If this has been dealt with elsewhere, I apologise in advance… (and I have tried a search or two).
I like to work in split panes: top pane showing research or outline, bottom current writing (etc and so on). I regularly forget which one’s active, and find the cursor in the wrong pane.
So, would it be possible to give a slightly more definite visual hint about which pane’s current? I know about the underline, and the top of the current window, but how about a slight dimming of the inactive pane? Would that be doable?
Photoshop Lightroom has a few “lighting” modes which selectively dim parts of the app window. Not quite what I have in mind, but a nice implementation…
The underline doesn’t immediately draw your eye, since you are focusing on the text in the pane itself when writing.
However, fading the non-selected pane isn’t really a good idea, since the whole reason of having the split there is so that you can refer to the secondary material as you work - hard to do if it’s been obfuscated! Perhaps a subtle visual cue based on the text’s background…like, perhaps, the non selected pane has a 15% darker tint in its background colour than the selected pane. This would give immediate visual feedback without obfuscating the contents itself.
Still not visual enough for my taste. I like the intrinsic concept of a few points darker background for all inactive panes. Or maybe a few points lighter for the active pane.
Either way I spend more time than I care to admit putting a working doc back after inadvertently putting a ref doc in its place.
Sorry, but I have no intention of doing anything like this. The underline is subtle but works. If you look at any other app with a split pane, there is no indication (Word, Xcode etc). It took people a lot of fighting to persuade me to add the underline… So, a resounding and definitive “no” to this one, I’m afraid. Thanks for suggesting it anyway!
All the best,
Keith
