Re: Some hints for usability improvements

[Peter Bloomfield <peterbloomfield bellsouth net>]

On 02/11/2006 05:10:03 PM, Steffen Klemer wrote:
[ snip ]
> Really an improvement! I like it.

Thanks!

> Only the first page (the one with the servers) looks a little bit  
> odd. It's too narrow and should automatically expand to the width of  
> the window.

I'm really conflicted about that!  If the contents are naturally  
narrow, they can look really strange if expanded to fill the window.

Internally, the organization is still nested notebooks, but with the  
tabs and borders hidden.  Re Notebooks, the HIG suggests:

> Although the contents of each page in a notebook will take up a  
> different amount of space, do not use larger than normal spacing  
> around the controls in the "emptier" pages, and do not center the  
> controls on the page.

I'm still not sure what that means--I read it as preferring the tight  
layout that's implemented, but that may be completely wrong!

An alternative would be to pack all the pages in a box, and hide all  
but one of them--I *believe* each one would then be shown at its  
natural width, and the size would jump around as you step between  
pages.  The notebook avoids the jumpiness, but raises the present  
issue...sigh ;-(

Peter