Previous icon set available in UltraEdit v17.00?

[Margoth]

Today I've seen that there was a new version of UltraEdit so I've downloaded the trial version.
Apart from the good improvements to the Explorer window, I've seen a big difference with the old icons.
Really... I miss the old icons...
Is there any way to keep or choose or do something to see the old great icons that I always used?

Thank's

[Mofi]

UltraEdit v17.00 does not contain anymore the previous icon set. If you feel that you will never get used to the new look of the icons, you can extract all the icons from ueres.dll of a previous version using a resource editor or extract them from a screenshot and save each of them as BMP or ICO file. Then you can assign those BMPs or ICOs to the commands of the toolbar and the menu. That would be a lot of work, therefore I suggest to first use the 30 days trial period and find out for yourself, if you really can't get used to the new look of the icons.

[H.P.W]

Thanks for the tip.
Just changed my 'Save+Save As' button back to the 16.30 bitmap. (Even when my PC has no more diskette drive!)

[vhdluser]

Just wanted to chime in with the "I miss the old icons" and expand on the topic with "how on earth is a change of icon appearances going to contribute to our productivity". Negatively perhaps?

[Margoth]

Of course negatively. That's the big idea behind design and the reason why companies work so hard on the design of clear and good looking interfaces. Keeping customers in good mood.
There are some nice new icons but it the whole setup is not homogeneous.

[Otomatic]

Hello,

UltraEdit user for a very long time (before version 5), I am very disappointed with the icons on the menu bar of UltraEdit 17.
It is very easy to "blend the brush" as we say in France.
Changing habits, based on many years, is not user friendly. It would be the possibility to choose between the old and new icons. And when I see the work it takes to return to the old icons, it's very daunting.

It seemed to me rather, during the years of use, that IDM Computer was very sensitive to user comfort. I strongly hope that the next version gives the choice of icons.

Dominique Ottello - From France

[CBiggerstaff]

A bit to my surprise (I usually don't have a strong opinion on icons) I must say I really prefer the old icons as well. They seemed much easier to view when little and understand what they did. Earlier today I clicked on view in default browser a couple times when I wanted to compare files. I also think the bookmark buttons and save buttons are now much more difficult to make out, even word wrap is harder to see. It seems to me the new buttons have a soft glowing type of look (making them stand out less) and I guess I prefer in your face bold buttons.

[mrainey56]

Has anybody seen a graphic that shows the new icons? Could somebody make one available? I'm actually holding off on installing V17 because of that no-option change.

[Mofi]

Here are screenshots of the standard Advanced toolbar with small and large symbols. The upper is from UE v17.00, the lower is from UE v16.30.

The main toolbar with large symbols do not fit on my screen with a width of 1280 pixels and therefore some symbols are missing.

I think, most users here miss the floppy disk symbol for command Save. That is probably no problem for younger users who never have seen a floppy disk, and for me using always Ctrl+S for Save, F12 for Save As and Alt+F12 for Save All. But for others the new symbol for Save command is unusual and therefore the new icon set is not liked.

[bulgrien]

I personally agree that the old icon set was less cluttered and more intuitive.

[mrainey56]

Thanks, Mofi. I think I can adapt to the new icons.

[bulgrien]

The problem, in my opinion, is that a new user may have difficulty figuring out what certain buttons do in the new version simply because of the move away from "industry standard" graphical representations. A floppy disk for "Save" is but one example. An even more glaring example are the buttons for text color and background/highlight color. Had I not seen Mofi's comparison of the old and new icon sets, I would not have made the connection with these new icons. Now that I know what to look for, I can understand that colored lines equate to text color and black lines on a colored background equates background color. However, these are non-standard representations and, as such, are not easily recognizable by new users and even advanced users may find themselves wasting time looking through the unfamiliar images in the toolbar.

[gjaros]

I must agree that I like the older icons much better. Besides being more intuitive to experienced users (both because they are what we had been using in UltraEdit for years and also because they conformed to industry standard designs) they were also much easier to see. The color contrast was much better, the line definition was clearer, and the overall designs of the icons was cleaner. Particularly for the smaller icons. Now they all have a grayish blue tint, blurred edges, and more complex designs. They may be nicer artistically speaking, but functionally they're horrendous. I'm actually considering reverting back to UE16 until this issue is resolved because it's affecting my productivity and I don't have several hours to reinstall 16, take a screenshot of the menu bars, create all new icons, reinstall 17, and then assign all the icons. There are some nice features in 17, but not worth the mess that the tool bars have become. And FYI I registered on the forums just to add my opinion to this discussion. That's how strong my opinion on the matter is.

[bulgrien]

Thanks for posting, gjaros. However, these are user-to-user forums. If it's really that important to you, you need to email IDM directly.

[hveld]

I also think old icon set is easier to work with. Because I'm used to it or for some other reason - this actually doesn't matter.
What matters is the final result, which is that I often wonder what icon is supposed to do this or that.

No doubt new icons are good looking. Many, or probably most users would prefer them.
But there are also many that would prefer the old ones. So it's really a good idea to make the icon set user selectable. I guess this is technically not so hard.