I took another/closer look at the JRiver wiki hotkey page
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,133514.msg924962.html#msg924962, and whaddya know... There
is a Hotkey to open the bottom file list panel! Simply select an album thumbnail (or thumbnails), and hit enter on your keyboard to open/close the file list panel (relevant page location in attached pic below).
Unfortunately, having to first click on a thumbnail before hitting enter for this to work makes this approach slower than simply double-clicking on an album thumbnail to open the file list. Also unfortunately, as noted in Mark's post, for multilevel categories double-clicking thumbnails drills down without showing the file list, until it gets to the album itself, and then the file list will show - same is true if you use the enter key approach.
So in the end, double-clicking the splitter works for all scenarios. But depending on the skin, those splitters can be pretty thin and difficult to double-click. It is far preferable to have a bigger target, such as a toolbar button, so that precision is not paramount and a double-click is not required.
One thing I have thought about requesting myself, is instead of having to double-click the splitter, a single click will open/close the panel. I find that when I double-click, I often times move my mouse slightly between the clicks. This results in the panel barely being open after the double-click, which forces me to manually resize the panel. And to be clear, the current single click-and-hold behavior that allows you to drag/resize the splitter would be unchanged.
So with the above approach, instead of having to zero in on and click those tiny arrows to open/close panels, you activate anywhere along the entire splitter bar with a single click! So what about when a splitter has dual direction arrows? Then simply click one-half of the splitter bar to move in one direction, and the other half to move the other direction. Which side to click is obvious, given the arrowheads are symmetric about the splitter centerline.
To satisfy all parties, all three approaches could be incorporated without any conflict:
- Change splitter's double-click activation to single click, and recognize dual directions per splitter bar halves
- Update the "enter hotkey" to open the file list regardless of the level you're at in a multilevel category view
- Add a dedicated toolbar button to open the file list
Winner winner python dinner.