Improving UI Consistency Between Modern and Legacy File-loading Dialogs

[rakunavi]

Hello all,

I would like to suggest an improvement regarding the user interface (UI) consistency across various file-loading dialogs in PDF-XChange Editor.

Currently, there are noticeable discrepancies in behavior and feature availability between different dialogs, which deviates from standard Windows UI guidelines and creates friction for users.

I have categorized the dialogs into two groups based on their behavior:

• Group A (Modern/Expected Behavior):
  • Combine Files into a Single PDF
  • PDF Portfolio
• Group B (Legacy/Inconsistent Behavior):
  • Convert RTF Files to RTF (from Rich Text... / Insert RTF...)
  • Image to PDF Dialog (from Images... / Insert Images...)
  • Convert Text Files to PDF Dialog (from Text... / Insert Text...)
  • From Markdown

I have noticed the following two major differences between these groups:

1. Deselecting Files by Clicking the Background

• Group A: Users can deselect files using two standard Windows methods: (1) clicking on the empty background area, or (2) starting a drag-and-drop lasso in the background and releasing it immediately. This aligns with standard Windows Explorer behavior.
• Group B: Method (1) does not work. Clicking the empty background does nothing, and users are forced to use the less intuitive method (2) to deselect files.
  Animation.gif
  The capture software used (ScreenToGif) displays a yellow circle around the mouse cursor when the left mouse button is clicked
  and a red circle when the right mouse button is clicked, so you can tell which mouse button was clicked just by looking at the screen.

2. Status Bar for File and Selection Count

• Group A: There is a helpful status bar at the bottom showing the total number of loaded files and the number of currently selected files.
• Group B: This status bar is completely missing, making it difficult to keep track of the files added to the list.

(Note: There is also a minor inconsistency where newly added files are automatically selected in some Group B dialogs but not in others, whereas Group A leaves them unselected by default.)

• figure.png

Conclusion / Request:
The UI and user experience in the Group A dialogs are excellent, highly intuitive, and perfectly aligned with Windows standards. However, the Group B dialogs feel outdated and lack consistency.

Could you please consider updating the Group B dialogs to use the same modern list view component as Group A? Implementing the background-click deselection and adding the status bar to all file list dialogs would greatly improve the overall usability of the software.

Hoping that the above information will be of some help to you.
Thank you for your hard work on this great software.

Best regards,
rakunavi

- PDF-XChange Editor PRO Version: 11.0.1
- OS Version: Windows 11 Pro / Home 25H2 Build 26200.8875
- PC Model: GMKtec Nucbox M7 Pro with HUION Kamvas Pro 19 / Lenovo IdeaPad C340-15IWL

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, rakunavi

Thank you for the report - I have brought this to the Dev team for review and consideration. I cannot promise changes in all areas - as it is possible some of these are intentional (I am unsure), but we will look into it when possible.

Kind regards,