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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Re: KPresenter usability review.
From:       Alan Horkan <horkana () maths ! tcd ! ie>
Date:       2005-09-27 19:03:03
Message-ID: Pine.BSF.4.58L0.0509271929460.59035 () bell ! maths ! tcd ! ie
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On Tue, 27 Sep 2005, Thomas Zander wrote:

> Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 11:23:21 +0200
> From: Thomas Zander <zander@kde.org>
> Reply-To: For developer's discussion about KOffice <koffice-devel@kde.org>
> To: For developer's discussion about KOffice <koffice-devel@kde.org>
> Subject: Re: KPresenter usability review.
>
> On Mon, Sep 26, 2005 at 08:52:01PM +0200, Thorsten Zachmann wrote:
> > On Sunday 25 September 2005 21:26, Thomas Zander wrote:
> > > This is inconsistent since we removed all 'default' settings in the UI
> > > last year, this one seems to have slipped through.  So we have to redo
> > > the dialog and remove the concept of "default".
> > > A slightly simpler, but quite usefull approach would be to set a template
> > > which can be used to insert more then one slide.
> > > See attached propsal UI file.
> >
> > Ok I understood what you want to do. I personally would like to have a
> > combobox where you can select where to insert the slide. I think the
> > radiobuttons make the widget unnecessary big. Is the any usability
> > advantage for the radiobuttons over the combobox?
>
> Yes, a general rule is that if you have less then 4 options radiobuttons are
> better since the user has less clicking to do to figure out what options he
> has.

The exception to the rule though is if you are really stuck for space and
how important or frequently use the option might be you might be able to
justify not giving it the extra space.  Unless you have a particularly
good reason not to you should use Radio buttons as Thomas recommended.

> > > should snap to center of pages and center of objects when dragging the
> > > help lines.
> > How should they snap to center of pages and center of object when dragging?
> > Can you explain this a little bit more detailed please, as I have no idea
> > what you mean by this.
>
> Same way all 'snapping' happens.  When the user drags the ruler the position
> of the ruler is mostly defined by the position of the mouse, except for a
> section of, say, 6 pixels left, or right, of the center of the page. When
> the mouse enters there the result will be that the ruler sits at the center
> itself.
> I also suggest you startup kivio which IIRC does this (I'm X less, so I'll
> try in a little)
>
> > > Additionally it would help to rename them to 'guides' and draw them in a
> > > different color instead of the outline they are now.
> > Which color dou you propose?
>
> Red is probably best.  But a little experimentation would help.

Kivio uses blue (the guide lines are red while being positioned but blue
once you release).

This old report against Kontour wanted to be able to configure the colour
and style (dashes, dots) of the Guides or Help lines.
http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=34939
I'm not entirely sure but I think it was because if you are using a dense
grid of guides the default style is too distracting.

Karbon didn't have guides but Tim may have changed that already
http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=108781

> > > * rename arrow 'start'/'end' to 'left'/'right' since this causes confusion
> > > in that dragging from right to left now means that the start is actually
> > > the end...
> > But what should it be if it is a horizontal line what is left and right there?

> So, left/right is IMO still better then start/end even for vertical lines.

Any change to the wording here would have its own new problems (possibly
worse or at least as bad as what users have already learnt to deal with
and work around) which is why I dont think it is worth changing only the
labelling and you would need to change Kivio too.

I do remember a program - I think it might have been Smartdraw - which
provided some much more directly way of manipulating the line ending right
on the canvas which helped avoid any ambiguity of which end of the line
you were talking about.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

Inkscape http://inkscape.org
Abiword http://www.abisource.com
Dia http://gnome.org/projects/dia/
Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org

Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/


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