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217 lines
8.3 KiB
217 lines
8.3 KiB
Since I think the following link is closely related, I am including it here :
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http://dan.ostrowski.cpp/suggestions.html
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Rob Buis <buis@kde.org>
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17-12-2003
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On 27-sept 2003 I did a usabiltiy review of karbon.
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This is during the feature and message freeze of KOffice (pending the 1.3
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release) so many of these issues will probably have to wait. Hence this
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document in CVS.
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Issues are written down, and if possible to do without a ui file, a proposal
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is made.
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Naturally this file does not cover each part; items will be added by me when
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feedback seems positive and time permits.
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Please remove this file (or individual points from this file) when all stuff
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has been done/fiexed (which I hope is fast :)
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Thomas Zander <zander@kde.org>
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Starting up I notice that the toolbars are not persistent; the 'Tools' bar
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was left floating by me last time, now its docked at the top again.
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Since that makes the whole top-line of bars quite large I do think that
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the tools bar has to go to the left by default. And the toolbars should
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be persistent naturally.
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Toolbar 'Tools'
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===============
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The toolbar is used to select the main tools by clicking on buttons (more
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radio buttons actually; since you keep it selected when you click it).
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To select extra options you click on the icon again, which brings up an
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options window.
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bug: the options window of the 'select tool' (top left) has a title 'insert star'.
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First problem I see is that it is hard to see which tool is currently selected,
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while this might be a problem in the style (KDE3.2 default) there is another
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problem that makes this problem really a problem instead of just an annoyance.
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It is not obvious that clicking on an already clicked item brings up a dialog,
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it is annoying to get that dialog if you just clicked the item to make sure
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you clicked it.
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Another bug makes it even worse; the '14' icon is clickable but does not notify
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the software that the formerly selected tool is not selected anymore. Selecting
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the formerly selected tool again brings up the options dialog again.
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I suggest to move the options dialog to a dockable toolbar which is brought to
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front, or simply displayed when dubble clicked. Notice that dubble clicking is
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different from the click twice action that happens now.
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Suggestion2:
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Add keyboard shortcuts to the buttons and show them in the tooltips. The keys
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should be single key (no modifier) shortcuts.
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Suggestion3:
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Add a new tool called a 'line' which creates a single non-closed line (and no
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options to make it curved) and put that in the place of the annoying '14'.
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Suggestion4:
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Make 'ESC' select the 'Select tool'
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Tool: Select tool
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=================
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With the select tool you can select elements like individual starts or groups.
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The way it currently works is that it takes the click and selects the first
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object that it falls into based on the algoritm of the complete square that
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contains the top left to the bottom right coordinate.
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selection can only be done via a square and all objects that have a presence
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in that square are selected.
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The problems I found are;
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When you have multiple objects you tend to select the wrong one.
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It is impossible to add or subtract objects from the current selection.
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It is impossible to select 3 objects from a four-in-a-row where the
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unselects is not one of the outside objects.
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It is impossible to select an object that is completely inside another.
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A perfect solution would:
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* make the 'hit area' based more on the outside of the shape.
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A line should not be selected when clicked more then pixels next to it.
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Text should be selected when clicked in the white area of a 'D'
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* Select extra objects when CTRL is used to select them.
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* Select extra objects that occupy the same spot (behind each other)
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when pressing CTRL and ALT
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* Select an object that is 1 layer deeper (behind the currently selected one)
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and unselect the current one by clicking CTRL and SHIFT.
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* An extra selection tool would be able to draw freehand on screen and all
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stuff inside that freehand selection would be selected.
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* When noting is selected and I point and drag an object (using the modifiers
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from above) directly drag that object.
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* Using 'shift' while dragging for a position for the text snaps the angle to
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an angle mod(45) i.e. 0,45,90,...
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Notice that the selection options proposed are taken from KWord.
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Tool: Select Nodes Tool
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=======================
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The goal is to select and modify individual nodes.
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With the current approuch you have to select an individual node by dragging a
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selection over it for the object you want to modify to show all of its nodes.
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Following that you can find the node you want to edit and select that one,
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again dragging a selection box over that node.
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With the current approuch it is not possible to;
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quickly find out which nodes exist on an object; on objects that don't have
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many nodes you quickly miss the nodes. On top of that alternative
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applications allow the user to select a line with a single click. That user
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will take a number of tries to find a node to select and will probably not
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learn this approuch for quite some time.
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Selecting a node before you can edit it is also counter intuitive; I found
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myself clicking and dragging a node some times, only to see another node moving
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that I had selected before.
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I suggest:
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* Allow the user to select an object (to show all of its nodes) by clicking on
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a line; of the object.
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* If one (or more) objects were selected when the select nodes tool is invoked
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make those objects selected directly and draw all their nodes. Possibly using
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an algoritm to not draw 'hidden' nodes. Hidden means ones that lie underneath
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other objects.
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* When a click is made missing all objects; don't unselect the object (thus
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removing node previews)
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* When a node itself is clicked on a selected object, select that one.
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* When a node itself is clicked and dragged on a selected object, drag that one.
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* Use the node selection algoritm that are the same as the object selection
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algorithm described above.
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* Allow a node to gain a knot when ctrl is used to drag it
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* Using 'shift' while dragging for a position for the text snaps the angle to
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an angle mod(45) i.e. 0,45,90,...
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Tool: Rotate
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============
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I don't get this one; there is a center 'dot' painted that stuff moves around,
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but that dot also moves when I rotate. That should not be possible...
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I also did not find a way to set the center point..
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Tool: Shear Tool
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===============
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Is this suppost to actually do something?
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Tool: Text tool
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===============
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After I found out I could click twice, I understood it a bit more; but this one
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is still largely a mystory to me..
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I suggest:
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* Single click makes a horizontal text entry; drawing a horizontal line in
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light blue (for example).
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* Using 'shift' while dragging for a position for the text snaps the angle to
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an angle mod(45) i.e. 0,45,90,...
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* Popup a dialog, or allow in line editing as soon as a position is determined
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by the click or drag
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* Put a default text in the dialog when the application starts up so the first
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drag shows that text.
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Tool: Pattern tool
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==================
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As soon as I find out what it does..
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Tool: Zoom
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==============
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Please use 'alt' to zoom out again...
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Colors (in tools toolbar)
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========================
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Currently you have to double click to get the color dialog. Make that use the
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KDE double click policy.
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The 'Stroke' tab is inacurately named since it also contains info on gradients.
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I suggest renaming it to 'Outline'
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Overview dock;
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==============
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it should be possible to make that tool larger, and it should really start larger by
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default.
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Layers:
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Put tooltips on
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- the checkbox by a layer (what is it for anyway)
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- The lock column (or each lock if you can't do it per column)
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- The visible column.
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Don't blank the preview of the object when it is set to non visible; make it
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grayed out.
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This looks really unfinished right now so I won't go into this and trample
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someones unfinished work.
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General content area
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====================
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There are keyboard navigation features added that are not quite the same as
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what artists from other packages are expecting.
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- Add 'del' to delete an object
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- allow 'SHIFT' arrow to move the item 1/4th of te distance.
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- Allow shift dragging to drag an item across a 45 degrees line. So only
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horizontally, vertically and the 45 and 135 degrees axis.
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- Allow shift scaling to keep aspect ratio.
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- Allow ctrl scaling to scale around the center instead of against the
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other edge
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