Since I have always been using custom tooltips (tt) a lot, I have two suggestions to make:
- In thumbnail mode tts appear a bit to "aggressive" to me. When discussing files with colleagues, we are often pointing the mouse cursor to the file under discussion -- just to make sure we are talking about the same file. Of course, the tt shows up. On the one hand this is expected. On the other hand, especially with large tts, they overlay parts of the pointed file thumbnail and other thumbnails.
The point is: tts should not display (and hide other information) when not needed, but they should still be accessible easily.
--> Why not use the 1st line below the thumbnail (file name area) as the area for displaying the long file name, and the 2nd line (size, etc.) as the area for displaying the custom tt?
. - This suggestion is probably a more "intrusive" to the code -- but I'm sure it would contribute a lot to user convenience:
As said, I'm using tts quite a lot, e.g., to get a quick overview on certain files or quickly comparing them based on metrics shown in the tts. However, most of the time, the mouse is just lying around as I always prefer the keyboard with TC.
The point is: tts should not display (and hide other information) when not needed, but they should still be accessible easily.
--> How about showing tooltips only when a certain modifier key (e.g., CRTL) is pressed?
This way, the *entire* thumbnail (thumbnail view) or the *entire* line (list view) could be used as a tt area, but they would still not pop up when not needed. If needed, you simply keep the modifier pressed (left hand) while pointing (right hand).
Similar behavior is known from other tools, where additional information about a displayed "object" is only shown when a modifier is pressed, or from some editors where URLs are just regular text unless a pressed modifier turns them into clickable links. This is super convenient imho.
Maybe a FileTipWindowsModifier=CAS could be introduced to the ini to let the user select between ctrl/alt/shift or a combination of these. I know, such a modifier might conflict with shortcuts. But since that depends on the code, I cannot tell how difficult or easy such an option can be implemented.