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List: kwrite-devel
Subject: Fwd: Heuristic Analysis for KWrite and Kate Menus
From: Christoph Cullmann <cullmann () babylon2k ! de>
Date: 2002-03-25 20:12:56
[Download RAW message or body]
Hi,
nice mail about usability of kate/kwrite and possible problems, open for
disccusion ;)
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Subject: Heuristic Analysis for KWrite and Kate Menus
Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 22:08:37 -0500
From: Irwin Kwan <emerald-arcana@rogers.com>
To: cullmann@kde.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Hello Chris,
My name is Irwin Kwan and I'm writing to you from the KDE Usability Group.
I have noticed some differences between Kate and KWrite especially dealing
with the Menu Settings. I have written up a draft document with proposed
usability changes for the two applications to make them more consistent.
Currently, the documents are still in draft format and are awaiting comments
from the rest of the KDE Usability group. However, I thought I would let you
know that there are some studies being done on the two applications from a
usability perspective.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or explanations about the menu
ordering of the two applications, please feel free to inform me at
emerald-arcana@rogers.com or the KDE Usability mailing list at
kde-usability@master.kde.org.
As stated above these documents are still in draft and a concensus has not
been reached as to how KWrite and Kate should be modified. If you have any
ideas or visions about how KWrite and Kate should look and behave, please let
me or the Usability group know!
Thank you for your time,
- -- Irwin
~~
I've performed a heuristic analysis of the KWrite and Kate Menus and
Toolbars.
The files are included for your viewing. Please look them over and comment
on what you see. Please make recommendations as you see fit.
Apologies for the lack of any real format. That's what you get for writing
impromptu text files.
Please offer any criticisms and comments, about both the documentation and
about the usability of the two applications in question.
FILE DESCRIPTIONS:
kate-menus.txt: The Kate Menu Order and Contents
kwrite-menus.txt: The KWrite Menu Order and Contents
modifications-kate-kwrite-menus.txt: Analysis and recommendations for KWrite
and Kate Menus
modifications-kate-write-toolbars.txt: Analysis and recommendations for
KWrite and Kate Toolbars
- --
- -- Arcana
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Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org
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-------------------------------------------------------
--
Christoph Cullmann
Kate/KDE developer
cullmann@kde.org
http://kate.kde.org
["kwrite-menus.txt" (text/plain)]
KWrite Menus as of KWrite 4.0 (KDE 2.92)
Order:
File Edit Bookmarks Tools Settings Help
Contents:
File
New
Open...
Open Recent >
---
Save
Save As...
Export >
Close
---
Print
---
New View
---
Quit
Edit
Undo
Redo
--
Cut
Copy
Paste
Select All
Deselect
Toggle Block Selection
--
Go To Line...
--
Find...
Find Next
Find Previous
Replace...
--
Apply Word Wrap
Editing Command
Bookmarks
Toggle Bookmark
Clear Bookmarks
--
(List of Bookmarks)
Tools
Spelling...
--
Indent
Unindent
Clean Indentation
--
Comment
Uncomment
Settings
Show Toolbar
Show Statusbar
Show Path
--
Configure Shortcuts...
Configure Toolbars...
--
Configure Editor...
Show Icon Border
Show Line Numbers
Highlight Mode >
End of Line >
Help
KWrite Handbook
What's This?
--
Report Bug...
--
About KWrite
About KDE
["kate-menus.txt" (text/plain)]
Kate Menus as of Kate 2.0 (KDE 2.92):
Order:
File Edit Document View Bookmarks Settings Help
Contents:
File
New
Open...
Open Recent >
--
Save
Save As...
Save All
Export >
--
Reload
Open With... >
--
Print
--
Close
Close All
--
New Window
--
Quit
Edit
Undo
Redo
--
Cut
Copy
Paste
Select All
Deselect
Toggle Block Selection
--
Find...
Find Next
Find Previous
Replace...
--
Find in Files
--
Indent
Unindent
Comment
Uncomment
--
Apply Word Wrap
Editing Command
--
Go To Line...
--
Spelling...
Document
Back
Forward
--
KDE Scripts >
Convert file text to lowercase
Test Shell Script
Highlight Mode >
Normal
Sources >
Markup >
Scripts >
End of Line >
Unix
Windows/Dos
Macintosh
--
(Document List)
View
Split Horizontal
Split Vertical
--
Show Icon Border
Show Line Numbers
--
Close Current
Go >
Next View
Previous View
Bookmarks
Toggle Bookmark
Clear Bookmarks
--
(List of Bookmarks)
Settings
Show Toolbar
Show File List
Show File Selector
Show Terminal Emulator
--
Configure Shortcuts...
Configure Toolbars...
Configure Kate...
Help
Kate Handbook
What's This?
--
Report Bug
--
About Kate
About KDE
["modifications-kate-kwrite-menus.txt" (text/plain)]
Heuristic Analysis of KWrite and Kate Menus and Toolbars
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heuristic Analysis of KWrite and Kate Menus by Irwin Kwan (Emerald
Arcana).
2002-03-24
version 1.01
Versions of KWrite and KEdit tested:
Kate 2.0 (KDE 2,92)
KWrite 4.0 (KDE 2.92)
~~~
~~
MENU ORDER
~~
I recommend the following order for menus in Kate.
File Edit View Bookmarks Tools Document Settings Help
I recommend the following order for menus in KWrite.
File Edit Bookmarks Tools Document Settings Help
-Why?
This keeps the first five items in the identical order, and the last
two in
identical order.
'View' is Kate specific and is added in the middle.
'Document' added to KWrite for overall consistency.
* Up For Discussion: The top-level menu order (should we put Document before or after \
settings, etc.).
* Up For Discussion: Where to put some options such as Panel-splitting and File \
lists: perhaps in a new Menu named 'Window'?
* Up For Discussion: The naming of some of the menu items: Document -> Window? View \
-> Window?
~~
FILE MENU
~~
The File menu for both of the applications should be very similar. I
recommend
the following order for Kate and KWrite:
File
New
Open...
Open Recent >
--
Save
Save As...
Save All*
Export >
--
Reload**
Open With >**
--
Print
--
Close
Close All*
--
New Window
--
Quit
*KWrite should not have 'Close All' or 'Save All'.
**If these two options, Reload and Open With are considered too
heavyweight they
may be safely removed from KWrite.
Kate changes:
-There are no changes between Kate and this new proposed menu.
KWrite changes :
-Open With added to KWrite.
-Reload is added to KWrite.
-New View is renamed to New Window to better reflect the functionality
of the
button.
-The 'Close' button moved from under 'Export' to over 'New Window'
I put this at the bottom to ensure that 'termination' is separated to
avoid
accidental closing of files.
Note: this may break a consistency viewpoint, because Save, Close, etc.
are all
file operations.
~~
EDIT MENU
~~
Edit Menu: Functions for editing a document (usually related to
navigation and
appearance rather than editing.).
Edit Menu for the two applications should be almost identical. I
recommend the KWrite
menus because it is smaller and easier to browse through.
Edit
Undo
Redo
--
Cut
Copy
Paste
Select All
Deselect
Toggle Block Selection
--
Go To Line...
--
Find...
Find Next
Find Previous
Replace...
--
Find in Files...*
--
Apply Word Wrap
Editing Command...
*Find in Files... should not appear in KWrite.
(Question: What is 'Editing Command'?)
Changes in Both:
-Editing Command should have an ellipsis (...) because it brings up a
separate
dialog.
Changes from Kate:
-Removal of a number of items to make the menu smaller. (Most of them
will be
relocated to the Tools menu).
-Some reordering. (Go To Line... for example was moved closer to the
top.)
Changes from KWrite:
-None
~~
TOOLS MENU
~~
Tools Menu: External tools and other functions that are used to
manipulate a
document.
(Overlaps somewhat with Edit.)
Tools
Indent
Unindent
Clean Indentation
--
Comment
Uncomment
--
Spelling...*
*Discussion: please discuss if this should appear at the top (More
useful for
people writing letters and English text) or at the bottom (because
people who
write source code don't spellcheck documents).
KWrite Changes:
-Spelling... moved to bottom.
Kate Changes:
-Creation of new Tools menu, moved items from Edit to this menu.
~~
BOOKMARKS MENU
~~
Bookmarks indicate marks in the document.
Bookmarks
Toggle Bookmark
Clear Bookmarks
--
(List of Bookmarks)
There are no changes.
Up for Discussion:
"Toggle Bookmark" is an awkward term and perhaps should be renamed to
'Add Bookmark'. If you want to delete a bookmark, perhaps add an 'Edit
Bookmarks' style dialog.
Call it 'Add Bookmark' if you don't have a bookmark there. If you do,
grey it out.
Add another item called 'Delete Bookmark'. If your cursor is on a line
with no bookmark, then grey it out. If your cursor is on a line WITH a
bookmark, activate this item.
~~
DOCUMENT MENU
~~
Document Menu: To manipulate document settings for one specific
document.
Document
Back*
Forward*
--
KDE Scripts >
Convert file text to lowercase
Test Shell Script
Highlight Mode >
Normal
Sources >
Markup >
Scripts >
End of Line >
Unix
Windows/Dos
Macintosh
--
Show Icon Border
Show Line Numbers
--
(Document List)*
*Not in KWrite
Changes from KWrite:
-I moved a lot of the options such as 'End of Line' and 'Highlight Mode'
to this
menu because they make more sense to apply to a 'document' rather than
as a
setting. Settings implies global whereas these options apply only to
the
current document.
-I moved 'Show Icon Border' and 'Show Line Numbers' because they apply
only to a
specific document and not to the global settings.
*Comment: 'Show Icon Border' and 'Show Line Numbers' cannot be set to be
displayed on default when you open a new file. These options should be
added
to the "Configure <applicaiton>" dialogs to state "Display Line
Numbers".
Using the 'Document' menu they can toggle the Numbers on and off for
one
document.
Changes from Kate:
-Moved the 'Show Icon Border' and 'Show Line Numbers' from View to
Document.
The settings do not apply to the View, but instead to the Document.
(Try
opening a couple files, then setting one to 'Show Line Numbers'. Click
on the
other document. Then click back to the original document.)
~~
VIEW MENU
~~
View Menu: Change viewing options (This does not appear in KWrite).
Operations
apply to the Kate window.
View
Split Horizontal
Split Vertical
--
Show File List
Show File Selector
Show Terminal Emulator
--
Close Current
Go >
Next View
Previous View
Changes from Kate:
-I moved 'Show Terminal Emulator' from 'Settings' to 'View' because the
Terminal
opens in a new View. Showing the Terminal Emulator is not a setting.
(Fascinating facts: The command for this in Konqueror is called 'Open
Terminal
and appears under the Tools menu. Another command called 'Show
Terminal
Emulator' is under the 'Window' menu.)
Up for discussion:
-Where to put 'Show File List' and 'Show File Selector': Under
'Settings' or
'View'? They are within a view-style window, but are not the same as
an
Editing View. I put them under 'View' because I believe it is more
natural for
people to look here than under 'Settings'. However,
Up for discussion:
-Rename 'View' to 'Window' to be more consistent with Konqueror.
My personal take? I like 'View' a lot better, and I think makes more
sense
than 'Window' does.
-Maybe move the Documents List under 'View'.
'Documents' applies to one document. Why put them under the
'Documents'
section then?
But the Documents list isn't a View-style operation.
~~
SETTINGS MENU
~~
Settings Menu: Settings for the global application, such as displays and
behaviour.
Kate Menu:
Settings
Show Toolbar
Show Statusbar
Show Path
--
Configure Shortcuts...
Configure Toolbars...
Configure Kate...
Changes:
-Removed 'Show Terminal Emulator', "Show File List", "Show File
Selector" for
reasons discussed under 'View'.
-Added 'Show Statusbar'. (This should be on by default). This is an
option in
KWrite that is not in Kate.
-Added 'Show Path'. This is an option in KWrite that is not in Kate.
KWrite Menu:
Settings
Show Toolbar
Show Statusbar
Show Path
--
Configure Shortcuts...
Configure Toolbars...
Configure KWrite...
Changes from KWrite:
-Renamed 'Configure Editor..." to "Configure KWrite..." to be consistent
with
all other KDE Applications
-Removed items that are redundant in other menus
~~
HELP MENU
~~
Help Menu: For help and other information.
The Help Menus remain unchanged.
Help
Kate Handbook*
What's This?
--
Report Bug
--
About Kate*
About KDE
*(In Kwrite, Kate should be replaced with KWrite).
-- by Irwin Kwan, 2002-03-24
["modifications-kate-kwrite-toolbars.txt" (text/plain)]
Heuristic Analysis of the Toolbars in Kate and KWrite
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
by Irwin Kwan (Emerald Arcana)
2002-03-24
version 1
Versions of KWrite and KEdit tested:
Kate 2.0 (KDE 2,92)
KWrite 4.0 (KDE 2.92)
~~
TOOLBARS:
~~~~~~~~~
KWrite has two extra buttons to increase the font size after the 'find'
button.
*General KDE Note: the Find icon looks much too similar to a 'zoom'
button. Potentially misleading; perhaps forward suggestion to KDE-Look
to consider alternatives
Kate has five extra buttons, all dealing with Window-splitting or
file-browsing.
Back (back arrow): View previous document
Forward (forward arrow): View next document
Split Vertically (window with vertical line): Opens the same file in the
same window, vertically
Split Horizontally (window with horizontal line): Opens the same file in
the same window, horizontally
Close Current Panel (single panel): Closes the current window panel.
*Criticism: The Close Current tooltip is 'Close Current' , which might
be confused with 'Close' (for close file). A better tooltip might be
'Close Current View'.
*Criticism: The Close Current icon is a single white square. I
recommend that it be changed to a white square with a red slash or
similar to let the user know that it is a 'Cancel' action.
~~~~~
*A potential recommendation for General KDE Toolbars:
Move 'Print' button to before the 'Close' button.
*Reason:
It prevents a common problem where someone moves up to hit 'Save' but
accidentally hits 'Close' because it's too close to the 'Save' button.
(If you hit 'Print' then you can close the resulting dialog box).
Consistent with the Menu ordering (for Kate)
*Disadvantages:
People are used to the current order
Save, Print, Close aren't as logical as grouping all File Operations
together
General Observations:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
KATE:
-In Kate, you cannot drag the file-list sidebar smaller if your file
names are too long.
-Your View settings are not saved on shutdown.
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