Re: Some hints for usability improvements



On 02/17/2006 04:31:46 PM Fri, Mişu Moldovan wrote:
[ snip ]
Since I'm still using Sylpheed on one of my machines (the low-memory one) I tried to see if it implements this "one-key" reading. To my surprise, not only it is implemented, but it is also extremely handy. I usually read only the new mails from a hierarchy of IMAP folders and using only the spacebar to read them all is nothing short of a real gem of usability. Of course, I still press Shift-N (which is the shortcut for jump to the next unread mail in Sylpheed) from time to time, but that's only because it's such an old habit to think that I need to press another key combination to jump to the next unread mail after I'm done reading the current one.

My suggestion would be to implement this one-key reading *exactly* as described by Cyrille. Currently spacebar opens the selected mail in a separate window, which is what Enter does too (correct me if I'm wrong).

Yes: if the keyboard focus is in the mailbox index, space-bar and Enter both "activate" the selected message--that's the native behavior of a GtkTreeView, and Balsa's "activate" action is to open the message window.

To implement the "one-key" reading Spacebar should scroll down a page in the current mail preview pane and, after reaching the bottom of the current mail, it should move to the next unread mail.

That's feasible, as I mentioned. First you'd have to put the focus into the message, by tabbing into it or by clicking on it.

In Sylpheed there's also a confirmation dialog involved when the new mail is in another folder. But the confirmation button is selected by default and you just have to press spacebar one more time to confirm moving to the next unread mail in another folder. Brilliant.

Do you think the confirmation is necessary? I tried one for the "Next-unread" chaining, and I didn't like it.

I really like this feature. And how can you not? It's simple,
efficient and works like a charm. I'll pray for it to be
implemented in Balsa too. You'll love it!

I'm using it now, and I must admit I find "Next-unread" chaining more useful--I guess I skip most messages without scrolling them! But that's just me ;-)

Best,

Peter



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