Contraversial! [was Re: Commit (HEAD): Menu tweaks for simplicity and improved HIG compliance.]

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005, Robert Staudinger wrote:

> Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2005 20:08:43 +0100
> From: Robert Staudinger <robsta@stereolyzer.net>
> To: AbiWord-Dev Developers <abiword-dev@abisource.com>
> Subject: Commit (HEAD): Menu tweaks for simplicity and improved HIG
> compliance.

> Menu tweaks for simplicity and improved HIG compliance.

These are going to be contraversial, some of these decisions weren't made
lightly the first time and there are various trade offs to consider. The
HIG doesn't always explain itself, it says just do it but we have to
consider the reasons behind the changes.

> I think we should cumulate that kind of tweaks for the next major
> release, so our users are confronted with changes in menu layout only
> once.

> List of changes:
>
> File
> + Items reordered for HIG compliance.

Not sure what this means exactly, the positions in menus can be based on a
variety of factors. Sometimes alphabetical ordering is helpful but mostly
things are organised to take advantage of the prime real estate at the
very top or very bottom of a menu (for speed of access).

> + Import Styles (not entirely sure about that one, maybe it should be
> hidden away in some next-gen style mgmt dlg we talked about)
> + Recent files not in submenu

This is probably good for usability but it is annoying and cluttered for
me as a user. Even with only four items is it cluttered, and I much
prefer to have a much longer list and keep the items in a submenu.
If I could have the Recent menu overflow into a full document history I'd
love it.

> - Open copy (not HIG compl.)

How so?

We used to have Import and Export and they were relabelled Open Copy and
Save Copy so as to better comply with the HIG.

> Edit
> + Remove Header
> + Remove Footer

This might be more consistant with Microsoft Word and I wanted
somethign like this but I recall Martin deliberately did these they way
they are for a reason.

> Format
> + Reordered for hopefully improved handling

Please explain? Does this effect consistency with Microsoft Word?

> - RTL paragraph setting only via paragraph dlg

I dont use RTL so this works for me but Bidi users might screem for your
blood over this.

> - Got rid of "Style" submenu
> - Remove Header
> - Remove Footer
>
> Tools
> + Check Spelling in toplevel menu
> - Got rid of "Spelling" submenu (prefs only via prefs dlg)

With Grammar we will soon need some sort of "Spelling and Grammar" submenu
back so there is no point removing it.
If you have a lot of plugins installed the Tools menu is pretty
disorganised, pushing another item to the top level menu doesn't help.

> Best,
> - Rob

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you will probably need to revert a
lot of those changes, they are far more contraversial than they might
seem.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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Received on Sun Feb 20 20:18:00 2005