Increase inplace copy dialog width

MVV · Post by *MVV » 2013-10-04, 09:16 UTC

Regular copy dialog width increased - great! But Shift+F5 copy dialog (TCheckEditBox class) is still narrow. Please increase its width.

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2013-10-04, 15:20 UTC

This is a standard TC dialog which is used in many other places. I'm not sure whether I should really make it much larger.

MVV · Post by *MVV » 2013-10-04, 17:57 UTC

Why don't you sure? It won't hurt at all, but will allow longer paths (longer than 50 characters) and filenames in a label (currently only 25 name characters shown in Russian). Screenshot.

BTW it even too short to include full-length checkbox title (there is a shortening in Russian).

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2013-10-07, 09:52 UTC

Because I still think that the new wider F5 copy dialog looks ugly (misproportioned).

MVV · Post by *MVV » 2013-10-07, 11:55 UTC

New F5 dialog looks bad not because of its width but because of buttons' width. You should make buttons' width smaller and move them to the right. But in such case disappearing 'Options' button will look strange.

BTW F5 dialog could look better if you make it resizeable, so it could look normally for most people. It is really easy to do, just playing with forms (I gave some examples).

Sob · Post by *Sob » 2013-10-07, 12:47 UTC

The truth is, I also like cute small and "packed" dialogs better than some too wide, etc.. But that's just the visual appearance which is not the most important thing. The old copy dialog may have been a tiny little bit closer to cute (not counting the ugly "Options >>" on separate line) and small than the new one. But the longer paths didn't fit quite often. And you just have to ask if it was worth it.

Resizeable dialog is the ultimate solution. You design it nice and small and use that as default. And if someone makes it bigger, it does not hurt your eyes. Happiness all around. :) Too bad Delphi 2 does not have anchors and constrains (if I remember it right), that makes creating resizeable dialogs much easier.

Post by *white » 2013-10-08, 14:08 UTC

[mod]Thread split to What about porting 32-bit TC to Lazarus?

White (moderator)
[/mod]

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2013-10-09, 14:47 UTC

2MVV
I cannot make the buttons smaller because some languages require the width.

MVV · Post by *MVV » 2013-10-09, 15:54 UTC

OK, now I see that buttons have same width as in older versions (they look wider because of single-line layout).
Maybe you can move 'Options' button down and move rest buttons to the right? Or maybe leave just '>>' instead of 'Options >>' button text to make it shorter (I think it is quite enough to have title '>>' to tell user that button can expand something - tooltip may be used to tell what exactly).

Sob · Post by *Sob » 2013-10-13, 19:04 UTC

This Options button is real troublemaker. :) Either it sits below the other buttons (old version) and makes the dialog look ugly. Or it is on the same line as others and makes author feel bad, because it needs to be relatively wide. And in both cases makes things weird by dissapearing, but that's because it looks like it belongs to same group as other buttons. It wouldn't be weird if it was clearly separate.
What about dealing with it the same way as in MVV's latest example? Just the basic idea, Options would be above the other buttons in some form (smaller button or perhaps even clickable panel). Advanced options would also open above buttons, othewise it would not make sense. Rest of the buttons aligned to right. I think the result would make better impression.

MaxX · Post by *MaxX » 2013-10-14, 06:21 UTC

Support!
This example
http://imagehost.spark-media.ru/i4/4D0E2BC9-A510-7FD4-5199-889A55D89A6B.png
looks the best anyway.

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2013-10-14, 13:55 UTC

Unfortunately this ">>" button is almost invisible - although I must admit that it really looks good, I must also say that most people wouldn't even notice that it is there...

MVV · Post by *MVV » 2013-10-14, 15:54 UTC

ghisler,
You can try to make it non-flat so it will be visible.

Sob · Post by *Sob » 2013-10-14, 18:11 UTC

It's called *advanced* options for a reason, people who are supposed to find it will find it. New users either want to just copy files and don't need any options (no problem here) or they have some specific requirements and they will actively look for advanced options. And when they do, there's no chance to not find the button. Sure, if the dialog contained fifty other controls, it could be missed among them. But in this simple dialog? No way. Also don't forget it's a one-time thing, they just need to find it once and they will remember it for later.