P: Lightroom Classic: Panel Scroll Bar / Close annoyance

[fiendishmedia]

The panel scroll bar and close panel bar arrow section are annoyingly close together. On a 4K monitor (and possibly lower resolutions) the panel scroll bar is so thin that it's easy to press the close button instead. This is frustrating when trying to select the appropriate tool and you just keep closing/unclosing the panels. Is it possible to either increase the size of the scroll bar, be able to lock the panel in place or a mix of the two. Cheers,

[Lxtazz]

Another idea ... how about making the buttons, which activate/deactivate the sticky panels  a little smaller.
Currently they are as high/wide  as the window, which makes it very easy to accedently hit them instead of the scroll bar/menu/whatever is close to it.

If users shall be able to hit a some pixel small scrollbar, they should also be able to hit an stick/unstick button which is a little smaller than now ... even more since scrollbars are probable more often used than these buttons.

What do you think?

[SZ Friedman]

This topic gets hit from time to time. Lots of comments about the same problem. But, Adobe never responds. Do they read these at all? I often wonder. There several suggestions for a simple fix, but nothing is ever done. While there have been lots of great feature upgrades, this is a general usability issue, and apparently it's not important to Adobe.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

"Do they read these at all?" 

Yes - every post is read and evaluated by Adobe staff.  25 Votes in 5 years is fairly low volume as feature requests go putting this request at #91 on the active list. 

Keep in mind too,  that this forum is not the sole arbiter of new features under consideration for Lightroom Classic. Many factors come into play from many sources as to what features are considered for inclusion. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Ok then here's another vote to add a "lock" function or at least move the hide arrow - it is insanely annoying!

[Just Shoot Me]

Not for me and never has been since version 1 back in 2007.

[David Burke Photography]

Good idea, except for those of us who use a pen and a tablet to try to speed up workflow in the first place.

[David Burke Photography]

Thanks for taking the time to respond. It is an incredibly annoying problem though, and the amount of work it would surely take - one checkbox in a menu somewhere and a few lines of code - can't be that onerous when you look at some of the huge features you put in?

[SZ Friedman]

It looks like there have been 23 discussions on this topic over the years. Again, fixing this is not brain science. It seems to be a simple human interface improvement that would improve operability of LR.

[SZ Friedman]

I use Wacom tablet, and it will not adversely affect performance. In fact if you are real fast, I tend to get "close" sometimes, and then the whole panel will disappear.

[denniswnotafan]

I received an email notification saying that a post I made here two-years ago was liked by someone, so I logged in to be reminded what I posted. Turns out this was the reason I started considering cancelling my CC subscription. I've been using Raw Therapee for a couple of years and it's worked fine for my purposes. However, I would consider going back to CC if they'd fix this scroll bar issue, especially if they'd allow a non-subscription means to purchase the software.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Please change this behavior, makes me hate Lightroom everyday!!!

[SZ Friedman]

I fully expect that most requests are for new features, and I certainly always want new features. But, that doesn't mean that simple, small improvements to existing features could greatly improve the human factors involved in program operation. I guess the bit question is how do you get a completely simple solution to a known problem fixed without having hundreds of comments about this feature.

[Moogatron]

Agreed, this has been annoying me for many years, it may seem a minor thing, but I think a lot of the people who get annoyed by it just live with the pain (and blame their own mis-clicking) rather than seek a fix and vote!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

How this has not been fixed after all these years is beyond from me. From a programmer standpoint, literally making a menu option to lock the hide bars is not a complicated implementation. On top of which, I never intentionally use them, so just being able to hide them (ever so slightly more complicated) would give me more screen space. Its a no brainer upgrade.

[juke99]

This is real annoyance. I have been suffered this from the beginning of my Lightroom use, since 2012.

The panels are too easy to collapse by accident and if that happen, a long freeze occurs. During that freeze, I cannot do practically anything.

Same with accidental press of TAB key. I would like to disable it too.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I am referring to the bars on the side of panels to go up and down the panel and images. As a older person my hands are not as steady as they were. I find to difficult at times to use them. They are not wide enough. I looked to see if was a Window issue but different software have different sizes. The outside bars are very difficult because if I miss the panel gets closed. I realize everyone wants as much screen as the can. I would prefer to have wider bar option and panel that stays open or closed (controlled in preferences). If it is available I could not find it and have asked various support places and have had no response. Thanks

[Zesty_wanderlust15A7]

The scroll wheel doesn't work for this...?
For bars on the far right you can slide your window a little to the right so you are on them when you hit the screen's edge — a trick I learned when my mousewheel was broken (still is).

Not sure the trick can work if you have your panels slide "out"...

[PhotoCitizen]

This happens to me often. I propose an option to lock the side panels. Perhaps it can be overridden by holding the CTRL key down while clicking in case your really DO want to close the panel. Personally, I use the keyboard shortcuts to open and close panels and almost never deliberately click on the panel arrows.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I can't believe this is still a problem. I end up rage quitting lightroom before I even finish my work because I'm homicidal after a few hours. PUT A LOCK ON THE GD PANEL BUTTONS!!!

[Photo Art Wall Decoration]

I like my right hand side panel always open. But when I miss touch with my wacom pen when scrolling down, the panel hides. This is very annoying. So a lock option to keep the panel open is highly appreciated! If this is too much to ask, make the slider on the right a little wider to prevent miss touch

[ouiouiphoto]

So instead of scrolling you clic on the panel hide area (in red) so you want the slider to bi bigger (in blue).  Is it correct ?

[Photo Art Wall Decoration]

Yes, this is correct, just to prevent miss touch (using my wacom pen). Even better would be an option to lock my panel (show). Now we have auto hide / show, auto hide and manual. If show could be added, it would make my day 🙂

[ouiouiphoto]

You can vote for this feature request https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/lightroom-classic/lightroom-classic-panel-scroll-bar-cl...

[Bob Somrak]

The slider doesn't need to be wider.  What is needed is make it so only clicking the arrow closes the side panel instead of being able to click the whole side to close the panel.  I agree this is a poor design but I don't expect it to change.

That being said, I don't think I have ever accidentally closed the side panel as the scroll bar seems wide enough for me.

[Photo Art Wall Decoration]

Do you use a Wacom? It happens to me all the time..

Just an option to show the panel (and lock it) would be perfect to me.