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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Re: Observations on the new KWord startup dialog
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () olympusproject ! org>
Date:       2003-05-27 15:02:38
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On Tuesday 27 May 2003 03:56, Thomas Zander wrote:
> >   http://urbanlizard.com/~aseigo/snapshot1.png
> >    http://urbanlizard.com/~aseigo/koffice_open.ui
>
> You missed some features
> - the left and right as rest to resizing policy 'minimum' so the center
> takes all available space

i don't want the center to take all available space. in fact, if anything, the 
third panel should take up more space so as to provide room for content. 
there is nothing special about the centre column..

> (the two spacers around the A4 should also be minimum)

they aren't around the A4, they are around the icon above it. the A4 spans the 
entire width of the third pane, and the icon should be centered horizontally 
in the pane... labels with pixmaps don't like to expand much, so i use 
spacers to achieve the desired centering.

> - the 'description' label should have <p>'s around the bottom 
> paragraph 

yes, you're right...

> - The open button should be right aligned (its a bit too big now) 

that's sort of the point. it's in an out-of-the way place, so i wanted to make 
sure it is noticeable. it also keeps the vertical alignment looking nice... i 
tried it centered minimum and it really doesn't look as nice.. 

besides, one of the things i'd like to see is if you select a template, it 
says something like "Use This Template", if it's a plain document "Create New 
Document", and if it is a recent document "Open This Document". the text gets 
wide and will look better if the button doesn't keep changing widths itself.

i'm concerned about i18n of those phrases, however. can someone give me an 
example of how long those three phrases would be in German?

> - you miss the location label (for recent files)

that would appear in the third pane in the description area.

> - you miss the intro text

third pane.

> - the listview header(s) should be 'fullwidth'

doh! fixed... a new version of the UI file is up at the same address:

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

(the screenshot hasn't been changed...)

> I don't like the header 'Categories'. First it should be clear without that
> header and second it stops me from looking for recent files there.

yes, you're probably right on that one...

> I think you want a normal list here with icons _above_ the names. Just like
> the panels that group config dialogs (the kword config for example)

i want them beside the words... this keep the relationship between icon and 
text completely unambiguous, saves vertical space (allowing larger icons 
w/out a vertical scroll bar) and preserves the left-to-right nature of this 
dialog. see the MacOS X finder for examples of this...

> You made the same mistake using the open/open existing file buttons I posed
> in the email you replied to.

the wording of the button in the third frame sucked =) i hope i've improved 
that somewhat ...

> The buttons at the bottom 'ok's the dialog above. So if you say the open
> and open exising should not be on the same level (I agree to that) then
> they should be the other way around; since the 'open existing file' does
> not ok the selections above.

the button in the third frame is closest to that which it acts upon. the user 
moves their attention from left to right, resting finally in the third column 
where they can check to make sure they have the right item selected and 
without shifting focus click the button that acts on that item. 

the buttons at the bottom of the dialog actually both cancel the dialog...

> > 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.
>
> Maybe that last point is the real solution; just show the template chooser
> in the main window and have a button on top to open an existing file using
> an external KFD.
> This steps around a whole lot of problems...

i think so...

> I don't have much time for KDE hacking at work; so just a quick email and
> I'll take a longer look tonight.

=)

- -- 
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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