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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Enhancement: disable reason
From:       Tim Hutt <tdh29 () cam ! ac ! uk>
Date:       2005-07-06 17:28:44
Message-ID: 200507061828.45051.tdh29 () cam ! ac ! uk
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On Wednesday 06 July 2005 14:14, Michael Olbrich wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 06, 2005 at 09:35:01AM -0300, Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri wrote:
> > On Wednesday 06 July 2005 06:43, Michael Olbrich wrote:
> > > I agree that the problem "user doesn't know why a widget is disabled"
> > > exists. However, I'm not sure if what you are proposing is the
> > > solution.
> > >
> > > In most cases the layout of the dialog should provide enough
> > > information. e.g. Indented under or behind the activating checkbox etc.
> > > I don't think that for the very few cases where aditional infomation is
> > > necessary would check for a tooltip. Remember, there is no such
> > > information for most disabled widgets.
> > >
> > > Imho we need some allways visible representation to show that there is
> > > more.
> >
> > Some widgets are impossible to do this, like menu items. Open a complex
> > software (kwrite, OOo) and you'll see this problem.
>
> What do you mean by "impossible"? The original idea was a patch against
> Qt, right? I was thinking about drawing a questionmark or something
> above the disabled widget. What's impossible about that?
> It draws the users attention and _then_ we can provide the information
> on mouse over and/or click.

Sounds like a good idea. What about this though:

When you click on the disabled item, a whatsthis style popup appears 
explaining why you can't use it. Then you don't need to fiddle with 
whatsthis, status bar messages or tooltips.

Might not be too obvious to the user though.
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