The “solo mode” (closing all other palettes when opening one) request has been submitted and re-submitted multiple times since years. The last comment from DxO about this feature has been “Topic has been taken into account.”. Well, no. DPL 7 still has no solo mode. Dont’ ask me why. It’s easy to implement and I see no good reason for not implementing it. After all these years, this is not only annoying, it is exasperating. A few additional remarks…
The expand all / collapse all available when right-clicking a palette title is not a replacement for the solo mode.
When creating a new workspace, the state of the palettes is not saved. Even if you register a new workspace with all palettes closed, they will be opened the next time you relaunch DPL or re-enable that workspace. This is another very old request : please respect the workspace as is was defined by the user and reload the whole UI in the state it was in when quitting the program. Even Adobe can do that .
We don’t need the display to be cluttered with all palettes opened in a given section of the right tab. There’s no room for this, this makes each individual palette less visible and most of us don’t need or want all these palettes to be opened simultaneously.
Sorry, who is this “most of us”? I’m sure I’m not included. I want all palettes to be opened at the same time, so there is no need for me to think about “where is this damned thing” if I want to use another tool.
OK. Many of us. This doesn’t change anything to a legitimate request for a feature existing in other similar products for a good reason, even if a part of the DPL users don’t want or need it.
We are talking about an option. If you don’t want it, don’t use it and don’t vote for it. It’s that simple. It’s not about your opinion against mine. The question is rather “does this feature request make sense ?”. And it seems that even some people at DxO do consider that it’s not a totally stupid idea. Easy to implement, not a technical challenge, a good opportunity to make more users happy. So why not ?
I’ve voted. A solo mode makes a lot of sense as an option. Interestingly, ON1 have a solo mode which is toggled on/off by a keyboard shortcut, if DXO need a hint on how to implement. Minimal UI change.
Actually a Solo mode was promised for either Pl 4 or PL 5 and then disappeared. However, for what its worth the Smart Workspace buttons on the top of the right column provide something similar to Solo mode for each category of adjustments.
These buttons are simply hiding the palettes where all the settings are the default settings. So, if no setting has been changed, there’s no palette to open. Interesting and possibly supplementary to the Solo Mode but that serves a different purpose.
Yes, missing the Solo mode option especially since the introduction of Local Adjustments at the right hand side. The list with the tools is simply too long to be overlooked, including such a large HSL tool, unnecessary headers etc.
While we can use Favourites to some extent, it doesn’t solve the issue with the long list. And our settings with Collapse all are not registered to come back after restart.
The (non resizeable) LA area slips out of sight, not to mention the missing LA indicator (top bar)
I think what you are describing is when you have active corrections set. If active corrections is not set you see everything and it is similar to Solo mode.
I don’t think so. There are 2 buttons at the top right of the right tab in Customize mode :
The Favorites Corrections button (star) button displays all the palettes that you have marked as favorites by clicking the star in the palette’s title bar. If you didn’t specify any favorite and click on that button, the right tab becomes empty.
The Active Corrections button displays only the palettes in which a setting value is different from the default. If you didn’t change any setting and click on that button, the right tab becomes empty.
Although these features are interesting, they have absolutely nothing to do with the Solo Mode found in other similar programs. The Solo Mode allows to automatically close all other palettes in the tab when you open one. IMHO this should be the third button displayed along with the 2 buttons described above. This would make the display less cluttered and distracting.and would allow to focus on the current palette and on the image currently processed. Ideally, a keyboard shortcut should assigned to each of these 3 buttons.
Another remark about the design of the palettes in the right tab :
When all palettes are opened, it’s rather difficult to distinguish between them. The title bar of an inactive palette can barely be distinguished from its contents. In that case, the enable/disable button at the left of the palette title bar is almost invisible and the title bar background is exactly of the same color as the palette’s background. Big mistake. So, there’s no visible transition between inactive palettes which also adds to the clutter and generates confusion. Another justification for the solo mode.
I’m repeating this since years : DxO need a software engineer specializing in UI development. That’s so obvious.
I think you’re confusing the issue a bit with your mention of favorite and active corrections. If you don’t activate either, the Smart Workspace buttons work very similarly to Solo mode. The main problem, unfortunately, is that collapsing any of the sub palettes is not maintained between editing sessions, a separate issue I’ve been mentioning for years. In any case, I prefer less clutter than the standard palettes create and primarily use the smart workspace buttons instead.
Sorry but unless I’m missing something obvious, I don’t see what the Smart Workspace buttons have to do with Solo Mode. And no, even if the Favorites Corrections and Active corrections are disabled (the Smart Workspace buttons), there’s nothing available that looks like Solo Mode. I don’t think that I have added confusion to the topic. I have just shown the inconsistency of the UI design.
Once you have opened several palettes, they will all stay opened and there’s no way to automatically close everything except the one you have just opened by clicking on its title bar. And, as you mentioned, you cannot rely on DPL saving the current state of the workspace including the open/closed state of each palette and retrieve it upon relaunch. It cannot even remember the current mode (Library or Customize) it was in when quitting.
I’m not saying that the Favorites Corrections and Active corrections filter buttons are useless but this has from far nothing to do with Solo Mode. I don’t know if you have ever used Lightroom. If not, please have a look at this video and tell me what in DPL can be considered as similar to this behavior.
I don’t think that’s an assumption you can make unless you’re privy to DxO’s code base. It seems simple and should be simple, but we cannot know if it is simple.
Evidence: I work in IT, have written and maintained software for many years, and have numerous times been surprised how some “simple” tasks are, in fact, not.
I created a workspace that is primarily designed around putting all the palettes I want on the screen with limited scrolling.
I support this request, I just don’t support justifying it with such heavy-handed language. If I was asking, I’d explain the benefits, not why the people who don’t build it are wrong.
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