- Auto-sizing -- when we watched people use it before, they were always having to manually move the properties splitter. Auto-sizing fixes that and it gets rid of clutter from splitters. The challenge is to make it smart enough without making it feel like it's always moving.
I like seeing a dividing line between the media library and the properties though - not too into 'seemless blends' on things that are different.
I personally like setting it to a size and then leaving it there - I would suggest an option to have it 'auto resize' like you have for columns but no options so cant suggest that. Changing size just makes me uncomfortable as I cant get used to it being in a specific screen location
- Smart item switching -- it makes sense to show a simple, graphical "Burn CD" page when the user says they want to burn a CD. The same holds for building a playlist or Playing Now. However, we don't want to always be shoving it in peoples faces. When should it show up / auto-switch items?
Properties pane right now is limited to displaying A
OR B
OR C - to me this has always been a BIG limitation and forcing me to bounce between all the different screens meaning I rarely use most of them.
The ability to view two or more at a time would be a BIG improvement.
When I saw the big white space under the 'properties' pane I thought this was going to be the new drop target and to me it appeared perfect - a nice big zone to quickly drop files onto. Later I realised it wasn't and I have to again change out of properties to get to the drop target - why not let it be this white space?? Why make us use two seperate views for it?
- Manual item switching -- already mentioned this, but we need to expose the tools and modes that are available but want a very clean look. Right-click, auto-hide, or one button that opens a menu (like the Windows Start button) are some ideas.
If you mean switching between 'properties', 'playlists' etc then this I feel NEEDS to be just a bunch of buttons/tabs or SOMETHING that shows all available screens so we can just click on any of them to change - no right clicking, no hiding the available options - make all of them visible - this will REALLY help to make new users aware of the other options and will make it a LOT more intuitive and faster to use.
Also - as was suggested - if we could right click on the button for Drag, Drop and Go for instance to chose where it sends it to.
- Other helpful pages -- what other things could be in the action window that would be helpful? We've thought a "Tools" page that listed tools with an explanation and "Run Tool" button on it may be helpful. Any other ideas?
What would the "Run Tool" do? I dont understand that one.
A page for Allowing us to display 'single panes' would be a VERY nice addition to allow us to use the list type from windows other than Media Library. At least that way we could tag one list type field at a time - better than none
CD Burning picture there is ugly
lol - just had to say - I know its just a temp pic
The CD Burning should show a list of files in it - just like the other targets do so we can re-arrange them etc.
Also - some buttons appearing for these other modes would be VERY nice - 'Clear CD Playlist' 'Burn CD' etc - when sending to cd burner. would be great time savers allowing us to control this from elsewhere in MC other than just the 'Burning Window'.
- How the "hidden" mode should look -- when the properties are minimized, what should it do? If you put it in "Drag, Drop, & Go" it works just like the old Drop Target. If it's in "File Properties", it's worthless. Should it switch to "Drag, Drop & Go" in hidden mode, or is there some other slick thing we could do.
Hidden mode should just move it down to the bottom with a button saying: 'Show Properties' at the top - and a drop target maybe under that. Clicking on the 'Show Properties' button will instantly bring it back up to size and having a visible option on screen like that will help beginners not get worried when it disappears the first time.
Not sure what ur planning to do with the top but I DEFINITELY prefer the buttons to the left - track info in the middle.
Also DONT like having volume and position slider as two lines the same size under each other - its just not clear enough.
The buttons for Shuffle, Repeat etc also seem to be so non existant as to almost be invisible now - they need to be more prominant.
We also have buttons for next track - previous track - but what about fast forward rewind etc?
Changed: Pane splitter resizing more intuitive.
Got excited here thinking u meant panes resized