I've upgraded from X6 and Tabs are driving me insane. I drag in any number of images to view and work on them side by side. What do I need? - auto-resizing, floating windows and all the real estate I can muster.
1) Sure, open images using Open or Open Recent... and if the Option is set to "Open documents in floating window" they will open in floating windows, but drag them in from Windows Explorer and they tab. Can we have consistency here? Better still, can we get rid of tabs?
2) Tabs should be optional. They take up real estate and get in the way of working with multiple images.
3) The snap feature which opens the image to full workspace should also be an option. Why should I have to use Ctrl just to dock windows across the top? Lunacy.
4) no auto-resize of the floating window? Seriously? I mean, seriously? Corel clearly wants me to use tabs, but seriously, no auto-resize of the windows? Really? How many lines of coding must that have saved?
Here's where I'm coming from. I use SolidEdge CAD and when they introduced a revolutionary non-history-based method of creating 3D objects they had the good sense to maintain the old history-based method for those who preferred it. Everybody was happy. Cannot the same be done here and allow floating windows exactly as they were in X6, just for those of us who prefer/need that way of working?
I've been using PhotoPaint since it was ZPaint, before Corel bought it. I've been using X7 for a couple years now, and I still absolutely hate the windows snapping to tabs. I usually have three to six image windows open, and I don't always have a hand free to hold the ctrl button when moving a window. Every time it snaps to a tab I curse the engineers who forced this upon us. Fine, I understand it's a Win10 default, and I've disabled it in Windows (under mouse settings, accessibility, multitasking and the registry - I hate it that much). But PhotoPaint overrides all that and forces it. Give us a choice, let us control our workspace!Despite the improvements, I regret being forced to leave v.12 behind- it is completely unstable in Win10. It would almost be worth it to network in an XP box with v.12 and use a swivel chair to move back and forth, just to use PP without tabs.If I learn a new version of PP has a way to disable this, I'll upgrade. Otherwise, X7 will be the end of a long, long line for me. I regret that, because I know the menu structure and shortcuts so well that I can zip through actions way faster than I could in PS. (and I also have PSP, don't like the interface, it only serves one purpose for me- PP no longer supports the old Kodak PhotoCD .PCD format. PSP 32 bit opens them, 64 bit does not. If PP still had that file support I'd uninstall PSP).</rant off>
I've been using Photo-PAINT since 1992 not sure it was ever bought as another application. It always amazes me the things that drive people crazy.
David - and how much productive time would be lost installing all that costly new software, let alone all the downtime in retraining, and the cost of that, all on the hope that the new software will have fewer tech issues. If it bothers the IT guy, sack the IT guy because the choice of your worktool is not his business. Besides, we don't all work for big companies with IT departments, many of us are small independents working for ourselves and these sort of changes can kill our business. BTW, my workspace is highly customised with no problems. Corel are doing a good job here, just wish they'd do a slightly better one and return what (some of) it's users and customers actually want and need.
If improving the product bothers you David, stop trolling and use Adobe. I'm sure Corel wouldn't care less about losing your custom any more than it seems unconcerned about losing mine.
aliisa (and anyone else using multiple images in PhotoPaint)I usually only have a few images open at a time and tabbed windows is nothing that bothers me, so maybe I should stay out of this conversation.But I got curious and decided to have a look at it with fresh eyes, and see how I would do it.First of all, let's say I open up six images in PhotoPaint X6 and 2018.In X6, they come in cascaded and in 2018 tabbed. Not very user friendly in any of them if I want to get an overview.Tiling Vertically seems to be the best option in X6, but the same command in 2018 groups them to a maximum of three horizontal windows. Not good.Tiling Horizontally looks better but they are still grouped.So, what I have to do next is to drag one tabbed window from each group down, and make it snap to be a separate window. Could be a little tricky but it is definitely doable in a couple of seconds, each.So now they look pretty similar with six windows, 2018 with thinner frames offers a little more image area but it is more difficult to see where an image begins and ends. No big deal though.If this how I want it to be (don't know about you), I see a clear benefit in 2018: It is possible to drag the window dividers between them and decrease or increase the size without overlapping anything.Drag and drop works in both, and so does mouse wheel zoom and scroll when hovering over a window.One thing that I see as a real plus with the new behavior (already mentioned) is the ability to drag a window outside PP, and even into a second monitor. For those with two monitors this should be a super feature.The "new" window behavior seems alright to me, but since I don't have to work this way, I am probably missing something.It would be very interesting hearing what it is, most of all, that makes it so bad.(it is probably mentioned somewhere here, but...)
Thank you for the description of your workflow, aliisa.First of all, without knowing, my guess is that they will never go back to the old window behavior.This means that you will sooner or later either have to find another program, or find a workflow in PP that will be acceptable to you.I understand that parts of what you are doing can not be done in 2018, at least not as easy as it used to be, and will require some extra clicks.Starting from the imported and tabbed images, you need to Cascade them first (Shift+F5).Then select the first image you want and Dock window (there's no shortcut for it but you can easily create one if you like).Then repeat to dock additional images.Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an easy way to get rid of the ones you don't want (except closing of course). Minimizing works but then you must move them out of the way manually.My best tip is to move them out of the image area, to an empty "toolbar" or something, where there is no risk of snapping and they will be less disturbing.Regarding the "auto-resize" feature you mention, yes I believe it has been removed for some reason, I have seen others complain about it too. Sad.I understand that this is not the answer you are looking for but, like I said, I would be very surprised if they suddenly brought the old behavior back.From my own experiences though, being forced into new ways of working isn't always a bad thing.I have often found better and more efficient ways by simply being forced to think outside the ordinary and comfortable box.Good luck, whatever you choose to do.
Ronny, yesterday I used Shift+F5 to cascade multiple images and discovered all subsequent files dragged onto the workspace came in auto-sized, just like X6, which was fantastic. Did I imagine that, because today I can't get new images to auto-size at all. What could I be doing different?
As far as I know, "Shift+F5" (cascaded windows) can not be set to be default, but I might be wrong.Not sure about the auto-size issue either, but you know you can set the default zoom level when opening files?It can be found in Options > Workspace > General, Opening zoom.It sounds like "Best Fit" should be what you want.And by the way, F4 will zoom to fit so it is really easy to make the image fit after resizing a window, but I assume you already knew?
Ronny Axelsson said:F4 will zoom to fit
Ah, you've fallen into the trap! That's resizing image to window, not window to image. There is also "Open documents in floating windows" in Options, the trouble is, it specifically doesn't work for drag and drop. If only!
aliisa said:That's resizing image to window, not window to image.
Oops sorry, my mistake.
After wading through all the recent responses. I learned a few things, but in the end I would like to see two new added features related to this...1. An option to turn off the Auto-Docking windows. 2. A function to resize window(s) to image -- something we could create a shortcut key for to make our workflow easier (in lieu of probably never getting the Auto-Resize window feature back).BTW, this thread is getting very hard to follow! Patti