Text in dialogs

[Pat Costello <patrickcostello eircom net>]

On Fri, 2003-03-07 at 12:00, Marco Pesenti Gritti wrote:

> > we (epiphany project, http://epiphany.mozdev.org) are working on a
> > toolbar editor similar to the Mac one. We have a short text to explain
> > how to remove/add items from the toolbar in the editor dialog.
> >
> > Iain submitted a patch to change it in the way you see in the
> > screenshot.
> > Now my english sucks badly so I thought to ask you guys a suggestion. Is
> > the new text ok? What do you think it's the best description to put
> > there ?
>  
Calum claims: 

Knowing the docs team, I'm sure they'll say you shouldn't have this sort
of text in dialogs at all :)  

(Also, is drag and drop is the only way to edit the toolbars?  If so
it'll need some serious accessibility love...)

And Pat adds: 

Your insight is correct Calum. The place for this kind of instructional advice is not in the UI. A better home is in a Help document that the users can access should they so wish. An alternative place is in a tooltip-type context sensitive help (CSH) balloon, that users can switch off when they are sufficiently familiar with the Ways of GNOME. Apropos CSH, we haven't paid much attention to this requiremnet up to now, concentrating on getting the Help manuals in order. Maybe we should start looking at CSH. 

Pat