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List:       kde-pim
Subject:    Re: [Kde-pim] Printing Code in kaddressbook
From:       Mirko Boehm <mirco.boehm () comcast ! net>
Date:       2002-05-21 11:28:00
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Mike Pilone wrote:

> I think the idea of a printing wizard makes sense. Attempting to add all the
> options that we need to the standard KDE print dialog doesn't make sense. I
> think the wizard should be displayed before the print dialog, since most
> users assume that clicking 'Ok' directly sends the info to the printer and
> they do not expect a dialog to be displayed after telling the application
> to print. This may require a little change in the architecture since we
> will not have a printer object to draw on until the very end.

Not a technical problem, as the painting is done after the wizard exits. The
logical problem is that the user may alter the paper settings what might affect
the options displayed in the wizard (think of landscape vs portrait and a print
style that would print differently according to that).

Maybe we can change it anyways and go back to the wizard when this happens?

> The separation of Views and printing styles makes sense to me. I can imagine
> Views where printing them doesn't make any sense (the detailed view is a
> good example). Also, I do not think we should force the user to define a
> CardView before they are able to print a business card for someone. Like
> Mirko said, if it makes sense, we can share drawing code in the background.
>
> As far as the selected or current contact goes, yes, there is a way to
> figure that out. The KAddressBookPrinter object will get a call to print
> with a list of selected addressees. If there is only one selected, it is
> current. If there are none selected, then there is no selected addressee.

OK, good. I was asking because I thought of this option to print the current
contact (in the wizard page). This way around, I can just remove the first
button.

> I would like to change the look of the print wizard a lot. I would prefer if
> it were much more visual. I was thinking of something like the the document
> selector when koffice is started. A small view with images of what the
> printout would look like. The images are just general previews, they do not
> have to have correct data in them. Also, the wizard should use multiple
> pages to actually be a wizard. Selecting the view and customizing the view
> options should be on different pages.

Sure. The wizard will offer two different kinds of pages: first, general pages
common for all print styles. Print order is a good example.
Second, the print styles do add their own option pages when they are created.
Since none of them does now, this is not obvious :-) But intended. I will add at
least two pages to the detailed print style this weekend, for example.

As for the previews, this should be easy. We just need some of the artists to
prepare some images or use some raw screenhots. I can do this, too. The images
would be provided by the print style objects and displayed when available.

> Overall it is great to see someone tackling this problem. Printing is a very
> requested feature in KAddressBook. I have not had a chance to look over the
> code yet, but I hope to do so later today and I will post comments.

Concentrate on the print style code, not the wizard, then. I will change the
wizard to be a KWizard and add some options.

CU,

--Mirko.
(no signature, wrong computer)

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