Re: User Interface of Dialogs

Hello, Rob.

On Jan 16, 2008 11:22 AM, Robert Staudinger <robert.staudinger@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Indeed the paragraph dialog has not gotten any attention for quite
> some time. One of the reasons is that it has not yet been ported to
> use libglade (early abiword relied on generated code IIRC). Are you
> interested to work on that? If so we would be very happy to get you
> started.

I really would like to help on that part, but I'm not a programmer.
Besides the knowledge with php and javascript, all I know is related
to graphic design and usability. Anyway, If anyone get interested to
work on that, I'll be happy to help in the user interface.

> Regarding the actual design of the dialog, I think it may be worth
> trying to use the same visual metaphors the toolbar uses, where
> possible.
> E.g. "Alignment" uses 4 buttons on the toolbar
> (left/center/right/justify), so the dialog should use the same,
> instead of the combo box. This helps users to immediately recognise
> what's going on. Look at "Paragraph" in the following mockup:
> http://abisource.com/~robsta/tmp/abiword-styles-04.png

I'm not sure if that's a good idea. While the toolbar buttons help to
recognize the action (align, bullets..), the dialog may look strange
to the user and this can interfere the facility to change the options.
If the dialog use only labels with comboboxes/inputs (the "default"
way), the user will already be familiar with it and he/she will be
able to easily change the options.

> Also the preview may be not needed. For paragraphs auto-apply should
> be feasible in terms of performance.

Agreed.

> Best,
> Rob

Thank you.

-- 
Vinicius Depizzol
vdepizzol@gmail.com
http://vdepizzol.wordpress.com