Re: [Usability] [RFC] Proposed AbiWord preferences dialog mockup

From: Christian Neumair (chris@gnome-de.org)
Date: Tue Jun 03 2003 - 13:55:02 EDT

  • Next message: Alan Horkan: "Re: [Usability] [RFC] Proposed AbiWord preferences dialog mockup"

    Am Die, 2003-06-03 um 18.48 schrieb David Adam Bordoley:
    > > From: Christian Neumair <chris@gnome-de.org>
    > >
    > > I just compiled a bunch of screenshots of my mockup for a new AbiWord
    > > preferences dialog [1-4].
    > > Please have a look at them and make proposals on what I can still
    > > improve. I like it much more than the old dialog but I'm not completely
    > > satisfied. Especially the buttons IMO are far away from looking perfect.
    > > Thanks for your efforts!

    I already got some suggestions from the abiword mailing list.
    The problem is that both of the lists are closed so postings are not
    really exchanged.

    > > [1] http://gnome-de.org/~manny/prefsmockup1.png
    > General:
    > 1. Why not move the statusbar and ruler prefs directly into the view menu.
    > Would make access to these much quicker.
    They are in the view menu, too.
    I'm not sure whether it's a good idea to keep it in the prefs dialog,
    too. Maybe you're right. AW devels?

    > 2. I thought there was a global gnome pref for cursor blink, wouldn't be
    > better to use this pref?
    I assume this is pref is set by a gconf key. As of today, AbiWord hasn't
    got any possibility to interact with gconf. Probably a 2.2 TODO.

    > 3. I think it would be better to move the toolbar editting interface stuff
    > into a seperate dialog. In epiphany we use edit->toolbars.
    I don't think Ephy's way of handling toolbars is acceptable for AbiWord.
    In AW you don't edit particular items, but the toolbar as a whole.

    > 4. Why would you disable tooltips?
    You are right, it's a fundamental question whether it makes sense to
    disable them. I think this option is even dubious cross-platform-wise.
    Dom?

    > > [2] http://gnome-de.org/~manny/prefsmockup2.png
    >
    > I can't pin it down, but it seems like most of these prefs are technobabble.
    > Shouldn't the right to left prefs just work automagically based on locale?
    > The glyph prefs are particularly crypic and meaningless to 99.9% of people i
    > would guess. Are there sane defaults that can be used instead. Seems odd to
    > have a preference for one specific language.
    Dom already told me to remove "Show all/hidden text". That at least
    reduces the options. I can't state on the RTL issue, though.

    > You should default automatic save to on, thats a nice feature :)
    Hey, that's just a mockup :).
    All the defaults are loaded by some config backend at runtime.

    > > [3] http://gnome-de.org/~manny/prefsmockup3.png
    >
    > If you've chosen to include a custom dictionary, why would you choose not to
    > make suggestions from it?
    Dom told me to remove the custom dictionary as well as the ignored word
    list part.

    > > [4] http://gnome-de.org/~manny/prefsmockup4.png
    >
    > 1. Kill the splash screen pref. Splash screens are poor excuses for long
    > load times. It is especially unneeded now that gnome has application launch
    > feedback.
    I think the AbiWord developers will keep it as a kind of a brand. I'm
    not sure whether an UI option makes sense. Dom?

    > 2. Why would you not automatically load all plugins? (legit question)
    Plugins are handled in a non-gnumeric manner in AbiWord. You add them
    manually and probably just don't want them to be loaded automatically.
    Maybe the label is a bit confusing. The "all" implies that some are
    loaded.

    > 3. Are preference schemes really necessary? Seems like something 1 out of
    > 1000 people will use.
    Dom told me to remove this, too.

    > Hope these comments are useful.
    Yes. Thanks :).

    regs,
     Chris



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