I think, the ideal solution would be to show a handful of columns in the Result List, then rely on the tooltip to reveal more properties. The status bar due to the limits of its horizontal space cannot do this but the tooltip is ideal for it.
Currently, tooltip has some glaring limitations, such as the properties shown in it are dependent on the active columns. I wrote this article to bring your attention to it. I hope you will consider some of these ideas. Cheers.
1. Decouple the properties shown in the Tooltip from the current columns
Currently, the properties shown in the tooltip are dependant on the active columns.
So if you have the Name, Path and Date Created columns active. The tooltip will also only show that.
This is limiting, the tooltip should be used to reveal more information or what could not be fit into the Result List.
If we can specifically define a set of properties to always show on the tooltip and also another set of properties to show per file extension would be ideal.
For example, always show the following properties regardless of the file:
- Name
- Path
- Date Modified
Then, depending on the file extension show more properties. For example in the case of .gif files show:
- Width (If indexed)
- Height (If indexed)
- Total Frames (If indexed)
2. Summoning the tooltip when using the Keyboard only
Currently you can only use the tooltip with a mouse. A hotkey or a Modifier is needed to summon the tooltip for keyboard heavy users.
In the case of a modifier key, such as
Ctrl
Ctrl
Ctrl
A
This would mean that its possible to use the Tooltip with just the Keyboard, which is critical.
3. Thumbnail in Tooltip
This would be really amazing to have, currently I am finding myself constantly toggling between detail and thumbnail just to get an idea of what the item looks like. Its not ideal, switching between the two views, its easy to loose track of what one is looking at.
Also the thumbnails are being regenerated. Just to get one thumbnail in a tooltip would be ideal:
EDIT: Pardon me for the use of the original images, I corrected it. I will keep this in mind going forward.