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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Configuration as themes
From:       Rui Malheiro <rmalheiro () 6mil ! pt>
Date:       2004-02-20 13:04:13
Message-ID: 403605CD.2030102 () 6mil ! pt
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Jamethiel Knorth wrote:

> I do not like the method of having the themes existing for most every 
> section (as was demonstrated in a screen-shot of a new fonts dialog). 
> It makes the control center ENORMOUSLY more complex, in that there are 
> simply too many options. As there is already a problem with too many 
> options, I think that should be avoided.

I agree that extending all/most/many control panels to include theme 
selection would increase the complexity. Too many options is often 
confusing. What I think would be a better aproach, if configuration 
themes would be added to KDE, is to expand/redesign the theme control 
panel (I know there is going to be a new theme panel, but I haven't seen 
what it's going to be like) and include a "Use theme" button on every panel.

Let me explain this better. A user wants to configure the look and 
config on kicker and other desktop panels. She plays around with the 
kicker panel but isn't realy happy with the results or can't get to 
configure things the way she wants. She clicks on "Use theme" and is 
greated by a theme selector window that displays a selection of themes 
preferably with a small screenshot of what the kicker will look like 
with that theme. She can then choose to use the whole theme or just the 
kicker settings. My idea is not to have separate themes for each 
configuration aspect, but to design themes (and the theme selection 
application) in a way that allows the user to "extract" only the aspects 
of the theme she is interested on. The same for fonts, icons, mouse 
behavior, file-manager, desktop, whatever...

Let's supose I like the kicker settings of theme "Alpha", the  iconset 
of theme "Beta" and the window decoration of theme "Omega". On each 
relevant panel I could click on the "Use theme" button, browse the 
previews and "build" my own theme from the subsets of the others.

Of course this implies some advanced knowledge of KDE. A news user would 
only select a whole theme from the theme selection aplication and apply 
it to all aspects of his configuration. Then as he starts to find what 
he likes/dislikes, maybe from trying different themes, he can build his 
own preferences, without having to know what all those other options he 
doesn't realy care about.

-- 
Rui Malheiro



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