Re: [Usability] [RFC] Proposed AbiWord preferences dialog mockup

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Tue, 3 Jun 2003, David Adam Bordoley wrote:

> Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2003 12:48:17 -0400
> From: David Adam Bordoley <bordoley msu edu>
> To: usability gnome org, abiword-dev abisource com
> Subject: [Usability] [RFC] Proposed AbiWord preferences dialog mockup
>
>
> > From: Christian Neumair <chris gnome-de org>
> >
> > I just compiled a bunch of screenshots of my mockup for a new AbiWord
> > preferences dialog [1-4].
> > Please have a look at them and make proposals on what I can still
> > improve. I like it much more than the old dialog but I'm not completely
> > satisfied. Especially the buttons IMO are far away from looking perfect.
> > Thanks for your efforts!
> >
> > regs,
> >  Chris
> >
> > [1] http://gnome-de.org/~manny/prefsmockup1.png
> General:
> 1. Why not move the statusbar and ruler prefs directly into the view menu.
> Would make access to these much quicker.

Dont have the latest version of abiword in front of me but I am fairly
sure they are also avialable in the menu.

> 2. I thought there was a global gnome pref for cursor blink, wouldn't be
> better to use this pref?

Probably, I expect the developers were not aware of this global
preference if you could confirm that you didn't imagine it I expect they
would add it at some point.

> 3. I think it would be better to move the toolbar editting interface stuff
> into a seperate dialog. In epiphany we use edit->toolbars.
>
> 4. Why would you disable tooltips?

I think some people find them annoying (advanced users maybe).
MS Word and The Gimp have this option too.

> > [2] http://gnome-de.org/~manny/prefsmockup2.png
>
> I can't pin it down, but it seems like most of these prefs are technobabble.
> Shouldn't the right to left prefs just work automagically based on locale?

Ideally yes but it is more complicated than that, for now the option has
to stay.

> The glyph prefs are particularly crypic and meaningless to 99.9% of people i
> would guess. Are there sane defaults that can be used instead. Seems odd to
> have a preference for one specific language.

> You should default automatic save to on, thats a nice feature :)

It impacts on performance and is not really necessary.  Besides,
(depending on compile time options) if abiword crashes a Document.CRASHED
file will be created so you wont lose any data.

> > [3] http://gnome-de.org/~manny/prefsmockup3.png
>
> If you've chosen to include a custom dictionary, why would you choose not to
> make suggestions from it?
>
> > [4] http://gnome-de.org/~manny/prefsmockup4.png
>
> 1. Kill the splash screen pref. Splash screens are poor excuses for long
> load times. It is especially unneeded now that gnome has application launch
> feedback.

Abiword doesn't have a long launch time.  Abiword generally loads long
before the splash screen is finished, the splash screen is
seperate clicking on the splash screen dismisses it.
A splash screen is more obvious than launch feedback.
I dont know if abiword supports startup notification yet.

> 2. Why would you not automatically load all plugins? (legit question)

Performance.  Some plugins are a bit big.

Why do you need to say legit question?

> 3. Are preference schemes really necessary? Seems like something 1 out of
> 1000 people will use.

While you could rip them all out and produce a much simpler layout I dont
think abiword is ready for that, but if there are ways to pickup system
preferences and set sensible defaults then all the better.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan
http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/

PS Abiword has special keybinding modes for both Vi and Emacs users which
can be accessed by editing the file Abiword.Profile but this feature could
really do with some hacking.