A way to differantiate the current panel from others (coloring, shading etc...)

[zeltak]

Hya

I find that the most aggravating issue i have in day to day spaceFM use is that i cant always tell which panel im at. IE:

http://paste.xinu.at/pqr/

in the screenshot you cant tell currently which panel you are actually at

i would really appriciate some kind of visual 'queue' or indicator. this can be done IMHO either by using colors (IE make the active cursor a different color) or by maybe shading the other non active panel, see krusader example:

http://paste.xinu.at/pqr/

thx alot

Z

[IgnorantGuru]

Your screenshot is cut off at the bottom, but if you look at the right of the panel's status bar at the bottom, you'll see an icon (gtk-yes) which becomes active in the panel with focus. You can also change this icon by right-clicking on the status bar and selecting Icon, and can set a different icon for each panel.

Right-clicking on the status bar also shows the Highlight Bar and Highlight Text options, which allow you to set a colored bar around the active panel's status bar (may not be visible with all themes), and set a highlight fg color for the active panel's status bar text.

[zeltak]

thx IgnorantGuru for the quick comment

though these options are great (and indeed i did have the higlight function on) i would still like to leave the request on if you dont mind as these visuals indicator dont allow a very quick visual guide. the second screen before was a mistake but this is what i meant:

http://paste.xinu.at/MUr/

btw i tried changing the icon for the panels but all i get is the missing icon. i have tried with icons that work in all other parts of spacefm but the panel wont let me use them

best

Z.

[BwackNinja]

In gtk3 at least, we can set the inactive panels to the "backdrop" state, which would give a bigger visual indicator. I've recently been playing with the backdrop state introduced in gtk3, so I can code this up as a test sometime this week.

[IgnorantGuru]

btw i tried changing the icon for the panels but all i get is the missing icon. i have tried with icons that work in all other parts of spacefm but the panel wont let me use them

I can't reproduce a problem with that. For example, can you change it to gtk-no? I'll take a look at why that icon may differ - it's also used in the panel bar at the top so that may restrict it to icons in your icon theme - not sure.

By design spacefm minimizes the need to know which panel has focus - focus will follow the mouse. When using keyboard shortcuts or custom commands then it can become more critical. I suspect you're used to Krusader's appearance. Once you get used to it, the status bar is a capable indicator, and you can use a bright neon color for the active panel's status bar text, a large icon, etc if you want it to be less subtle. I don't particularly care for the way krusader makes one panel look disabled and harder to read just because it doesn't have focus. Probably an optional theme-based method is best.

@BwackNinja: Thanks, the backdrop state might be useful. Please code it as a non-default option available via the status bar context menu - just follow the way the others are done except it will be a check menu item. Should disable for gtk2. Then we can consider it for a default depending on how it performs and how usable it is across different themes (defaults need to work more universally).

[zeltak]

Hi again

yeah changing to a gtk common icon like gtk-no does change the icon but not with custom icons. in the gtk3 version it does indeed change the upper panel icon (but still no the bottom one)

http://paste.xinu.at/tZDFJt/

thx

Z

[NicolasCARPi]

Hi, We also need a way to differentiate infocus/out of focus tabs.

Thanks.

[dosimple]

some gtk themes have very similar colors for active and inactive selection/selected items. if it is the case, you should customise it, so that they appear better recognisable - it helps a lot to distinguish the (in)active panels by looking at the selected items.

i use clearlooks, so my .gtkrc-2.0 looks like this:

include "/usr/share/themes/Clearlooks/gtk-2.0/gtkrc"

gtk-font-name="Sans 10"

style "default_my" {
    base[ACTIVE]        = "DarkGray"
}

class "GtkWidget" style "default_my"