Subject: What should options look like?
From: Robert Sievers (bob@abisource.com)
Date: Wed Dec 29 1999 - 10:35:42 CST
One of the major areas that needs attention right now in AbiWord is
Options. As many of you know, shack did a lot of work getting options
started. Unfortunately, a lot of work here has been left dangling. First,
the options dialog itself has never had any design thought put into it.
The current implementation is confusing and incomplete. Second, the actual
options themselves haven't been completely hooked up. Most of the buttons
in the Windows option dialog currently cause AbiWord to lock up.
Logan Hall <warrior514@worldnet.att.net> has spent time investigating some
other word processors and interviewing people. This will be a good start
toward defining a more formal specification. If you have an opinion, now
is the time to voice it. With a few small edits, here are Logan's findings:
Buttons:
1. Neither MSword 97 (pc) or MSword 6.0.1 (mac) have the apply button on
their options dialog. They have (Ok), (Cancel), (Help). They also have
the (Ok) button as the default button, meaning when you hit return it is
selected. This is important because for many users, me included, it is
expected when you hit return that it will select the (Ok) button and save
the options. I do like the (Defaults) button on the current dialog. I
believe that will help clear some confusion about getting AbiWord back to
its original preferences state.
2. The (Apply) button on the current dialog is confusing. I know that an
(Apply) button is standard issue on most Windows apps, but it appears to
serve no purpose besides not making the dialog go away. This could be
simplified into just the (Ok) button. The only use for an (Apply) button
would be if you wanted to view your changes before you got rid of the
dialog. This would not be practical given the amount of effort required to
do some type of "options preview". Also, most changes you make do not
directly effect the current document at the time. They mostly effect the
feel and behavior of the app after you have changed the defaults.
3. The (Save) button is still confusing. Even more so than the (Apply)
button, because it also seems to serve the same purpose as the (Ok), and
(Apply) buttons. This button has to do with the multiple preferences
schemes; so I would vote that it be moved to that dialog pane as to avoid
confusion. I believe that the multiple preferences schemes need some
serious thought on its implementation. Perhaps a separate dialog of some
sort, possibly called up from the Options dialog, would do the trick.
Another choice would be to do a more Mac style UI and have it be a sub menu
with checkmarks to show which is the current scheme. There should be some
thought on this so that the current implementation can be cleaned up.
4. The order of the buttons is a little wacky. The standard order on a
mac is, from right to left, (Ok), (Cancel), and then what ever else you
need to have. For Windows, OK and Cancel are always closely grouped with
other items appearing on either side, but always with disproportion spacing
to highlight the OK/Cancel region.
The View pane:
1. The Show/Hide box needs to be reorganized some in my opinion. The
biggest thing is that three of the options deal with window attributes and
one deals with document attributes. Possibly this should be split up into
two boxes (this is the way that MS does it), so that we have the Window
attributes in their own box, and the document attributes in another. This
is not real important right now but as the pane gets more options to choose
from it will become important.
2. In the View box the option to view Nonprinting Characters could be
expanded when this feture is implemented. Here are the options that Word
gives you:
Tab Characters
Spaces
Paragraph Marks
Optional Hyphens
Hidden Text
All
The option about Hidden Text is taken care of with the Hidden Text check
box already so this option wouldn't have to be added. Possibly this can be
a check box with a drop down menu, that would allow you to select what
Nonprinting Characters you want to view.
3. The Units and its drop down menu need to be brought closer together.
Right now there is approximately 1 inch between them, and it looks, at
first glance, like they are not the same option but are two different
options. I would suggest moving the drop down menu to the
"Units:" text.
4. There should never be a tab labeled "preferences" in an options dialog.
There has to be a better name for this.
All of this is open for discussion. Speak now before the QA guy starts
dictating what the options dialog should look like.
Robert Sievers
Open Source Evangelist
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