Extra horizontal space is great - some more ideas

[Lefteous]

There is now a real inner padding between the file panel border and the icons which looks _far_ better than before

I thought about other elements which are placed above or below the file panels. There are different visual problems (based on Win 7 theme as example:

- The sorting color header is in the same line as the file list border. As they have different colors it looks bad.
- The sorting color header is in the same line as the file list border. As they have different colors it looks as if there is a gap between active path and file list.
- The active part is by default a quite dark color. It has the same border color as the filelist. So the border has no effect in contrast to the fill color.

So what is the idea? The idea is to expand the padding to the other elements. It would look similar to this:
[img]http://fs5.directupload.net/images/160609/6p3rksa7.png[/img]
Here is an alternate version which expands the padding to the space between tab header and active path.
[img]http://fs5.directupload.net/images/160610/yv65nxpc.png[/img]

I added padding to the following elements which now appear in one vertical line:
- Current path
- Column header
- Cursor
- Status bar text

What do you think?

[Lefteous]

Quite a few changes have been made to improve visuals in TC 9. From my point of view it's a huge step forward. The filelist panels look like boxes. That never worked in previous versions.

At the bottom each panel has it's own separator and there is a spacing of a few pixels to the bottom. I think these separators are not really required. The window borders would serve as borders as well.

When the command-line or the function key bar is displayed at the bottom they should bring their own full-width separator. It's not necessary to display one all the time.

In constrast I think it looks strange to have no separator at all between file lists and the status bars. It should be a light separator though.


For the file list panels the window borders could be used for the left side of the left panel and the right side of the right panel.

http://lefteous.totalcmd.net/tc/ideas/borders_and_spacings.png

[Samuel]

The mockup looks really good.

[MVV]

Mockups look good but will it look good on all themes?
And, these drawings shouldn't be applied in case of classic theme.

[Sob]

Some of it could work nicely with classic theme too:

Image: http://web.hisoftware.cz/sob/tc/tc-filelist-test1.png

Status bar (1) as not direct part of panel is nice. Native borders of file list control (2) work well as separators. But there's a little trouble with top. Left part (3) is not that bad, but 3D on the right (4) is a little questionable (I could live with it).

But this won't work well with Aero (and other themes), they are probably better with borderless list on page (as Lefteous suggests). But that in turn does not work well with classic, because with every other control having 3D border, borderless list looks like it does not belong at all.

But perhaps a common layout could work for both. List should be easy, turn off border and give it some padding for Aero, turn on border and stretch the control to edges of page. But I'm not sure about the top with path and tabs.

[Lefteous]

I also don't think there is a major problem with the classic theme. The general issue is that the amount of configurability in Windows and in TC. All kind of colors and different visual ideas must be considered. The thin white lines or spacings are an idea give components that have very different levels of brightness more space to breath.

I tried to use the exact same rules used for the Aero style for the classic style.
http://lefteous.totalcmd.net/tc/ideas/borders_and_spacings_classic_theme.png

[MVV]

There is a something strange with tab headers (bottom border missing) and left panel (part of left border is erased), also top separator end has extra border.

[Lefteous]

2MVV

There is a something strange with tab headers (bottom border missing)

I agree that they would look better with a border but this is the same as in TC 9 ß1. In Explorer they look quite different but the current sort column is quite hard to recognize.

left panel (part of left border is erased), also top separator end has extra border.

Left border removed in file panel is intentionally as explained in first post. As the window already has a separator I wanted to avoid double separators.

also top separator end has extra border.

I used the standard listbox top border in classic theme (not quite sure what you mean by 'top separator end') .

[Sob]

I assume that borderless tab headers in beta1 are part of Filelist doesn't show a border in all cases bug and I have high hopes for promised fix.

[Lefteous]

What is interesting - While there is a 1px grey spacing between left window border and file list there is no spacing between left window border and separate tree...

BTW: Most of the design ideas are inspired by Windows Explorer where tree/lists don't have border where windows borders are. In addition the contents have (a bit too generous) paddings.

[MVV]

I mean that in terms of classic theme it should look like this (I've added some borders and fixed separator):
Image

And TC 8.x is closer to this view than TC 9.0b1. However panel with tabs looks in TC 8.x a bit strange with extra frame...

[Lefteous]

2MVV
Do you have a complete picture of this not just an excerpt. A still picture would also be preferred.

P.S.: How do you do a PNG animation?

[MVV]

Do you have a complete picture of this not just an excerpt. A still picture would also be preferred.

I've only added some borders to your example, I haven't drawn them all.

P.S.: How do you do a PNG animation?

This have confused me too, it is the hosting who saved GIF with PNG extension.

[Lefteous]

Well okay - my two cents on your mockup:

- The tab header left border looks horrible as it creates a very thick impression combined with the left file panel border.
- Removing the left file panel border was part of my concept and I'm still convinced that it's a good idea. I have to admit though that the classic theme window border doesn't really provide a real constrast. So this part of my suggestion would not work when this theme is active or in general with all themes providing no window border.
- The border that connects the two panels was a mistake. Separating them as in your mockup is really better.
- The other tab header stuff is considered as a ß1 bug.

[MVV]

- The tab header left border looks horrible as it creates a very thick impression combined with the left file panel border.

It is sunken on raised panel in sunken space. So maybe it really doesn't require two pixels. Inactive panel's tab header looks better (except bottom border).

- Removing the left file panel border was part of my concept and I'm still convinced that it's a good idea...

In your mockup left panel's left border and right panel's left borders have different depth. If you use thin border for left panel's left border, you should make other borders look the same (including borders around separator).

It doesn't matter for me how it will look on themed TC, I only want to have nice classic style.

I've fixed my mockup: Image
(bugs fixed, entire borders drawn, thin tab headers used)