[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 87239] Inconsistent look and operation of drop-down buttons

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=87239

--- Comment #7 from Yousuf Philips (jay) <philipz85 at hotmail.com> ---
(In reply to Maxim Monastirsky from comment #6)
> I disagree. The floating functionality might be limited, yet it proved to be
> useful for some users, e.g. Bug 32676, Bug 106762, Bug 114935. And obviously
> the functionality can be improved if we want. Also dragging the color picker
> was possible since forever in LO and OOo, and I'm against breaking it.

Then i suggest changing the title label to draggable grip, to unify it with the
shapes split button.

> 1. Icons are rarely a good indication (IMHO). Even for a good fitting icon,
> I doubt that one that never used the software before, will know for sure
> what the button does w/o looking at the tooltip, or actually trying to use
> the button. Icons can help you find the button you need, *after* you
> remember what that icon means.

For someone new to LO and doesnt know the buttons available in the toolbar or
someone trying out an new icon theme, icons need to be gotten used to, but
icons are the best indication of functionality.

> 2. The tooltip isn't visible by default, and it shows with a delay after
> hovering the button. It also won't show after the popup is already opened.

Tooltips fall in second for indication for users who arent familiar with the
button layout and icons.

> 3. The text title is in fact the title bar of the popup window, and is what
> makes it possible to drag it. It isn't different from a title bar of a
> floating toolbar (e.g. have the same size and font), except that it have a
> different background color, to blend nicely with the toolbar button when
> connected. And that "title bar look" is what gives the users a clue that it
> can be in fact dragged away. It should be possible to change that to a
> graphic grip, like we have now for the shapes popup, but I doubt such a
> small dragging area will look good for a big popup like the color picker
> currently is.

Yes i finally get it that it is a title label bar now and still believe the
draggable grip is the best option for the color pickers.

> 4. At least for the undo/redo popups, the title area is used to display the
> count of actions to undo/redo. Having similar titles for other popups, even
> if less useful, just adds consistency to the UI, not otherwise.

A changing title label like this might be the only exception that might be
worth keeping a title label for, but really how useful is it to know the number
of undo or redo steps that you are going to make. That changing label could
easily be placed below the undo/redo listbox as that information is secondary
to the listbox details. I'm assuming you are for disabling dragging here as
well.

> Yes, dragging should be disabled (as it won't be useful to have this popup
> floating, as it isn't an attribute like a color which might be useful to
> apply to other objects in turn), but the title should stay.

In MS Word, the title label for inserting a table changes to show the table
dimension, but we already have that displayed as a tooltip while dragging the
mouse, so i'm still for removing it.

So for me this would be the guidelines:

1. Never have title label bar as icon and tooltip already cover this.

2. If it is to be dragged have draggable grip.

3. If the contextual/changing label is needed in the widget, have it below the
primary control as users eyes will be looking downwards when using the primary
control and not upwards where the current title label bar is.

-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are the assignee for the bug.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice-bugs/attachments/20180131/b287535e/attachment.html>