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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: KHelpCenter Suggestions
From:       Troels Tolstrup <troels () tolstrup ! org>
Date:       2003-12-18 22:20:00
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On Thursday 18 December 2003 17:01, Luke Sandell wrote:
> This post is concerned with the usefulness of KHelpCenter. To make KDE
> Help Center a little more... helpful... I have the following suggestions:

This topic has been up before, but unfortunately noone did anything. 
(including myself, shame on me :)

> 1) Ditch the Global Help Tree on the left-hand side of the help-center.

I really think so too, i dont really understand how this was not the case in 
the first place. Even i get confused by the left-hand panel in the help 
center.

> Or, take another approach:  have two separate tabs

I can't even see why global help should be present when viewing an 
applications handbook. I don't even think a home button should go there, 
but should go to the first page of an apps hand book.
>
> 2) Closely related to my previous suggestion: make the tree display all
> topics available for the Current Application.  As of now (3.1.94), it
> displays only the Table of Contents.  It seems that it would be much more
> useful for it to display the hierarchy of topics that are contained in
> the Table of Contents, seeing as it is a tree.  The same with man and
> info.

I think that perhabs a better idea would be to ditch the tree and show the 
table of contents there as a simple indented list of links.

> 3) OK, this is one of my pet peeves, but it has more to do with
> KApplication than with KHelpCenter. If there does not yet exist a
> handbook for Application X, or if that handbook is not currently
> installed, then the "Help" menu of Application X should not have a menu
> entry that says "ApplicationX Handbook."  KApplication should
> automatically detect this. Let's not deceive users by leading them to
> believe there is help when there is not.

Good point, i hadn't noticed this myself, but i think you are right.

> 4) Startup times: KHelpCenter would benefit from a vast speed increase if
> it itself were eliminated.  That is, make it into a KPart and have it
> open in a special instance of Konqueror (with a radically altered
> interface, so that the user doesn't even know it's Konqueror).  Seeing as
> Konqueror is usually the fastest loading application, even without
> preloading, due to caching and other optimizations.

Yes, it is VERY slow to start. I just ran it from a konsole, and as far as i 
can see from the output, it spends about 9 seconds reading the info 
directories, and about 2 seconds doing everything else. I hardly think it 
is a good thing that i have to wait 7 seconds for something that i didn't 
ask for.

> 5) The Glossary has some major issues.  There needs to be a text input
> box where the user can type in a word and get possible matches in a
> listbox. Also, the alphabetical list should be just that... an
> alphabetical list. There's no need to break it down by letter.

I even find, that with the current very short list, that it could just as 
well be a single item in the main help list, and only have an alphabetical 
list, no need for catagory or diveded by letters. Unless it is planned to 
seriously extend the list that is. But to have an actual tab in the 
interface for this short list of words is in my oppinion silly. (and i 
would think so even if the list was longer too, i think it would make much 
more sense to create a hyperlink from the words that are in it, that way 
you dont have to hunt around for a word you dont know at all.)

>
> The other issue with the glossary is that the definition should not take
> the place of the current document.  The purpose of a glossary is to aid
> the user in understanding a word *as they read*.  Thus, we do not want to
> replace what they are reading with the definition.  It would make more
> sense to pop it up in a separate bareboned window, which the user can
> simply close when he/she/it is finished.

Which also would make a lot of sense if doing what i suggested above.

Another issue i would like to mention is the fact that you can only have one 
help window open, so if you wish to view two help docs at the same time, 
you are out of luck.

All in all, i think the khelpcenter could do with a major overhaul in order 
to make it more useful. In my oppinion we almost need a help center to help 
users use the help center.

Mvh
Troels
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