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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Observations on the new KWord startup dialog
From:       Thomas Zander <zander () planescape ! com>
Date:       2003-05-25 10:41:01
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On Sunday 25 May 2003 00:23, Charles de Miramon wrote:
> Hi,
> I've looked the very promising screenshots of Thomas' work :
> http://linpacker.tuxfamily.org/newconcept1.jpg
> http://linpacker.tuxfamily.org/newconcept2.jpg
> http://linpacker.tuxfamily.org/newconcept3.jpg
>
> very nice.

I'd like to hear the reasoning on what the advantage is to the current dialog; 
this one shows all the same functions, only on different tabs.
Seems that this is the opposite from what you want. Take a look at how the 
background image of KDE can be configured. It formerly was all tabs; now 
everything is in one dialog.

> Some observations and a proposition for an alternative widget :
>
> For the second pane :
> - It looks to me that embedding the Kfiledialog is a bit too much.
> - It would be very nice to be able to toggle between the preview and the
> informations about the file (something generally much more useful for a
> wordprocessor than a preview, even if it has less eye-candy ;-))
> A search button to be able to launch an embed  KFind would be great

KDE uses a document based approuch which means that file navigation is placed 
in konqueror and not in the application.
To put a KFile in the open dialog is not appropriate. IMO

> For the third pane, the last opened filed should be shown in a list view
> with the full path ( so you can tell the difference between the document on
> your hard disk and the bacup on a floppy) and the date.

A good popup could fix that...

> More generally, the OK - Quit buttons are not very clear. It is not a
> normal Quit button (meaning quit this dialog), here it is exiting KWord, so
> it should be labeled differently something like 'Quit KWord' with the same
> icon than Quit in the file menu.

What do you base this on? When I close a document in KWord I get this dialog; 
closing the dialog certainly does not quit KWord.

> Something I find very counter-intuitive in the KFiledialog is that clicking
> on the location arrow, you get the last opened documents. I really don't
> see the logic of it. It is very confusing.

I don't understand..
The default open dialog has a editable combo for directories and for files. 
Which one do you mean?
Its all very logical to me...

> An other proposition :
>
> I'm not a developper but I had a different idea for the the startup dialog
> IMHO more elegant, which is extending KFileDialog so you can put icons on
> the left column not only linked to locations but to actions. For example,
> you would get a left column in the startup dialog like that
> <New document>
> <New from template>
> <Last documents>
> <Search documents>
> <Desktop>
> <My documents>
> <Home>
> <Floppy>

Trying this mixes two concepts that should be left apart. You mix the opening 
and the creation of a new _docuement_ in one dialog that is suppost to be 
only about file-system navigation (i.e. _files_)
I don't like it.

> Clicking on the first icon, would just open KWord with an empty document in
> the standard template (for people who want to quickly take notes without
> thinking about choosing now a template)
> Clicking on the second icon would launch your first pane
> Clicking on the third icon would launch your third pane
>
> I think the elegance of my solution is that it is extensible and that the
> user can customize it. For example, when we will have search folders in KDE
> (I hope in the near future). The user could add a new icon in the column
> e.g. <letters from last week> presenting a list of all the kword files with
> the letter template in the /home directory and subdirectory sorted by date.
> Something that would be great for a secretary.

This is for just opening files; and looks like a nice solution. But not with 
the <new> part in the file dialog as well.

> PS: cross-posting to kde-usability

Just as a closing statement on what the original dialog was created for (but 
until today not yet implemented) is that the dialog can be a wizard to 
automatically fill those templates. For example you could select a fax 
template in KWord and get a page that asks you for extra info to fill the 
template.
For this reason alone the choice of different tabs as a top-level choice seems 
wrong.

-- 
Thomas Zander

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