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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Observations on the new KWord startup dialog
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () olympusproject ! org>
Date:       2003-05-27 4:54:31
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On Monday 26 May 2003 02:28, Thomas Zander wrote:
> This is what every user expects; but searching is not. No need to stretch
> the allready blurred line of how and where you navigate or create your
> documents.

ah... though you were refering to KFD, not kfind.. yes, kfind does not belong
here (at least not in its current state =)

> Its just
> one step away from 'why can't I delete my files using the KFD'-questions.

heh.. you *can* delete your files using KFD ;-) huzzah!

> Hmm; the hyperbolic tree comes to mind here :)
>     http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/h3draw/gd98.ps.gz (1.2 Mb)

=)

> Then the fact that the 'choose' and the 'open' are both closing the dialog
> suggests they should be placed on the same level. I.e. next to each other.

i think the wording is too similar to be next to each other; i'd wager that
many users would not know which one to click. this means better physical
seperation, better wording, or both... see attached files...

> Last; the user might appreciate feedback on his selection; page size and
> comments come to mind here. (the tooltip idea I mentioned before).

agreed...

> Ok, quick scetch attached that might not be the end-all, but should at
> the very least prove to solve more problems then most ideas I have seen
> so far.

i like the direction a lot... below are URLS to  a UI file (so we can play a 
bit easier ;) and a snapshot that plays on your idea ... (i'm aware of the
missalignment of the items in the Categories list, that's to circumvent the
default sorting you get when previewing in designer...)

  http://urbanlizard.com/~aseigo/snapshot1.png
   http://urbanlizard.com/~aseigo/koffice_open.ui

in the third pane we could place any additional information desired ... a
preview along with kfilemetainfo for  a recent document, for instance...

this makes it a lot like MacOS X's file nav, and that's a good thing...

this still leaves the issue of openning an existing file... i can see think of
two decent solutions (which probalby means there are at least 5 ;) :

 a) when the Open Existing File button is clicked the three panes are replaced
by an embedded KFD

 b) when the Open Existing File button is clicked the current dialog
disappears and is replaced with a stand alone KFD. this would leave us with
the quandry of what to do if the user presses Cancel in the KFD (probably
just treat it as if they pressed Cancel in the koffice open dialog, but
another possibility is to go back to the koffice dialog first...)

and just to be a broken record, this should be embedded right IN the
kword/kspread/kpresenter/etc window and NOT a stand-alone modal dialog.



On Monday 26 May 2003 03:31, David Faure wrote:
> On Monday 26 May 2003 22:28, Thomas Zander wrote:
> > The way tabs are used in all applications is that they provide different
> > views to the same data.
>
> Certainly not. Do all my konqueror tabs show the same data?
> Do all my kspread sheets (one per tab) show the same data?

exactly =)

> > [...]
> >
> > Ok, quick scetch attached that might not be the end-all, but should at
> > the very least prove to solve more problems then most ideas I have seen
> > so far.
>
> This would still open a modal dialog (the file dialog) above the template
> chooser dialog (modal too) - isn't that considered bad practice?

yes.. it's much worse than a modal dialog on a main window... two levels of
modality should be avoided at all costs...

- --
Aaron J. Seigo
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE: The 'K' is for 'kick ass'
http://www.kde.org       http://promo.kde.org/3.1/feature_guide.php


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