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.