X4 Document control icon

[allicorn]

In PSP versions prior to X4, when you had the current image maximized within the interface you'd get a standard MDI Document Control Icon appearing at the left end of the Menu Bar. This is a feature common to the most Windows programs built in the default Multiple Document Interface style. The new custom style of X4 removes this.

It's a not a huge deal, but I'm pretty used to doubleclicking that little doodad to close my images, so I figured I'd try to get it back.

Here it is in X2 (on the left) and the little "@" symbol is the version I've recreated to work around its absence in X4 (on the right):



To do this, open any image, start recording a macro, close the image, Save the macro and call it "Close Current Image" or something like that.

Restart X4 because customization changes don't stick if you've had an image open this session. (long standing bug)

Right click the empty space in the middle of the Edit perspective. Choose Customize. Hit the Scripts tab. Find your macro in the dropdown, pick an icon and hit the Bind button. Your script now appears in the Bound Scripts part of the dialog.

Switch to the Commands tab. Select Bound Scripts. Drag your script to the left end of the Menu bar. Even though you've bound an image to it, the image doesn't show (another bug, I guess). Right click your new rather wordy looking "Close Current Image" menu entry and select "Button Appearance". At the bottom of the Button Appearance dialog you can change the text to something nice and short like "@" or "X" maybe. Hit OK, and you've got a convenient close image button that lives visually in about the same spot as similar icons in most MDI-based software.

Restart X4 after customizing and before starting any work otherwise the changes won't stick.

[jaxman43]

How do you get the MDI Document Control Icon in X2? I don't even have it there.

[allicorn]

If you don't have Tabbed Documents enabled (on the Window menu) then you should get a fairly normal MDI experience. So, so long as you have an image open and maximised (ie, the image has no title bar and frame of its own visible) then you ought to see that little icon on the left end of the Menu bar.

[JStanley]

deleted

[allicorn]

X2 in "Tabbed Documents" mode is the same as X3 too, yep. When not in "Tabbed Documents" mode you get the good old framed MDI style. In X4 you're either in Tabbed mode, or you cannot maximize documents - it's subtly different is all, as I said, not a bit deal but I really appreciate customizability in my UIs and I'm less keen on "improvements" that remove choices I used to have.

[JStanley]

deleted

[df]

What exactly is it that you're trying to do? In X3, if I click the PSP icon I get the Restore/Minimize/Maximize popup like with other programs.
In X4 if I click just to the left of Corel I get the same thing.
Am I missing something?

[allicorn]

Hi df,

That's the "Program Control Icon". The "Document Control Icon" would be underneath it (see my pic of X2 above) at the left end of the Menu Bar - not the Title Bar. I'm used to doubleclicking it to close documents (images, in this case) since it's been a common feature of framed MDI interfaces since Windows 3, that's all. I don't have a problem any more, I solved it with a macro as described in my first post. If it's not a bit of interface you happen to interact with regularly then I dare say you're not going to miss it now it's gone.

[teknisyan]

I think this is the icon that you are referring to right? The screen shot that you posted did not display properly

psp_mdi.jpg (23.14 KiB) Viewed 4536 times

You will be the first people that I know that use this icon extensively and like what you said all the elements of the MDI Control icon have been integrated with the new PSP X4. Of course you will need to disable the tabbed view in order to use the RESTORE and MINIMIZE.

And for CLOSE Windows and NEXT I think it is much faster in using the keyboard shortcut than using the mouse.

[Ken Berry]

Abiel --= your screen shot is from X3, but this thread is about X4 and the fact that the icon you show is not present in X4...

[allicorn]

That's the chappie, yep. As I said, it exists in all versions prior to X4.

As an icon position, I think it wasn't a bad choice by MS all those years ago because when you close something by doubleclicking it your mouse immediately falls onto the File menu so that you can open something else. Couldn't be more straightforward. I do tend to CTRL-F4 -> CTRL-O quite a lot too mind you.

Some responses here seem a little bit bemused because I've tended to use this bit of Windows interface that's been common for years. I'm not telling you you're doing it wrong folks. I just thought it was interesting. We all interact with our software in our own idiosyncratic ways. The point of my post was not to ask for instruction on how I should change my wicked control-icon-using ways but to point out that - despite its flaws - Corel PaintShop Pro still has a lot of customization options that'll let you set things up just the way you want it (or at least, fairly close to it) if you have a good poke around in there. So, a cautious "Yay Corel!" and inevitably a rather more insistent, "Even more customization options please!"

[teknisyan]

@Ken Yes is not present on PSP X4.

@allicorn
I'm not part of the development team, so I really cannot answer you why they removed that. I reported this to the proper channel and will try to see what their response is.

[allicorn]

You're very kind, thanks Abiel