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List:       kde-pim
Subject:    [Kde-pim] KAddressBook GUI design issues
From:       Anders Lund <temp_and () tiscali ! dk>
Date:       2002-09-30 19:59:24
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Hi all,

I have a few whings to say about the way the KAddressBook GUI has changed 
during the last development cycles.

I think the new use of the details view and the quickedit is a good idear, but 
I do have several issues. Some are probably pretty obvious and allready 
beeing addressed - in that case forgive me - but anyway...

First the QuickEdit + distribution list manager:

I can appreciate the idear of the quick edit, but the current design of the 
component has several GUI design flaws.

* It does not display all its controls correctly if the kaddressbook window 
hasn't got quite a size. It should claim the space it requires to display 
correctly, or alternatively provide optional scrollbars like kcm modules, 
though that is not really a good solution.

* It contains keyboard accellerators for controls, that may conflict with 
those of the kaddressbook window's menus. I think all accellerators should be 
removed to get a clean design, whereas the addressee editor dialog is lacking 
accellerators, preferably every single control in a dialog should provide a 
keyboard accellerator.

* Nested tab widgets is downright bad GUI design. (Go here if you forgot why: 
http://www.iarchitect.com/mshame.htm) If the quickedit and the dist list 
manager should be displayed within the same widget, we should come up with an 
alternative control - possibly the tab bar used for Kate tool views could be 
used, placed in the bottom of the window (the same control is used in the 
konqueror navigation bar - so it probably will become familliar to users).

* I miss the option to display the dist list manager in the form of a 
dialog, as I dislike it embedded in the window in the current form by taste. 
As for the addressee editor, a dialog form should have keyboard accellerators 
while an embedded view none.

And some suggestions:

* Since we allready has such tool views, maybe adding a "manage by categories" 
view would be good, pretty much like the dist list editor, so that you could 
create a category and drag contacts to it from the main view (Just agree, 
I'll volunteer to create it in time for 3.2 if you do). 

* Btw I often think that categories should be usable as dist lists 
automatically, in which case the distribution list system could even be 
dropped (unless someone cares for the option to select a different email 
address for a specific purpose in a dist list...). Anyway beeing able to send 
email to a category directly from kmail forexample would be kinda cool, I do 
know that that could easily be added in the kmail code, but having the 
adderssbook returning categories as dist lists would be cleaner.

* I would like to add the option to decide weather to display the quickedit 
and details panes to the view configuration, with the options for each to 
display, not display or inherit current state. That way I could create views 
handy for editing and views handy for viewing. (Again, just agree and I'll go 
on)

I don't know if a generic way of removing all accels inside a widget exists, 
but maybe we should come up with one? A very simple way would be passing the 
strings through some filter, like
QString accelCheck( QString &text, QWidget *w )
{ 
  if ( w->topLevelWidget()->inherits("KMainWindow") ) {
    text = text.replace( QRegExp("(?!&)&(?=\w)"), '');
  }
  return text;
}
(untested of cause) used in the text assignment for the controls, like
new QCheckBox ( accelCheck( i18n("&Check me"), this ), this );
or
myLabel->setText( accelCheck( i18n("I have a &Buddy"), myLabel ) ); 

Some notes about the details pane:

* It is not working well GUI-wise when displayed in a vertical pane, because 
it does not have an understanding of the width it requires. It should 
consider the required width and either provide scrollbars or claim the space 
it needs, preferably the first since the width will depend on the amount and 
length of the data in individual contacts.

* Allthough I havent got any options to configure it atm, I do remember a 
serious problem with background tiles, especially "bordered" ones.

* I will _never_ use it unless I get the config dialog back, so I can change 
the default colors:-))

* to be really usefull, it should allow for text selection/copying. Is that 
planned? 

(I'm not sure if a [k]html view wouldn't do a much better job, using 
a such would also enable really flexible templates for advanced users. It has 
scrollbars/geometry management and supoorts selecting/copying)

-anders


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