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Topic: «Taskbar button color does not show which window is active , Taskbar button color always shows exactly ONE window as active » on forum: Feature Requests   Views: 13525
 
David Peters
Advanced user
 
 Posts: 93
Joined: 04/16/2012
Posted: 05/23/2012 04:12:56
 
 
 I have three monitors, and usually I have one window maximized on every monitor. Further windows (lots of them) are in the background (or minimized) waiting to be activated if neeeded.

Thus, I can work with three windows/programs at the same time side-by.side.

However, only one window    (of all three monitors) that is currently active has a taskbar button which looks different (brighter) in order to show that its respective window is the active and topmost window    .

This however leads to the problem that on all other monitors, there is no visual distinction on the respective taskbar buttons, because they all look exactly the same, even when one of them is topmost ("active"):

User added an image
(all three windows have the same taskbar button color/brightness, although the leftmost button's document is topmost)

Thus, it is not possible to see which taskbar button actually belongs to the window that is currently on top on that other monitor. This is very irritating if you look for a certain document/window on a secondary monitor.

Pls. fix if at all possible!

Thank you already
David.P
 
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Bogdan Polishchuk
Administrator
 
 Posts: 4080
Joined: 04/04/2012
Posted: 05/24/2012 03:04:15
 
 
 Hello David.

Thanks for the post.

I can't swear that this feature will be implemented in the nearest future, but we'll consider it.

Best regards.
 
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David P
Advanced user
 
 Posts: 93
Joined: 04/16/2012
Posted: 07/20/2014 21:54:39
 
 
 Hello Actualtools team,

this feature request is already two years old, and unfortunately not much seems to have happened since.

Honesty, it is almost impossible to tell fr om the look of the taskbar buttons which window is currently the topmost window. Dozens to hundreds of times a day I click on the wrong taskbar button when trying to activate a window that is currently in the background.

To tell the windows apart is absolutely impossible on all monitors where the currently topmost window is NOT placed, since on those monitors, all taskbar buttons have absolutely IDENTICAL colors and shading.

However also on the one monitor wh ere the currently topmost window is placed, the taskbar buttons look almost indistinguishable. What's more, when hovering with the mouse on the taskbar button of the currently topmost window of one monitor, the color of this taskbar button CHANGES such that it becomes even more similar to the inactive windows' taskbar buttons.

From my view, it is absolutely necessary to introduce a feature, setting or function that makes the currently topmost windows' taskbar button on every monitor look clearly distinguishable from the taskbar buttons of those windows on every monitor that currently are not topmost, or minimized, or in the background.

Here are two screenshots:
Screenshot #1: five Word documents on monitor #1, while the currently topmost window is on another monitor:
User added an image
All taskbar buttons have absolutely identical colors and shading. It is impossible to tell which window is currently topmost on monitor #1, and which of the windows are in the background on monitor #1. So it is always trial and error, or trying to figure out which document might be the one on the top and which ones are not by wearingly reading the documents titles on the taskbar and comparing them with the title of the actual topmost window. This is however incredibly strenuous and takes a lot of time.

Screenshot #2: the same five Word documents on monitor #1, while the currently topmost window is on monitor #1, with the mouse hovering over the taskbar button of one of the not topmost windows on that monitor:
User added an image
Although there are slight (however barely noticeable) differences in the shading between the topmost window's and the other windows' taskbar buttons, the taskbar button of the one window which is topmost now looks identical to the taskbar button of the background window over which taskbar button the mouse is currently hovering.

Please, it is important that something effectual is done about this problem.

Thank you very much
David.P
--
PS: I have no idea why your forum software seems to be of the unwavering opinion that some words should have internal blank spaces.
 
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Alexander Mihalkin
Administrator

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 Posts: 502
Joined: 04/21/2014
Posted: 07/21/2014 19:21:25
 
 
 Thank you for your message, David!

Could you please specify the OS you are using?

P.S. Could you please attach a screenshot of how our forum reacts to your attempt to enter words like 'where' in your messages.

support@actualtools.com
 
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David P
Advanced user
 
 Posts: 93
Joined: 04/16/2012
Posted: 07/21/2014 19:34:37
 
 
 Hi Mihalkin. The OS I'm using is window 7 64 bit.

Can't say much about the other problem with the spaces, when it is occurring, and when not.

Regards
David.P
 
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Alexander Mihalkin
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Joined: 04/21/2014
Posted: 07/21/2014 19:41:48
 
 
 Thank you for your reply, David.

Could you please tell what keeps you from using Windows native features like Aero Peek and Task Switcher for your needs?

Best regards.

support@actualtools.com
 
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David P
Advanced user
 
 Posts: 93
Joined: 04/16/2012
Posted: 07/22/2014 00:52:41
 
 
 I use those as well.

However, the described problem (that you can't see which taskbar button belongs to the topmost window on every monitor) is unrelated to the usage of Aero Peek and Task Switcher.

In other words, I don't need to peek into windows which are not topmost, in the first place. Rather, I need to see (quickly and at first glance without having to read titles and stuff) which windows are topmost. And I can't see that fr om    the current implementation of the AWM taskbars (as shown in above screenshots).

This is like if you had a browser wh ere      the tab that is currently open looked exactly like the background tabs. As you can imagine, that would be pathetic because you never could tell the current tab if you wanted to quickly do something with it, as for example close it, move it, send it to the background etc.

The same happens when all taskbar buttons look like if they belonged to background windows. This makes me pull my hair.

--
And I cant seem to have both of the words "fr om" and "wh ere" in a posting without at least one of them getting internal blanks
 
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Alexander Mihalkin
Administrator

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 Posts: 502
Joined: 04/21/2014
Posted: 07/23/2014 18:02:43
 
 
 Thank you for the reply, David!

The thing is - when you set Windows to extend the desktop across multiple monitors, it considers your whole desktop as a single multi-monitor workspace and indicates only one active window. Potentially it's possible to track active windows and somehow indicate the last one active within one monitor, but there also is the Task Switcher which lets you switch between windows in chronological order while Aero Peek highlights the selected window and you can see clearly which monitor it is located at. Frankly speaking, we haven't managed to picture a situation where there would be actual need for the feature you request. Supposedly, you should tell us more significant details of your workflow.

And I'm sorry for my possibly wacky question, but doesn't the topmost window appear on top of the screen?

Best regards.

support@actualtools.com
 
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David P
Advanced user
 
 Posts: 93
Joined: 04/16/2012
Posted: 07/23/2014 19:02:15
 
 
 Yes Alexander,

Quote
The thing is - when you set Windows to extend the desktop across multiple monitors, it considers your whole desktop as a single multi-monitor workspace and indicates only one active window
...I am aware of this problem. However, I would suppose that AWM has some insight into the z-order of all windows of the entire desktop. Additionally, AWM surely knows on what monitor each window is.

Therefrom, it should be possible to tell for AWM, which window is topmost on every monitor, and indicate that by highlighting the respective taskbar button on every monitor.

I know that it is difficult to reconstruct the problem that I am describing. Therefore, I have mentioned the parallel situation with the browser. Your arguments are perfectly valid as well with regard to a browser: there is many other possibilities to tell which tab is the current/topmost tab (like tab switcher keyboard shortcuts,  add-ons or the like). Additionally, of course "the current tab appears on top of the screen" anyway as you put it with regard to the topmost window.

However, a browser where the currently visible browser tab is not clearly highlighted and displayed in a different colour in the tab bar, with respect to the background tabs would be pathetic, and would lead to the users protesting. Just try and imagine your browser would be designed like this, with all browser tabs looking the same in the tab bar. That would be useless, since you couldn't quickly identify which tab belongs to the current browser window, and then quickly close it, or move it, or quickly see its position in relation to the background tabs, and so on.

The exact same situation is present in my case. I simply can't quickly tell fr om looking at the taskbars, which window is the currently active window on every monitor, additionally I can't even see which is the topmost window on the entire desktop (since the topmost windows' highlighting is so subtle).

Therefore (for example), I can't simply click on the current windows' taskbar button in order to minimize it or move it, since I simply can't clearly see which taskbar button belongs to the current window.

Another example, the typical Windows tabs when there are lots of settings:
User added an image

Imagine a situation where    all tabs look the same, and the topmost tab is not clearly highlighted by using a different color: that would be pathetic, and you would get lost all the time.

But that's exactly the way I feel with lots of windows distributed on my three monitors.

You see?
 
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David P
Advanced user
 
 Posts: 93
Joined: 04/16/2012
Posted: 07/24/2014 16:22:17
 
 
 Left: how it should be ---------------------------------- Right: how it is!
User added an image User added an image

Makes you get lost instantly.
 
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