Employ a better docking window framework

A clear and easy to survey graphical user interface (= GUI) is crucial for day-to-day work.

Docking windows (= panels) in the X6 GUI, however, are missing a clear outline and segmentation entirely. The current CorelDRAW X6 Graphics Suite docking windows framework is cumbersome and quirky.

I'd like to suggest to employ a better docking window framework.

Let me first show a number of pesky issues in the current X6 docking window framework. Finally I will suggest an alternative docking window framework.

  1. X6 Docking Windows Are Missing Borders

    The lack of CorelDRAW X6 docking window panel borders renders the panels utterly indistinctive. Because there is no visible panel border it's hard to resize them or move them around. The user simply doesn't know where to put the mouse pointer in order to grab a panel. It's sometimes even hard to tell what particular panel an input element is belonging to when two panels are adjacent to each other.

  2. X6 Docking Windows Cannot Be Hidden Individually

    CorelDRAW X6 lacks support for hiding panels individually. The user can only choose from either showing them all or hiding them all. So either there is no room left for the current document or no panel information is available. This is rather annoying.

    It should be possible to hide docking windows individually. The current option of closing and re-opening them by the menu each time is way too laborious.

    Moreover, the Hide Panel Group button itself is invisible, yet it's there: By clicking left to the panel group's Minimize button, the panel group is hidden.

  3. Minimizing X6 Docking Windows Is Confusing

    CorelDRAW X6 Graphics Suite GUI differentiates between 'hiding' of a docking window and 'minimizing' it, although both functions yield almost same results.

    Minimizing panels is quite confusing:

    A panel's Minimize Panel button is not necessarily placed above that panel. Instead it's sometimes placed above some other panel!

    Moreover, docking windows can not be minimized if they are at certain positions within a docking window group. This behaviour is inexplicable.



    (... or follow this hyperlink.)
  4. X6 Docking Window Titles Are Confusing

    Sometimes, panel titles are not written at the panel they belong to but above some other panel.

    See above short movie for an example of this baffling behaviour.
  5. X6 Docking Window Tabs Get Truncated

    If the number of panel tabs adjacent to each panel exceeds the height of a docking window group, some of these tabs get reduced to ellipses.

    This odd behaviour keeps the user from finding those panels. Performing everyday editing becomes very cumbersome then.

    Instead of reducing those tabs, X6 should use a second, adjacent row (or more) to host them.

Alternative Docking Window Framework

Microsoft has created a docking window framework, called "WPF AvalonDock". This docking framework is vastly superior compared to the docking window framework currently employed by CorelDRAW X6 Graphics Suite.

Microsoft AvalonDock is very comfortable and it's available free of charge. I suggest Corel to incorporate this framework into CorelDRAW X7 Graphics Suite. It's available at avalondock.codeplex.com.

Utilizing this framework it will be easy for the user to rearrange, minimize and temporarily show panels on the fly.

Moreover, incorporating, extending and configuring the AvalonDock framework is easy. Corel may amend it to their needs with relative little effort.

Here's a small movie I made demonstrating the advantages of AvalonDock compared to Corel's docking window framework:

(... or follow this hyperlink.)

  • I agree to much of what you say here.

    My way to get around many of these issues is to use the dockers floating. I assume you're aware of the ability to drag a docker out of the docker panel, to make it float.
    There are a couple of advantages:

    You can resize to a suitable size for that particular docker
    They work independently of other dockers
    They can be laid on top of each other
    ...and most importantly; they can be opened and closed with shortcut keys. No need to have them opened when they're not needed and no need to go through the dialog to open.

    • Hi Ronny,

      yes, I agree with you, switching docked tool windows to floating may be an option.

      The keyboard shortcut feature incidentally also works for docking windows when they're in docked state.

      I personally am not too much an admirer of floating docking windows because they tend to be in the way, e.g. when editing large images. The document's scrollbar doesn't take floating toolbar windows into account. The fun part of having tool windows docked is that they kind of extend the document windows frame, so they are following it wherever it is.

      • DrawMeIn said:
        The keyboard shortcut feature incidentally also works for docking windows when they're in docked state.

        It does, but not perfectly.
        It can indeed open and close a docker, but if there are more dockers open, then even if you close a docker, the docker pane will still be expanded.
        The obvious benefit is somewhat lost. I personally prefer to have some dockers that I use often (but don't want to see when I don't use them, like Object Manager, Color docker, Transformations, Align & Distribute and Text Properties), undocked. Open, use, close with shortcut.
        If they could just add a shortcut key to expand - collapse the dockers, that would be something. Have been asking for this since around X3.

        • I absolutely agree with you DrawMeIn,  Dockers need to be rewritten.
          Also, I think Dockers need to have ALL the same Width
          (except for example Object Manager that need to show a lot of things)
          but in general, to dock them efficiently a locked Width is important.

          Look what is unacceptable: