Problem with photo's order...

[Skippybox]

I couldn't possibly comment......

I know, just a little sarcasm.

...but that's a good idea.

Thank you Mij!

[Skippybox]

If people design their own menus they only have one person to blame if they find it confusing. It might make support more difficult, but in Opera I can quickly revert to the default menus and keyboard to check what they are for most users.

I think Bhikkhu makes a good point. I don't think we would even need to offer support, just point them to customization, to examine what they have done. You can't figure out everything for people.

Despite its usefulness, customization may be too much work for Irfan to create, though. I also wonder how much time it really would take for the user to set-up. Is the process quick and easy to understand in Opera?

[Mij]

..but would menu customization offer an acceptable solution in a case like we are discussing?

I might need any of the 21 sort options on offer. Bhikkhu, without a camera, may be able to select a suitable subset but I think I would end up with all 21 still listed on my customized menus.

As you pointed out Skippybox, the best solution in this case is to group the options and there is a clear way of doing that. It would need to be a quite sophisticated customization feature though that offered the ability to group menu items in ways that the program developer had failed to do.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Despite its usefulness, customization may be too much work for Irfan to create, though. I also wonder how much time it really would take for the user to set-up. Is the process quick and easy to understand in Opera?

I don't know how long it would take to program the interface, but writing the INI files would not be an onerous task for a programmer. AFAIK other programs that have customisable interface use third-party libraries, which presumably cost real money, so they may not be a viable option for IrfanView.

Opera's keyboard and mouse customisation is built in to the GUI so is relatively easy for novice users to change. Editing menus and toolbars is a little more difficult, but on a par with, say, creating new toolbar skins for IrfanView. Once you know how, it is easy, and not time-consuming to make changes. I have an option on my custom Opera menu to edit the menu, making it even easier, and in spite of the warning, it is possible to edit the menu while Opera is running, as long as you know the simple trick to reload it before closing.

You can see the structure of my Opera Kestrel menu by looking at the INI file. The [Browser Utilities menu] section is entirely new. I attach screen shots of the default menu and my custom menu.

[Skippybox]

..but would menu customization offer an acceptable solution in a case like we are discussing?

Well, getting rid of the clutter would make it faster, easier, and safer to use. The downside is that users would lose the opportunity of discovery of the program's features if they strip it down. This thread's problem could be solved through this, but actually could be made worse. If user's have too much power they could make some strange setups and make things very confusing for themselves. But, I don't think our goal is to make everything foolproof. Users who don't want to mess with anything can leave the default profile, which would not alienate veteran users. Every option users won't see much benefit, other than moving things around and making tiny tweaks.

I am doubtful that Irfan will see the helpfulness of this, considering the effort necessary. It simply is too sophisticated, if the goal is to have great amounts of control. But, it sure would be great. We always say, maybe in the future, but hasn't that time come by now?

If nothing else, a refinement of the menus is necessary. Maybe some options could even be added to a toolbar one of these days...