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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Show/Hide vs Checkbox
From:       Gérard_Delafond <gerard () delafond ! org>
Date:       2005-03-30 23:17:37
Message-ID: 200503302317.37877.gerard () delafond ! org
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Le Mercredi 30 Mars 2005 00:18, Tim Hutt a écrit :
> Hi,
>
> Just a quick note to say that using menu items that change from (for
> example) 'Show Offline Users' to 'Hide Offline Users' is a poor design.
>
Hi !

I am one of those who pushed to get these toggle menuitems, for many reasons :

1°There is no consistency inside the apps, and between different apps
2°Clicking on "Hide" to "Show" something is not natural
3°Pushed/released icons are not visible enough
4°It is shorter than showing "Show/hide"
5°When you are used to click somewhere to perform an action, it easy to find 
the place to perform the opposite action (it is the same !)
6°My Psion Series 3 used always this method. An Psion was about 15 years in 
advance on KDE (it is still on some points).

But I agree it is not always perfect.
For example, it can make problems in some languages. In French, we have in 
Konqui:
Afficher Emulateur de terminal (Show Terminal Emulator).
This is not good in french. We should have  :
Afficher l'émulateur de terminal.
So, I had the idea to change it into :
Afficher : Emulateur de terminal
That way, there is a separation, and we can accept the missing article.
I agree if makes to big problems is some languages, perhaps it should be 
reverted.

Another reason why it should not always be done : when there is a big list of 
items :
Show windows
Show borders
Show titles
Show background....

In this case, it can be discussed to use checkboxes, because it makes it 
easiear to have information about the whole system.
When using toggle menus, it is a bit more difficult to know the state of the 
system, but is it really what a menuitem is done for ? I think not.

A last example to show how using checkboxes can be awful in KDE. Have a look 
at Klipper menu.
You have a toggle menu + a checkbox, and there is no consistency between the 2 
systems :
  Enable actions
X Actions enabled

I wonder why I would click on Actions enabled...

Thanks for reading my poor english

Gerard
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