Req: Tabbed image window layout

[photoken]

Following up on a post in the Beta forum.

When PL displays multiple images in the Editing area, it uses floating windows. The window frames not only waste space, but also the colours distract from the image(s).

I'd like PL to use the concept of tabbed documents for the images. Here's how Photoshop Elements 10 handles the display of multiple images:

PSE windows.jpg

The small layout icon at the top left (second icon from the left) gives the options for the tabbed window layout:

PSE layout options.png

This is very efficient and quite good-looking.

[mwenz]

Your screen shots are not using a tabbed interface. They are tiled. When Photoshop or PSE tiles, the tab that you see, while it is in appearance just like as if those windows were maximized, they take up the same amount of space as PL's full title bar does when it tiles an image or images.

To show a tabbed interface, the windows need maximized.

That said, the options for tiling image windows is a decent feature in PSE.

[photoken]

Your screen shots are not using a tabbed interface.

Nope. In PSE, that screenshot is using what it calls its "Tabbed Document" interface, which is its default. If the "Tabbed Document" interface is disabled, the images are displayed as floating individual windows, complete with window frames, title bars, etc.

They are tiled.

Of course they are. Read my original post carefully. I'm asking for the use of tabbed image windows when multiple images are displayed.

[bkh]

Your screen shots are not using a tabbed interface.

Nope. In PSE, that screenshot is using what it calls its "Tabbed Document" interface, which is its default.

Maybe that's what Adobe calls it, but it's not what is generally meant by a "tabbed interface" (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab_(GUI), OS X and Mozilla use the same terminology as Windows). I always thought that the requests for a tabbed interface were meant in the sense of OS X/Win.

As far as OS X is concerned, I don't see how this tiled interface saves space – you still have a title bar, scroll bars, a status bar for each image. Is this a purely aesthetic problem, then?

Cheers

Burkhard.

[photoken]

Maybe that's what Adobe calls it, but it's not what is generally meant by a "tabbed interface"

Adobe's using "Tabbed Document" in the same sense. If the sample I posted was not tiling the multiple images, the editing area would be showing only the active image and a series of inactive tabs across the top for the inactive images. If the PSE settings had the "Tabbed Document" interface disabled, the images in all cases would be displayed as floating windows. (I've uninstalled PSE after doing the screenshot, so I can't show an example...)

IOW, there are two kinds of views using tabbed documents:

• How the editing area looks when only one image occupies the entire space.
• How the editing area looks when multiple images are displayed in the space.

The important thing in this request is how the images are tiled.

Is this a purely aesthetic problem, then?

Not entirely. Here's what PL looks like on Win7 when displaying multiple images:

PL multiple images.jpg

There are a few things to note:

• The aesthetics are terrible.
• The colours of the window frame, scroll bars and title bar are distracting when intently concentrating on editing.
• The frames, buttons, and title bar take up more space than the sample tabbed version.
• PL's display options are severely limited -- only allowing vertical or horizontal squeezing. Contrast that with the various options available if tabbed documents are used.

I think PSE's use of a status line for each tabbed image is unnecessary and a waste of space. I'm not asking for that....

[mwenz]

Your screen shots are not using a tabbed interface.

Nope. In PSE, that screenshot is using what it calls its "Tabbed Document" interface, which is its default. If the "Tabbed Document" interface is disabled, the images are displayed as floating individual windows, complete with window frames, title bars, etc.

They are tiled.

Of course they are. Read my original post carefully. I'm asking for the use of tabbed image windows when multiple images are displayed.

http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elemen ... asics.html

The screen shot in the middle of the page shows what all other applications consider a tabbed interface. It's also what they call it with an exception: Adone still refers to these windows as tabbed, but it really is a docked tab interface. Because Adobe took away the ability to float the windows, a whole lotta people have complained about the interface you are wanting, that is, docked windows. Adobe could have accomplished the exact same thing but left them floating.

I have version 9. I bought it to help a good customer figure out how to use the thing. It's not installed any longer and I don't plan on it. One of the updates to version 9 is when they introduced the docked tab interface. In general, users hated it, as did I. As one worked, it seemed using that interface one had to keep hitting the menu to rearrange the things. Maybe they improved that in version 10+, but it wasn't user friendly to a vast majority of users.

[Herbert123]

Adobe's docked tabbed system indeed has its caveats. If I compare one application I feel that does it right in my opinion: Netbeans. Netbeans has a very nice implementation, with easy maximize, minimize, and docking controls.

One of my pet peeves with Photoline is the limited control over multiple windows - and Ken is correct in stating the current implementation not only looks quite ugly, but also distracts from image editing. I work with any number of documents open in Photoline, and the limited window management options can make it quite difficult to switch quickly. The documents pane is gold, though - I love it, and it works very well.

And one major limitation of PL is that document windows cannot be placed on a second or third screen, severely impacting the usefulness of PL in a multi-screen working environment. Netbeans solved it quite elegantly, I think. Document windows can be floated easily and placed on any screen. And more tabs can be added. All extremely flexible, and it does not get in the way of usability and the user's workflow.

Examples:

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