Re: Updated Nautilus Section

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Tue, 2006-02-21 at 01:34 +1300, John Stowers wrote:
> Hey Everyone,
> 
> I have attached my first pass at the updated nautilus documentation.
> Please comment on what you think of this. 
> 
> I am sorry I did not submit a patch against the old gonautilus docs,
> It was very large so I thought it easiest to just include the new file
> and the new screenshots. My list of things remaining includes;
> 
> * Update the bit on emblems and modifting the appearance
> * Putting in a comparison of list and icon view and linking to it from
> both browser and spatial mode
> * General tidy ups
> * Freshen the rest of the screenshots
> * Integrate the select folder by pattern stuff
> * Update customizing the file manager with all the latest options
> * Change navigating your computer to Special locations or something
> * Add nautilus extensions to extending nautilus and maybe put a real
> simple example script in the nautilus 
> * Check my spelling...
> * And more....
> 
> Noted Improvements
> * Search section
> * Untangled browser and spatial mode a bit
> * Explained the capabilites of the location bar more
> * General cleanups and fixes
> * New fancy screenshots!
> 
> Look forward to your comments.
> 
> Also if you do not wish to merge this at the moment because it is not
> in a finished state then that is fine. I understand. Comments on my
> progress is appreciated. I estimate that the remaining changes will
> take about 6 hours.

Great work!  Here's a few comments:

The GDSG does recommend against applying drop shadows to screenshots.
Now, I know you've only done this when you've cropped a part of the
screen or window, and not for single-window shots.  A nice way to do
a cropping is to sort of fade the shot into transparency.  Davyd does
this on a few of his screenshots in his 2.14 preview:

http://www.gnome.org/~davyd/gnome-2-14/

(On the other hand, that rounded and shadowed thing you have to show
the Home toolbar button is slick.)

There are a lot of screenshots, which can be overwhelming when you're
just trying to find some information.  They also create a translation
obstacle.  There's a balance somewhere for the right number of shots.

You should rearrange things to show spatial before navigational, since
that's the default in stock Gnome.

This is such a minor point, but "betatester" is not the most friendly
username to show in the shots.  I have a user named "gnome" that I use
for running a stock desktop and screenshooting.  Although I'm thinking
maybe we could all agree on some fun name that we all use.  It's not a
critical standardization, but it could be fun.  A cute, inside joke.

Any note with fewer than about three sentences can probably just be
integrated into the normal flow of text.  But do note that this rule
applies to notes far more than to cautions.  Sometimes you really do
want to set off a one-line caution, because it's really important.
Notes, on the other hand, are rarely very important.

Under "Saving Searches", you've got a very wide screenshot.  You can
get all these shots narrower by using spatial, which is the default
in stock Gnome anyway.

The language for spatial talks about objects and stuff.  Really, the
spatial shouldn't have to talk about mapping to objects.  The window
is the folder, period.  It's a very natural sort of thing.  There's
no need to make it all geeky.

I haven't done a thorough proofing of all the text yet.  These are
basically broad overview sort of comments.

Thanks much for your efforts.

--
Shaun