About the visual aspect of BRU

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About the visual aspect of BRU

Postby GMA » Sun Dec 02, 2007 3:41 pm

Hi,
first post here. I've been using Bulk Rename for years now, and I think it's great; the best in it's field, actually. Reading the changelog, the following caught my eye:

2.7.0.0 27/10/07 ---> Reinstate visual styles (some people like them, apparently)
2.7.0.1 28/10/07 ---> Remove visual styles again (they’re pointless!)

That, and the second suggestion/response in this topic http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Foru ... .php?t=429 made me think about BRU's interface, and, with all due respect to Jim's work, the reasons why I would change just one thing:

1) The only "problem" for me, even though I've used BRU hundreds of times and I'm already accustomed to it, is related exclusively to the fields or compartments (RegEx, Repl., Remove, etc.) boundaries. IMHO, the fact that they are so close from each other (which is not a problem itself) and that everything (but mainly background/lines) shares similar tones of gray, makes it difficult to locate what you're looking for at a first glance (or at least it makes it a little slower than it should be). By using contrasting colors for the boundaries, I think the eyes will skip the "recognizing the structure" part, and just concentrate on the contents you're about to use.
2) Also, by using different colors, you'll eventually relate the functions with them, thus speeding the usage simply by color association.
3) Considering that any changes to BRU will result from Jim's time and work, not mine, I was trying to think a way that didn't involve any major GUI changes or extra coding to be done.

A possible approach could be something like this (I suppose it's implementation is feasible):
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff19 ... daries.png

Even a simple 2px solid black line makes things clearer (but not as much as the colored style). And changing the background color of each field doesn't look right; so, this is the best I could come up with.
I hope I explained myself; english isn't even my language and the reasons I gave were kind of hard to put in words. Anyway, I'm just trying to add another point of view to the "visual aspect" question. Many thanks, Jim, for this great software.

Gabriel.
Mar del Plata - Argentina.
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Postby Admin » Sun Dec 02, 2007 9:32 pm

Many thanks Gabriel - your English is perfect!

I've made various attempts at trying to improve the layout, but this was not one of the approaches I had tried. I will have a look to see what's involved in implementing something like this - hopefully for the next release.

Thank you for a great suggestion!


Jim
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Postby GMA » Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:38 am

Hi, Jim:
I'm glad you liked my suggestion, and thanks for your compliment on my English :)
Here's another possible style, under the same concept: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff19 ... tleBar.png

Maybe other users in this forum could give their impressions (check out this new guy, already telling people what to do :P), so Jim will know if my suggestion is also backed by others, and worthy of any work to implement it, or just something he'll end up removing because most people didn't like it (see changelog for 2.7.0.0 / 2.7.0.1). I don't wanna waste his time.
Regards,

Gabriel.
Mar del Plata - Argentina
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Postby KHL » Tue Dec 04, 2007 7:48 am

¿Qué tal, Gabriel?,

first compliments, too. I wish my spanish was as good as your english...

I'd like to support your suggestions but have another proposal:

What if Jim not only coloured the TITLEBAR, but the entire BACKGROUND of the different sections instead? This might need to use white colour for the sections' options, if the background becomes too dark to read the text anymore. Sorry, I don't have time to prepare a screenshot, because I'm at work, but I do hope everybody knows what I try to explain.

Cheers
Karl
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Postby GMA » Tue Dec 04, 2007 4:13 pm

Hallo, Karl; danke! ;)
For your first words and for your contribution to this topic. Regarding the colored-background alternative, yes, in my first post I mentioned that when I tried that it didn't look right, but omitted posting a screenshot. Here it is now: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff19 ... round1.png

In my opinion, it's a little too much, kinda psychedelic. However, using pastel colors certainly improves things: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff19 ... round2.png

So, we now have an option for the boundaries, title bar and background to keep Jim busy :lol:.
Again, KHL, thanks for your participation.
Best regards,

Gabriel
Mar del Plata - Argentina
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Re: About the visual aspect of BRU

Postby Xandur » Sun Dec 16, 2007 5:38 pm

+1 for the pastel variation. Mellow yet divides the different sections quite nicely.
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Re: About the visual aspect of BRU

Postby mick » Sun Jan 20, 2008 6:18 pm

I think the outlining is an excellent idea http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff19 ... daries.png
It highlights the different panels well and is not garish compared to filling in of each panel with full colour.
Could it be possible to apply ones own colour outlining to each panel so that only panels that are needed or regularly used could be identified, or use the same colour to link panels?
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Re: About the visual aspect of BRU

Postby Bruser » Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:09 am

Hi,

IMHO, the first useful change to consider is putting titles of the "control boxes" (RegEx, Repl., Remove...) in bold letters.
This seems easy to implement (for a lurker... :D ) and would lead to far better legibility.

Aside this, congratulations to Jim for the very unusual quality of the Help file... :idea:

Regards.
Last edited by Bruser on Tue Jan 29, 2008 3:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: About the visual aspect of BRU

Postby GMA » Tue Jan 29, 2008 2:23 pm

Hi,
No need to wonder how that would be :):
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff19 ... esBold.png

But I'm starting to think that MSVC++ is not as flexible as I hoped.
Jim, are some of these already ruled out, or you didn't have the time to work on this yet? From some of your recent posts I know right now you're trying to implement Unicode support (good luck with that, btw).

Gabriel
Last edited by GMA on Tue Jan 29, 2008 10:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: About the visual aspect of BRU

Postby Bruser » Tue Jan 29, 2008 3:14 pm

GMA wrote:No need to wonder how that would be :):
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff197/OrfeoImg/TitlesBold.png


As expected ! :mrgreen:
Just fine.. Ah ! Ah !
Thanks Gabriel, well done.
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Re: About the visual aspect of BRU

Postby Admin » Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:48 am

Perhaps you could download this:

http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Files/BRU.exe

and see what you think?

You'll need to be using the current release of BRU, and you'll need to replace your .EXE with this one.



Jim
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Re: About the visual aspect of BRU

Postby Bruser » Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:12 pm

Admin wrote:Perhaps you could download this:


Later version of WINDOWS required ! :cry: :cry: :cry:

Some screen capture ?
TIA
Regards.
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Re: About the visual aspect of BRU

Postby Admin » Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:08 pm

That's the 2000/XP version I've uploaded. Surely, SURELY you're not using 98/ME ? :shock: :shock: :shock:
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Re: About the visual aspect of BRU

Postby Bruser » Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:23 pm

Admin wrote:Surely, SURELY you're not using 98/ME ? :shock: :shock: :shock:


Alas ! Yes... Win98 SE :mrgreen:

(Joke above : I am very happy with Win98 SE : it flies like a rocket on small configuration !) :P 8)

Regards.
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Re: About the visual aspect of BRU

Postby GMA » Fri Feb 01, 2008 3:48 am

That's great, Jim, thanks :D
Sorry to bother with this, but did you find the time to try some of the colored styles? I was wondering if there's still a chance for any of those, or if they just can't be done.
Thanks for your time and work.

Gabriel
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