[Libreoffice-ux-advise] [Fwd: [Libreoffice] [PATCH] Removes zoom button from default standard toolbar]

[Christoph Noack]

Hi Sam,

thanks for your reply - its cool to see being this an active and
fruitful discussion.

Am Montag, den 13.06.2011, 11:09 -0700 schrieb Samuel Cantrell:
> I'm confused what functionality is missing from the zoom stuff in the
> status bar. If one double-clicks the zoom percentage, the zoom window
> shows up, and one can right-click the zoom percentage for various
> options. Is there something else?

Maybe you've seen my reply to Regina's mail - so the three main issues
(tiny issues nailed down) are:
      * invisible functionality doesn't work well for maaany users
        (double-clicking, context menus, ...)
      * we have to consider different platforms when making UI decisions
        (the platform behavior differs, e.g. use of context menus)
      * we have different applications that should - basically - behave
        similar (otherwise you cannot "sell" the advantage of having an
        office suite if the re-learning effort is as high as using a
        completely different application)

Concerning the latter, the missing functionality would be: Object Zoom
(and maybe Shift).

Oh, and if we want to be "touchscreen" proof (who knows what the future
brings?) - then both hovering and right clicking isn't available within
the applications.

> Maybe to just make it clearer, make the zoom percentage look more like
> a button than it already does (like Office 2007)? Sorry to refer to
> Microsoft, but in Word, they essentially have the same style that we
> now do: They have a zoom percentage, with a slider. If one hovers over
> the zoom percentage, it becomes like a button, and a tooltip says that
> the user can click to load the zoom dialog box. I know that just
> because Microsoft does it doesn't make it the best option, but I like
> the way they handle the zoom functions.

Oh, I'm fine with many of the solutions by Microsoft - the do have a
great team of interaction designers that do an excellent job. And, I'm
sure they already cared about tiny stuff like mouse-wheel use or
mouse-over effects for the slider. Mmh, and I just noticed they offer
the more detailed zoom settings (one page, two pages, ...) in the ribbon
(which relates to our menu).

However, a medium size solution might be ...

Step 1: Re-arrange the zoom related items in the status bar and add an
options button ...

| ...              | O. /\  70%  (-) --------*----------- (+) |

"O. /\" = Magnifier glass and arrow-up (the mouseover would highlight
the whole button)

Step 2: Add a small menu if the button is pressed (e.g. for Writer)

        200%
        150%
        100%
        75%
        50%
        ---
        Optimal
        Page Width
        Entire Page
        ---
        Advanced...

Clicking on "Advanced..." should open the today's "Zoom & View Layout"
dialog. I'm not sure if we should consider to name it "Manual" - might
also be an option to make sure people understand they can enter zoom
values (and more maybe - the upper most position is better, since you
move the mouse pointer upwards). This can be checked later on, of
course. If possible, we should add meaningful icons for things like
Optimal / Page Width / Entire Page.

The advantages from my point-of-view:
      * Things that belong together are grouped together
      * Everything is visible (even what the +/- are for, since we don't
        explain what +/- are for)
      * We fix several issues of the today's zoom slider
      * We offer rather quick and painless access to zoom presets
        (keeping the number of clicks the same)
      * We off a sensible path for the user to access more advanced
        functionality


Sooo, how does that sound? Are the proposals still in-line with the
original intention? From my point-of-view, there is no good way around
to first fix the "bad" zoom slider to polish the rest of the UI.

Sam, thank you! I promise, that's the last mail for today ... :-)

Cheers,
Christoph

PS: Here is (usually for my own reference) the stuff we've collected so
far:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Writer_Status_Bar_Remaking#Requirements.2C_Specifications_and_Improvements


> Samuel Cantrell
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 11:04 AM, Regina Henschel
> <rb.henschel at t-online.de> wrote:
> > Hi Christoph,
> >
> > Christoph Noack schrieb:
> > [..]
> >>
> >> Plus, some of the functionality nicely (visually) presented in the
> >> today's toolbar is simply missing / less understandable if the toolbar
> >> item would be removed in other applications, e.g. Draw/Impress. My main
> >> concern - something like "Zoom" should really be consistent across all
> >> applications.
> >
> > I do not share your concerns. I usually remove the Zoom-icon from the
> > standard toolbar. Its functionality in Writer and Calc is full covered by
> > the number field in the status bar.
> >
> > In Draw I usually activate the Zoom toolbar and dock it besides the standard
> > toolbar in my customization. I use its zooming tools so often, that it is
> > helpful to have them immediately. Perhaps this zooming toolbar can be opened
> > and docked by default instead of the zoom icon?
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> So, Sam, any chance that some of the features can be moved to the status
> >> bar? I'm sure the code will be totally different :-\
> >>
> >>
> >> Conclusion: Apply only, if we can have a direct follow-up activity to
> >> improve the zoom slider - even if it is a simple additional button that
> >> opens a similar toolbar or leads to the "Zoom and View Layout" dialog
> >> (in the first step). In any other case, I would not suggest to go with
> >> the patch.
> >
> > No, please not another field in the statusbar. There's already not enough
> > space to show all context informatation in Draw and Writer.
> >
> > Kind regards
> > Regina
> >
> >
> >
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