Feedback on Version 3.92

Advanced Renamer saves me a lot of time and busywork, and I am happy I found your product.

I installed v. 3.92 a couple of days ago, upgrading from v. 3.88.1, and want to share my thoughts about a couple of changes found in the new release's user interface.

1. The blue outline of the checkboxes in the Renaming Method List make the small checkmark difficult to see. If the box was larger, the checkmark was darker and bigger, or the outline was removed or lightened, I could see at a glance which methods are active. The previous release did not have this issue.

2. The Renaming Method List still cannot be scrolled via a trackball wheel or other mouse scrolling control. The scroll bar is the only way to control the list with a mouse. Scrolling via mouse or trackball wheel would be a major usability enhancement for me.

3. I seem to recall there being gridlines or row shading in the "Rename files" field in the previous release. Can we have those back, please?

Thanks for considering these points.

Reply to #1:
You can still have the grid lines, you just have to turn them on in the settings window. It has always been an option, but know the default value is off while it was on by default before.

Reply to #2:

Hey Kim,

Thanks for your ENORMOUSLY helpful product. It's been a lifesaver for me on many occasions. And not the candy kind.

That said, any chance of the mouse wheel/trackball scroll being added at some point? I've used Advanced Renamer a thousand times at least, and I still try to use the mouse wheel EVERY TIME! I realize that the method list is not as conventional and therefore probably non-trivial to make major changes to. I certainly don't expect miracles, but that would undoubtedly be a productivity booster for me and, I'm sure, many others in the community.

Best regards,
DF

Reply to #3:
I have written the code for it, but it will not be released until version 3.94. I don't know when that will be.

WTF you done with the main menu?

The new Toolbar is just awful, a total waste of empty space huge waste of screen space.
Give me an option to turn the damn thing off & bring the menu back.

Much as I like having a dark mode, I rapidly reinstalled v3.88.1, as I can't stand that huge waste of stolen workspace for no good reason.

I don't mind such options existing even as the default, but give me the option to revert to a space saving main menu bar.

At least with the older waste of spaces (file Info Box, Add Method Button bar), I could remove them & reclaim the space for the reason I bought this tool, the files/folder renaming.

I love Advanced Renamer; it saves me a ton of time and has (almost) every feature I'm looking for.

I bought a license way back and have been disappointed with the UI change - staying on v3.88 until the UI is better organized.

I tried all the latest builds and there's just too much space being used for commands that would be better nested in dropdown menus.
I don't understand the need to have all those buttons loose on the interface.

All we need on that main page is the File List and the Methods.

Do you plan to tighten up the 'new' UI?

Reply to #6:
The old menu is not coming back. But I do have plans to make more customization options that will help make the UI more minimal.

It's a balance. Some people get frustrated when functionality is hidden in right click and drop downs. While others prefer a minimal UI with only the bare necessities.

I get an equal amount of messages about how much they hate the new UI and that I should rot in hell, and messages about how much better the new IU is compared to the old outdated one. I need to find a balance between these two.

Reply to #7:
I'd say a good balance would be to make the new menu the default but have the old menu as an option in the settings.
I haven't even installed the update yet and I won't until I read that there is an option for the old small menu. Luckily the old version still works great for me but in my general work the "start batch" button is the only one I even need since I drag&drop my files and then use presets.

Reply to #8:
Check out version 3.94 preview from the download page. The menu has gotten smaller and hos more options for customization. See this comparison screenshot: https://www.advancedrenamer.com/img/version_3_94 _menu_comparison.png

Reply to #9:
Thank you for taking this concern seriously. I use Advanced Renamer all the time. I had a similar program which I wrote myself years ago, but yours was so much better I stopped using mine!

That said, even with your improvements, above, I don't see myself ever updating beyond 3.8 unless there's a better compromise on this menu thing.

I get what you're saying about beginner users being intimidated by "hidden" functionality. But the solution is not to put Every. Single. Function. on the opening page. That's even more intimidating. Worse still, it makes it harder once the user begins to actually USE it.

Pull-down menus have been around since the earliest versions of Windows. They're common on mobile device apps. They're not going to scare anyone off.

Reply to #10:
But pull-down menus are exactly what I did. The menu on the far right on this screenshot https://www.advancedrenamer.com/img/version_3_94 _menu_comparison.png is old school menus with a very minimal design. Because version 3.88 has two menus, this takes up even less space with everything compacted into one menu. Of course it is up to you if you want to upgrade or not, version 3.88 will work perfectly fine for years.

Reply to #10:
In mode "Super compact" you have pull down menus.

Reply to #11:
Those options look great! Thanks for working with the feedback!

I found this thread after I asked for mouse wheel input on the methods list. I will go remove that.