Minimizing and maximizing X5 annoyance

[Joelle]

Am I the only user who sees this?

Here is what is annoying me more and more:
In X5, put, say 4, images in the workspace, one open and the others minimized.
The open one has the focus on it of course as that's the one the user is working on.
You would think that the focus would remain on the open one.
Nope, it doesn't , this is what happens:

You need to go to another program or whatever, so click on the other program. When finished click on that program's icon and it will minimize, but PSP is no longer maximized, you need to click on the X5 icon to open it again. OK, no problem ... yes it is.
Nowadays, if you want to maximize PSP you can't just click on the icon on the Taskbar and expect it to maximize again as it did in earlier versions.
Clicking on the X5 icon produces a series of small pop-ups of the images that are in the Workspace, of course you can't see which ones are minimized and which one is open as they're all the same size.
X5 itself doesn't open until you click on one of the images.
If this happens to be one of the minimized images, it puts the focus on that one, and not the one that is open/ready to continue
working on in the Workspace.
So the user continues working only to find that what was done, has not been applied to the open image, but to a minimized image instead - grrr!
In other words, because X5 doesn't behave like other programs when minimized and the maximized again, the user has to pay careful attention and remember which image was open and click on that one.

This is a pain and should never have been changed.
I am finding this increasingly annoying
Am I alone seeing this?

Joëlle

[Radim]

Seems like you have this problems on Windows 7 or 8?

On Windows XP I am testing everything is fine, as should be.

[LeviFiction]

Yes, this is a taskbar feature in Windows 7 and 8 that Corel has taken advantage of for PSP.

[Joelle]

Seems like you have this problems on Windows 7 or 8?

On Windows XP I am testing everything is fine, as should be.

Sorry, I should have said, this is on Windows 7 Home Premium.

Joëlle

[hartpaul]

Does Right Click Restore work in Windows 7? I am too lazy to get my laptop out at 5 am to test it out. Just heading off to bed.

[Joelle]

Does Right Click Restore work in Windows 7? I am too lazy to get my laptop out at 5 am to test it out. Just heading off to bed.

Not that I can see.

The other program I always open with PSP is Xara. I click on Xara's icon and the program minimizes to the Taskbar and doing it again maximizes it.
PSP used to behave the same way, but not now.
I don't buy that this is a Windows 'feature' I think it's another Corel mess-up.

Sleep well

Joëlle

[df]

I think it's mostly a Windows problem, here's how to fix. Right click your task bar in Windows, click Properties. On the Taskbar tab, on Taskbar buttons, change Always Combine to Combine when taskbar is full. This will let you click on the PSP icon itself and not have to click on an image thumbnail that pops up. I've seen this behavior in other programs as well, specifically MSN Messenger (by MICROSOFT for crying out loud). If I had it set to always combine I'd have to hover then click on my conversation to get to the conversation. It drove me nuts until I figured it out how to stop that.

[Joelle]

I think it's mostly a Windows problem, here's how to fix. Right click your task bar in Windows, click Properties. On the Taskbar tab, on Taskbar buttons, change Always Combine to Combine when taskbar is full. This will let you click on the PSP icon itself and not have to click on an image thumbnail that pops up. I've seen this behavior in other programs as well, specifically MSN Messenger (by MICROSOFT for crying out loud). If I had it set to always combine I'd have to hover then click on my conversation to get to the conversation. It drove me nuts until I figured it out how to stop that.

Thanks Dan, have just had a go at this.. oh yikes!
There were so many icons I had to close folders, programs, email, to see the Taskbar.
But, yes, it works as you suggested and for a few minutes it was nice to see previous behaviour.
But as it doesn't happen with any other program on my computer, only PSP, I still think someone goofed.
Thanks for trying

Joëlle

[df]

As I said I had this exact same problem with MSN Messenger, which is why I know about it. It's probably Corel following Microsoft's protocols for the Aero desktop introduced in Vista but changed a bit in Windows 7.

You could also right click the Start orb to get to the Properties dialog.
Also right clicking the up arrow next to the notification area does the same thing.

I don't know if Windows 8 is the same way. It's a goofy interface if you ask me, almost dumbed down to the point of irritation. I put that on the kids computer, seemed appropriate. (end rant on Windows

[LeviFiction]

To follow what df said.

1) This is a Windows feature. But the programmers have to take advantage of it for it to appear. In other words they have to specifically call the function to register each new item on the taskbar. So in the case of Xara, they don't employ this option in their program. But they could if they wanted to.

So it is true that Corel implemented it, but it's still a Windows feature. It's how Microsoft designed their Taskbar to work with programs that use its functionality. You see the same thing with Internet Explorer 9 and having multiple tabs open.

2) Photoshop CS5 also behaves like this with a variation. So Corel could do something to make this more user friendly, but just straight up using what Microsoft gave them with no clever tricks this is how it's designed to behave.

Photoshop only uses this feature if you're using Windowed mode. If you're using tabbed mode then no other thumbnails appear.

With Photoshop they put the main UI as one of the clickable options. So as long as you pick the first thumbnail it always brings back the UI as expected.

And when they minimize the program, they unregister all of the other thumbnail shortcuts so that only the main program responds. So they turn off the feature when they minimize.

But these are all workarounds to how Microsoft designed the option. Corel did not implement any work-arounds and therefore it works as it does.

[photodrawken]

Actually, I think it's a very cool behavior. When PSPX5 (using tabbed documents) is minimized, I can use the Taskbar to directly select which document to work on. If I simply want to continue working on the previous document, Alt+Tab maximizes PSP with that document active.

[Tadjio]

I am using Windows 8 with PSP X5 (happily;)

I usually use Tabbed Documents but I have checked with Untabbed ones too:-

If I open 3 images, minimize 2 of them if Untabbed, and then go to another program I can return to the one I had Active in PSP.
Usually I just click on the PSP Icon in the Taskbar.
If I hover over it, I see all 3 Thumbnails and the "Active" one has a Red Cross in the top right corner.

My Taskbar Properties Buttons are set to "Combine when taskbar is full".

Does that help?

Edit PS: I forgot to mention, this worked the same way for me with Windows 7 (but I never used Untabbed documents)

[LeviFiction]

Yeah, that's what happens when you change the taskbar from "Always Combine" to "Combine when taskbar is full." When it's set to always combine, the active image does not have the close option and pressing the icon only brings up the thumbnails not the full application.

[hartpaul]

Awake again and set up the laptop with windows 7 and X5 and yes found that activity as OP posted. Also found the action to make it do as my XP does and rightc clicked taskbar > properties and for taskbar buttons set to Never Combine.
I rarely have more than 4-5 items open at once as I don't want any conflicts or slowing down when I am processing.