Re: Comments on dialog proposal

[Adam Elman <aelman users sourceforge net>]

At 2:06 PM -0400 9/2/01, Liam Quin wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 02, 2001 at 09:48:09AM -0700, Seth Nickell wrote:
> >  Nils and I discussed this and length with respect to Control Center
> >  preference panes. We propose:
> >      [Help]              [Undo][Done]
> [...]
> >  For the sake of discussion, Adam prefers:
> >      [Help]             [Undo][Close]
>
> For Close, is the operation I want to hide the windoe so it gets out
> of the way? I assume that if it's a property dialogue whose changes take
> instantly, it is not modal.
>
> If I am right on both counts, maybe "Hide window".

Hmm.  The problem I have with this is that Control Center preference 
dialogs, while indeed not strictly modal, are generally the kind of 
thing you pull up, modify, and then put away when you're done; 
there's no need to keep it showing on the screen once you're done 
with it.  This is as opposed to, say, a property dialog in a text or 
graphics editor, which you might want to keep on-screen as you're 
editing a particular object and its underlying properties.

"Hide Window" implies to the user that the window, although hidden, 
is being kept around in some unspecified "holding place" on the 
system, and therefore taking up some kind of resource.  Since I'm 
done using it, I want it just to go away.  (There's also no place to 
put the obvious opposite control, "Show window".)  Hence, I'd prefer 
"Close".

As Seth said, my objection to "Done" is mainly that it is not a verb 
and does not appropriately indicate to the user what's going to 
happen when s/he clicks it.  I don't really have any research to back 
me up on this point; it's just an instinct.  I'll see if I can dig 
something up.

[Issues with "Help"]

> I know this is a little off-topic for button labels, but sometimes it
> helps to look one step further...  I'd suggest, then, maybe
>     [About]             [Undo] [Hide]
> as an alternative for experiments.
>
> The down side to About is that vanity and advertising have caused
> Help->About to tell you nothing about a program, so that people have
> even less trust in help menus and buttons labeled "About".

Hmm -- what about "Explain" instead of "About"?  It's clearer, I 
think, and has the additional advantage of being a verb.  Just a 
thought.

Adam
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