Subject: Re: Lists & bullets dialog box (was Re: Dialog Shots (fwd))
From: Martin Sevior (msevior@mccubbin.ph.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Fri Jul 21 2000 - 17:38:43 CDT
On Fri, 21 Jul 2000, Joaquin Cuenca wrote:
> > I am very open to suggestions for a better looking
> > dialog. Feel free to be
> > opinionated!
>
> [WARNING: the following lines are inspired by
> Word...]
>
> Martin, I think that when the user selects the lists &
> bullets item in
> the toolbar, we don't must to show a dialog box, but
> only to create a
> list. To do that, we have to split the actual toolbar
> item in two
> different items (a `list' item and a `bullets' item)
> in order to know
> the desired list type.
>
> If the user wants to stop the actual list, he only has
> to start a new
> line and press backspace. For instance, if we have:
>
> * Line 1
> * Line 2|
>
We have this already :-) Once the user does this pressing "newline" no
longer gives another list item. The "resume" feature restarts the list
(which is not implemented yet).
> and the user wants to finish the actual list, he has
> to press [intro],
> and [backspace]
>
> * Line 1
> * Line 2 [intro pressed]
> * |
>
Hmm I don't understand the distinction here. In multi-level lists stopping
the list will promote the item into the level above.
> -----------------------------------
>
> * Line 1
> * Line 2
> | [backspace pressed]
>
> (quickier than the actual method...)
>
I hope that this is the current behaviour.
> If the user wants to change the type of a list, or
> change the starting
> value, etc. he will have to select the "Lists &
> bullets..." item in
> the menubar (which will show the lists & bullets
> dialog box), and then
> change whatever he wants.
>
> What do you think, Martin?
Welcome back Joaquin. It would have been nice to have had this
conversation earlier when I asked about list buttons but hey I can always
recode. My main concern at this point is the number of buttons we have in
Abiword already. Adding four new ones will make for a really cluttered
environment. In addition I have been a dumb Word user for about 4 years
now and I never learned about "promote" and "demote" buttons.
My original plan was to have a button for numbered lists, a button for
bullet lists and the menu item "Bullets and Numbering" to launch the
dialog which provides the full functionality of the sytem to the user.
I guess I prefer this to the Word four button approach. They can get away
with this because of their configurable toolbar (a real nice feature by
the way) although at the price of not providing the functionality easily
available to the user. I think the two buttons to start/stop numbered and
bullet lists ala word together with the "Numbers and Bullets" dialog is a
nice compromise. I can make the buttons appear raised or lowered depending
on the state of current list.
What do people think of this approach?
Cheers
Martin
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