Preview: drawer or last column?

[neilio]

So, what do you think? Should we add a preference to move the preview drawer's contents into the last column (for column-view users), like the Finder? Or are you happy with the Preview Drawer the way it is?

Just trying to get a handle on everyone's preference.

[Anonymous]

I think that a preference setting is very appropriate. I prefer having the preview in the last column, a la Finder, but I can also see the merits of a drawer that can be hidden.

[wsamples]

I really like the drawer for this. It's especially useful when selecting big media files which might stop everything while they load into the preview. It is much more convenient this way than constantly changing a preference to match circumstances. (O/W, I loathe the drawer concept!)

[knghtbrd]

As I noted, there are some things which break when previewed (Postscript documents for example) and there are some things which just don't work very well with the existing preview options (opening most AVI's with QuickTime is like begging for a root canal..)

In general, I also like to be able to easily (with keyboard) examine contents of any and all bundles.

Those caveats noted, I still prefer the last colum simply because I hate drawers that much, and we're not talking about Apple here, making the last column preview actually useful isn't too much to ask for. ;)

[dgroo]

I generally prefer the in-column approach, but I do think that a preference for both would be great...

A suggestion for the 'previewing of certain types/sizes of files' issue - one thing which I've thought would be enormously helpful would be a way to filter which things get previewed and when.

The simple version of this would be the ability to say 'only show preview if file is smaller than X', or 'only show preview if file is of type/not of type Y'. If it were not supposed to show the preview, you would simply get the other metadata about the file, but it would skip trying to create the preview.

In the sherman tank version, you could also set a delay in preview for the above cases, so that as you were arrowing down a column, if you hit a .pdf, you wouldn't get the delay as it tries to preview it, but if you stay on it then it would kick off the preview.

(To lapse into geek-speak for a moment - I assume the previewing stuff is threaded somehow? It always seems odd to me that there is ever a noticeable delay, both in PF and the Finder, because I would think it would prepare the preview in a separate thread...)

[MacUnix]

I love drawers. Info like preview and the terminal which is only needed for a short period of time can quickly be shown and hidden with the click of a button. I find using the last column a waste of space and also always having the preview on slows down operations when a movie file is selected by accident.
Please a preference so we can select what we want.

My €0.02

[knghtbrd]

That "click of a button" is the problem though. Every time I have to reach for a mouse while I'm doing something otherwise keyboard-intensive, I grumble about it. Navigating and managing files is something I can do as a keyboard task, so I prefer not to have to worry about interrupting my efforts with a mouse.

[MacUnix]

The preview, shelf and process windows and drawers all have menu items and the preview drawer already has a shortcut (option-cmd-e, shft-cmd-p opens the preview in a window). In Panther you can assign shortcuts to every menu item available in an application using the keyboard preferences. (Keyboard&Mouse->Keyboard shortcuts)
So basically there is no need to use the mouse to show and hide these drawers.
A preference for a drawer or last column with and one menu item to show/hide the preview info according to the set preferences should be able to make all of us happy and content and allow for file browsing the way we individually prefer.

[ecammit]

4 things I hate about being in the last column:

1. When I finally get to the file that I want and I click on a file, it scrolls the screen sideways. My next click might be to double click on what I had selected, drag the file, or perhaps I misclicked and wanted the file above / below. Either way, I have to fight the UI by trying to get my operation done before it scrolls over, or I have to move my mouse back a column to continue working with the file lis that I had just been working with. The UI should be there to put what you most likely car about next under you cursor, not away from it. Though you might care about your get info pane next, odds are you either don't need to click in it for anything, or you don't even need it at that time. Some may argue, I use it all the time, but how often do you really need to click in it?

2. When I don't actually care about getting info on a file, it wastes a portion of my screen. My screen real estate is very precious, and if superfluous information is presented, I lose that part of the the screen for more important things that might appear under it.

3. What to do about getting info for a folder? When I click on a folder, it scrolls over and shows the contents of the folder. What if I want info on the folder?

4. If I don't care about the preview, then I do I have to sit there while Path Finder makes a preview for it? Quicktime items are notorious for this. Large files are also a big culprit.

There are certain times that I know I want to get info on things. For those times I open the drawer. Other times I keep it shut, for speed and increased screen real estate.

Basically, I see no reason not to add it as an option to Path Finder, since Path FInder is all about customization, but please do not remove the drawer (or a fixed shelf style column) as an option. That was a big selling point for me for Path FInder over Finder, and I would hate to see it go away.

[knghtbrd]

Preview generation should probably be an asynchronous thread. it should scroll immediately (if you're using the last column for the purpose), then just show the icon of the file with some visual indication that a preview is being generated. Let me still use the program (which means there's a potential bug to watch out for here if the operation to generate a preview needs to be cancelled, but knowing that a thing could possibly be tricky is the first step to doing it right..)

[Anonymous]

What if there was drawer instead of the info window!

[jonst52]

Definitely, in the drawer, IMHO.

This was one of the reasons I switch to Path Finder from the Finder. I use the columns to navigate through folders and to reach files. The file/folder preview doesn't belong to this scenario, so I think it's better put in a separate window.

I would be very upset if PF changes its behavior. But I see that lots of people prefer Apple's Finder way, so the best approach maybe is to give the user, in the prefs dialog box, an option to choose the preview method.

[Anonymous]

I personally MUCH prefer the last column approach, but it is a definite "win-win" if this is a preference that allows each user to get exactly what they want.

[mrpho]

LAST column...i hate how the wondow resizes then i gotta center the window again...(running two monitors)

[Anonymous]

Drawer.

[gemp]

I don't really care about the preview but I *DO* care about the infos... The drawer approach suits me (even with my small screen).

[Mocenigo]

Why not both? Definitely I really want a preview in the column (ok, I bugged you a lto, neilio, sorry...). But if people want it in the drawer, ok.

On the 23" cinema display of my Dual G5, I havae a BIG drawer open in my pdf documents folder. It is very handy (I have 12 Gb of scentific papers). On the PB, however, I would prefer to have the option of the column.

[macsterdam]

Another vote for last column - never did like the drawers at all!

[cliff]

But only if it includes the "calculate" button for folders.

[hombre]

I love the preview/info drawer the way it has always been on the right EXCEPT I would like it to become a pane now, or whatever it is called. Like the thing that is now called "Preview" in the View menu in PF4, except on the right. It is much more attractive than a drawer, which suddenly (like brushed metal) looks sooo 10.3.9. John Gruber could could make "Drawer" a character in his Anthropomorphized series. ("Jesus H. Christ, Brushed, first Mail.app and now F-ing *Path Finder*!! You can't trust anyone...")

Seriously, the pane is slick, but on a widescreen monitor, it cries out to be on the right.

[Tom Dibble]

That "click of a button" is the problem though. Every time I have to reach for a mouse while I'm doing something otherwise keyboard-intensive, I grumble about it. Navigating and managing files is something I can do as a keyboard task, so I prefer not to have to worry about interrupting my efforts with a mouse.

Have you tried assigning a key command to opening/closing the preview drawer? Looks like it should work just fine, as there's a "Show Preview Drawer" option right under the "View" menu (although it's always grayed out right now) ...

Personally, I'd suggest "Smoosh"-"right-arrow (ie, Ctrl+Alt+Apple+Right-Arrow), but that's just me.

[boli]

So, what do you think? Should we add a preference to move the preview drawer's contents into the last column (for column-view users), like the Finder?

yes please! thanks for asking!

the way it works now is already better than PF3, at least the basics can be shown in the last column. video/audio is not playable though (bummer), and neither PDF nor HTML is rendered (don't care).

having a combination of the "info + preview" pane of PF4 in the last column would be heaven (i don't like drawers at all, at least not for stuff i like to have visible all the time).

cheers, oliver

[boli]

opening most AVI's with QuickTime is like begging for a root canal..

works fine here, at least with the free (without pro functions) divx 6 plug-in (http://www.divx.com/divx/mac) installed.

[MacHead]

Vote for Column (as an option)! I don't use the drawers and being able to play audio files directly from the column would be FANTASTIC.

[Sydde]

Each of the flex-panes, as I call those things, can be in 13 locations (panes, drawers, floaters), but the location I want for preview (top of vertical right pane) does not exist. Oh well.

[kmmcdonald]

Option for putting it on the right please! Not in a column that will get scrolled sideways, just in a frame on the right rather than at the bottom. I really dislike drawers myself, I don't see any advantage to them over an internal frame that can be toggled on and off.

What I'd really like is 3 (or even an adjustable number of) columns of windows (panes). Each column can have 3 vertically stacked panes. And any pane can be set to any view, including a console or browser view. Given that all of things already go into panes or drawers, and that you seem to be able to handle multiple columns/rows of configurable panes already, I'm hoping this wouldn't be _too_ much effort. The only thing that keeps me from buying PF right now is that both the preview and the console end up being the wrong dimensions--to long to make effective use of space horizontally, and too short to display enough space vertically. It'd also be nice to be able to have two separate browsers up in the same pane, but that's not as important.

So at the moment, I still find myself using X's standard terminal, an image viewer, a PDF viewer, etc. I have the screen space to have everything displayed at once (including file browsers), but dammit, I have to keep aligning all the windows by hand. I'd really like to be able to arrange them all in one (remembered) window in PF.

Of course, once you did that, you could allow users to have a menu of custom arrangements for different tasks, but that's a thought for the future... :-)

Hope this helps...
Ken

[Happy]

I prefer a preference to move the preview drawer's contents into the last column (for column-view users), like the Finder. I prefer that to the current preview drawer method because it makes the PathFinder window really large. With the drawer method I have to fiddle with the PathFinder window size in order to view the preview properly. Given this, I keep Preview turned off. It would be really nice to get that old Finder-type preview functionality back.

By the way, you've done a fabulous job on PF4!!! Congratulations!

Thanks very much!

[madra]

4 things I hate about being in the last column...

....When I finally get to the file that I want and I click on a file, it scrolls the screen sideways. My next click might be to double click on what I had selected, drag the file, or perhaps I misclicked and wanted the file above / below. Either way, I have to fight the UI by trying to get my operation done before it scrolls over, or I have to move my mouse back a column to continue working with the file lis that I had just been working with....

totally agree - this is my number one bugbear about the behaviour of finder's column view. i cannae for the life of me fathom how apple [a company which prides itself on GUI consistency and usability] came up with the idea that it would be great GUI behaviour to make an icon leap away from the mouse when you selected it! :shock:

[so i guess that's another vote for preview in a drawer!]

[mikelauder]

4 things I hate about being in the last column...

....When I finally get to the file that I want and I click on a file, it scrolls the screen sideways. My next click might be to double click on what I had selected, drag the file, or perhaps I misclicked and wanted the file above / below. Either way, I have to fight the UI by trying to get my operation done before it scrolls over, or I have to move my mouse back a column to continue working with the file lis that I had just been working with....

totally agree - this is my number one bugbear about the behaviour of finder's column view. i cannae for the life of me fathom how apple [a company which prides itself on GUI consistency and usability] came up with the idea that it would be great GUI behaviour to make an icon leap away from the mouse when you selected it! :shock:

[so i guess that's another vote for preview in a drawer!]

That isn't actually quite true about double clicking as the finder window scrolls to show the preview column - as long as you do a regular double click where the file was when you started clicking, a double click will be carried out.

Regarding having a preview as a pane on the right hand side, I was part of the beta program and there was a long discussion about just that. We came up with something along the lines of these mockups:

http://mike.scottishclimbs.com/images/pfmockup1.png

http://mike.scottishclimbs.com/images/pfmockup2.png

The general idea was to have three panes: left, right and bottom. Each pane had two sub-panes, for which you could choose any of the modules.

I much prefer the panes to either drawers or in-column previews - it looks so much cleaner and is available for all items in all views.

I really hope that this gets implemented so time soon - there was talk of it happening, but no promises.

Mike

[grotsasha]

I'm impressed by the screen shots! It should be definitively made so! And everything customizable! Great!!!