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List:       quanta-devel
Subject:    Re: [quanta-devel] Ideas for VPL
From:       Jens Herden <jens () kdewebdev ! org>
Date:       2005-04-06 16:27:56
Message-ID: 200504062327.57493.jens () kdewebdev ! org
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Hi Paulo,

> One of the thinks I always missed in WYSIWYG editors in general was lack of
> control. I always end up editing the source directly.

I thought we have an agreement to _not_ call VPL a WYSIWYG editor ;-)

> In order to workaround this limitation I have some ideas that I would like
> to share, that go in a sense of directly manipulating the structure of the
> document.
>
> The document structure pane would be a building block in VPL edition (and
> who knows also in source?).  For example, it would allow a precise selection 
> of the nodes which is impossible to do in the VPL view. We could implement
> a shortcut to this, like shift - 2 clicks and 3 clicks (this in VPL view)
> that would select a node and all nodes at the level of the clicked node,
> respectively (I know Jens doesn't like standard double clicking as one
> can't tell the limits of a word :p).
> We should also allow other operations in the document structure pane like
> drag&drop (in the pane itself and to the VPL view also) with options like
> copy, move and cancel; removal of selected nodes and the insertion of tags
> (like in the toolbars) as child or next sibling of the current node of the
> document structure.

I was thinking about improving Document Structure too but never found the time 
to do something. I believe it would be very good to implement drag & drop and 
cut & past there. 
I don't see directly a good way to drag and drop from the structure into VPL 
or the opposite direction. I would also suggest to guide the user to use one 
view for one task. I am repeating myself here if I say VPL, the structure and 
the code editor are three different views on the same document. 

> The document structure should be showed by default when VPL mode is
> selected, as it would be a fulcrum part of all the process. 

I disagree here, please don't enable the structure when you switch to VPL. The 
user is the king and if s/he likes to see the structure s/he will click on 
the right button. Don't enforce workflows to users that are not necessary. It 
can be very annoying to get the structure visible if I don't want to see it 
because my screen is small.

> It should also 
> be made more easy and intuitive to look at, by presenting the user options
> like using an icon instead of the tag text and setting a description, tag
> text,  icon; the option of setting the visible depth of the tree and some
> other things that an artist mind will surely think of.

Yes, there is indeed very much room for improvements. 


Jens
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