaller and thus save screen space.

Best,
Anton
Willy Van Nuffel
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Re: V7 interface improvement sugestions

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

Hi Anton,

1) In the IE11 browser add-on, you can minimize the ribbon of PDF-XChange Editor if you like.
You can do this on the hand of the expand/minimize switch at the right in the menu bar.

2) You do not need to switch back to PDF-XChange Editor V6 to have the classic toolbars back.
In V7, you have a button for this in the title bar of the Editor, at the right side, it is called "UI Options".

3) You can minimize the classic toolbars, so that the icons in these toolbars are taking less space too.
Attachments
1 - Editor V7 - Internet Explorer add-on.png
2 - Editor V7 - Switch to classic toolbars.png
3 - Editor V7 - Classic toolbar with small icons.png
anton peshkov
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Re: V7 interface improvement sugestions

Post by anton peshkov »

1) That is nice, but still not the classical toolbars.
2) You did not understand me. I want the native window frame (what you have called the title bar). Nothing to do with the toolbars. I attached two examples, one of a good implementation in Firefox (Palemoon), where you have a custom button on the title bar, but the title bar still looks like a native Win7 one and another of a bad implementation (like the current in V7) of Word 2007 wher the title bar with additional buttons do not look like a native Win7 one.
3) Which will oblige you to maximize and minimize it all the time that you want to use some tools, not a very good option.
palemoon.png
(9.77 KiB) Not downloaded yet
word2007.png
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Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team
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Re: V7 interface improvement sugestions

Post by Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team »

Hi Anton.
First and most importantly, add an ability to switch to the classic mode for the browser plugins. Perhaps it is already possible, but I did not find out how.
Good idea. You can do it right now by adding one button on toolbar using the toolbars-customization feature:
SwitchToClassicUI.png
Second, the ability to emulate or to switch to the native window frame look and not Win10 like one. I understand that you implemented the non-native frame to be able to put buttons on it. However, it is still possible to emulate the native window look as it is done in Firefox for example. Alternatively, I suppose that the people that want the classical interface does not care about these additional buttons. You could just use the native window with the classical interface. Do not forget that half of the windows users are still on Win 7 (and given that Exchange Editor is mostly used in corporate environment, this number should be much higher for your users). If people would want a Win10 window frames on their Win7, they would just install a corresponding Windows theme, they are plenty of them.
Firstly I want to say that isn't easy to support both UI-modes in one runtime, to be honest. As result - not many applications implemented both modes in the same time, as I know.
As you noticed, the RibbonUI requires to use the window's caption. In corresponding to nature of Ribbon. Also in ClassicUI mode is useful to take that place for some hot commands (it can be customized too). While it is useful in ClassicUI - yes, it changes the look of standard window caption/frame. In my opinion - its not so critical for big number of users while window's custom caption is looking accurate and working correctly. But we are looking forward for feedback..
Third, the easier to implement for you; to be able to switch to old icons. They had a big advantage of being smaller and thus save screen space.
In the near future we planning to add feature to customize icon size. With that you will be able to reduce it as you want. Tip: currently you may try to use new simple option to reduce large icons:
ReduceLargeIcons.png
Thanks for suggestions.

Best
Regards.
Vasyl Yaremyn
Tracker Software Products
Project Developer

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anton peshkov
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Re: V7 interface improvement sugestions

Post by anton peshkov »

Hi Vasyl,

Thank you for your lengthy explanations. I am satisfied now as of point 1) and 3). As for the point 2) it is of course your decision and I understand that it is very complex to “emulate” a native window. However, I still will be glad if you will add an option to switch to the native window for the classical UI. All the additional buttons there can be placed on the toolbars anyway. I can give you an example: the SoftMaker just released a new version of their office suite also with the new Ribbon interface and the possibility to emulate the old interface. However, in their case when you switch to the classical interface the native window look is fully restored as shown in images above.
ribbon_textmaker.png
classical_textmaker.png
In addition, I have a new suggestion, about which I have seen many complaints about in other posts: as many people I was not realizing that I was installing a completely new version of the program. When I downloaded the update, I only paid attention to the fact that the version moved from 322.7 to 323, i.e. it was a minor bug-fix update for me. Only after installation, I discovered that actually it was a full new version of the software because it switched from version 6 to 7. Please, change your version numbering, as it is very deceptive for the users.
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Paul - Tracker Supp
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Re: V7 interface improvement sugestions

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Hi Anton,
thanks for the feedback - it is always appreciated. While it is up to Vasyl and the dev team to determine how those title bars will look I would like to comment on the versioning.

If you look to Help --> About you will see that the version is included and the build is separate.
You upgraded from 6.0.322.7 to 7.0.323. The build number is consistent as it should remain consecutive from the previous, the "Version number" precedes it.

Perhaps this schema does not suit everybody but it is logically structured and unlikely to change.

Perhaps of more interest to you is our coming shift to not releasing a build until the change log is ready and presenting that change log in the installers so it is more obvious when a major version change is happening.

hth
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
http://www.tracker-software.com
plugger
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Re: V7 interface improvement sugestions

Post by plugger »

I prefer to have a visible frame border around the window, like the green box in the attached example around Paint:
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: V7 interface improvement sugestions

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

We do have a section for Customizing the UI in the preferences that allows you to modify the colors at your leisure, nothing specifically for the border, but you can change it from the usual straight white window.
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