Subject: Re: UI Hit Squad
From: Thomas Fletcher (thomasf@qnx.com)
Date: Wed Nov 22 2000 - 08:32:01 CST
On Thu, 23 Nov 2000, Martin Sevior wrote:
> HI Randy,
> One of the challenges for me in writing ABiWord is that I haven't
> actually used many features of MS Word. I'll have to find out exactlywhat
> an outline is.
>
> Here is what you can do with lists. You can create an ordinary list like
> this
>
> 1. First one
> 2. Second one
> 3. Third one
>
> Where 1. 2. 3. can be a) b) c) or A) B) C) or (i) (ii) (iii) or
> <<<<<1>>>>-->> <<<<<2>>>-->> <<<<<3>>>->> ... or anything like that.
>
> You can have regular bullet point lists or a number of interesting
> replacements for bullet symbols like "-" or squares, triangles, boxes,
> hands, hearts...
[all the other col things deleted]
Actually I've been meaning to ask you about this. Right now you
have hardcoded in "wingdings" and "symbol" for the fonts and various
symbols. This pains me to no end =;-) I think that we should probably
have an "other symbol" button or something which would behave or
bring up the insert symbol dialog where the user could select the
symbol for the bullet that they want. Either this, or we decide to
use the actual unicode numeric values and let each OS decide which
fonts can display that unicode value. Somthing like a "get font
for symbol" function where you would pass it a unicode character,
and it would return the font which could display that symbol. Of
course this doesn't make sense for "normal" letters, but it does
in the realm of bullet symbols.
I know that you were thinking about this before with the insert
symbol dialog ... further thoughts?
Thomas
> On Wed, 22 Nov 2000, Randy Kramer wrote:
>
> > Martin,
> >
> > (I use Office (Word) 97.)
> >
> > I'm more familiar with outlines than lists. I know that Word 97 has
> > increase / decrease buttons on the outline tool bar which serve to raise
> > or lower the level of a heading. In Word, toolbars can be created and
> > customized, so a user can leave these increase / decrease buttons on a
> > toolbar or take them off. I'm sure AbiWord does not have that feature
> > yet, but I'm hoping that there is nothing being built to preclude that
> > possibility in the future.
> >
> > Even though I use outlining a lot, I generally don't use the increase /
> > decrease buttons on the toolbar, I use the keyboard shortcuts. On my
> > customized toolbar, I don't include those buttons, there are buttons
> > (and controls -- like the font size combo box) that are more useful to
> > me.
> >
> > Digression: I am confused about how lists relate to outlines. I think
> > that lists and outlines are almost the same -- outlines use heading
> > "paragraphs" with formatable styles designated Heading 1 thru Heading 9.
> > Ordinary text can be interspersed between outline headings and is
> > associated with the outline heading above it.
> > Among other things, you can go to the Format | Bullets and Numbering
> > menu and set it so that numbers are automatically applied to those
> > headings based on their position in the outline and the heading level.
> > (That may not be very clear -- level 1 headings might be numbered 1, 2,
> > 3, the first level 2 heading under the second level 1 heading might be
> > numbered 2.1, and so on.)
> > If lists use the same Heading 1 thru Heading 9 styles, you've got a lot
> > of the outlining feature already built, and you can provide a
> > collapsible outline by giving the user options to make some headings
> > (and associated text) temporarily invisible. (For example, if all
> > headings (and text) at heading level 2 or above (higher numbered
> > headings) are made invisible, the outline is "collapsed" to level 1 (the
> > top level).)
> >
> > I guess a list does not have to use the styles "Heading 1" thru "Heading
> > 9" but can use other styles with "outline levels" (1 thru 9) associated
> > with them.
> >
> > In your opinion, is your implementation of lists a step on the road to
> > implementing collapsible outlining?
> >
> > Randy Kramer
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Martin Sevior wrote:
> > >
> > > One thing that MS Word has that would be easy to add for Abi are buttons
> > > to increase and decrease the indentation level of lists. I could do this
> > > before 0.7.12 if people want it but it will take up another two spots in
> > > our valuable toolbar real-estate. Are there opinions on whether we want
> > > these buttons?
> > >
> > > Cheers
> > >
> > > Martin
> > >
> > > PS. Dom, can you describe how you get cursor dirt with Lists? I can
> > > probabally fix it quickly.
> > >
> > > On Tue, 21 Nov 2000, Dom Lachowicz wrote:
> > >
> > > > Please read this. Ken and I spent some good amount of time discussing some
> > > > UI problems/enhancements that we'd like to see in AbiWord. Please comment on
> > > > this, suggest more stuff, etc... Feel free to drop by on IRC
> > > > (irc.gnome.org#abiword) I'm going to start fixing a few of the Gnome-only
> > > > items now. Perhaps we need a UI hit-squad team? Anyway, here are some intial
> > > > suggestions.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Dom
> > > > _____________________________________________________________________________________
> > > > Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
> > > >
> >
> >
>
>
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas (toe-mah) Fletcher QNX Software Systems
thomasf@qnx.com Neutrino Development Group
(613)-591-0931 http://www.qnx.com/~thomasf
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