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Cleaning up the main toolbar

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Marcel Wiesweg

Cleaning up the main toolbar

Hi,

I am thinking about which actions should be available in the main toolbar, and
how to improve grouping in the menus.
The toolbar should contain only the most important actions in the central
workflow. Of course, in KDE everything is configurable, so this is about
default decisions.

This would be my suggestions:

Toolbar:
-
Editor
Light Table
Batch Process
Import
---
Thumbnails
View
Map
---
Presentation
-

Remarks:
First group: Access to the main "extra windows" of digikam, the image editor,
the light table, the batch queue manager, and the camera ui.
Light table and BQM can act depending on if there is a current selection.
"Import" should check the availability of cameras, if multiple, provide a
choice dialog.
Second group: These are mutually exclusive: toggling between the middle panel
states icon view, preview view and map view.

Menu:

Album/New, Properties, Open in File manager, Open in terminal, Write/Read
metadata, Delete and Tag/ New, Properties, Delete are removed from the main
menu, instead the become available from the respective left sidebars.
The first menu entry is then:
Album/
-
Back
Forward
---
Albums
Tags
Calendar
...
Map
People
---
Quit
-
that is, pointing to the left sidebar as main areas of control (including the
suggestion to move Tags before Calendar)

Image/ and Edit/:
This is difficult. Image/ is a monster menu, Edit/ only has three entries.
Some entries seem to belong to Edit/: Open in Editor, Adjust Exif, Rotate,
Flip, black/white, date/time adjust, metadata, rename.
The rest does not belong to any other menu, assuming "Image/" is our
replacement for traditional "File/".

View/:
-
Zoom +
Zoom -
---
View Mode (->Thumbnails,View,Map)
Presentation
Full Screen Mode
---
Preview View -> ( fit zoom, 1:1 zoom, show thumbbar)
Sort Order, group, subtrees...
-

Tools/:
-
Editor
Light Table
Batch Process
---
batch tools
---
kipi plugin actions
-
(database migration goes to Settings)

Import/, Export/, Settings/ unchanged.

Looking forward to your opinions ;-)

Marcel
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Gilles Caulier-4

Re: Cleaning up the main toolbar

2010/11/17 Marcel Wiesweg <[hidden email]>:

> Hi,
>
> I am thinking about which actions should be available in the main toolbar, and
> how to improve grouping in the menus.
> The toolbar should contain only the most important actions in the central
> workflow. Of course, in KDE everything is configurable, so this is about
> default decisions.
>
> This would be my suggestions:
>
> Toolbar:
> -
> Editor
> Light Table
> Batch Process
> Import
> ---
> Thumbnails
> View
> Map
> ---
> Presentation
> -
>
> Remarks:
> First group: Access to the main "extra windows" of digikam, the image editor,
> the light table, the batch queue manager, and the camera ui.
> Light table and BQM can act depending on if there is a current selection.
> "Import" should check the availability of cameras, if multiple, provide a
> choice dialog.
> Second group: These are mutually exclusive: toggling between the middle panel
> states icon view, preview view and map view.
>
>
>
> Menu:
>
> Album/New, Properties, Open in File manager, Open in terminal, Write/Read
> metadata, Delete and Tag/ New, Properties, Delete are removed from the main
> menu, instead the become available from the respective left sidebars.
> The first menu entry is then:
> Album/
> -
> Back
> Forward
> ---
> Albums
> Tags
> Calendar
> ...
> Map
> People
> ---
> Quit
> -
> that is, pointing to the left sidebar as main areas of control (including the
> suggestion to move Tags before Calendar)
>
> Image/ and Edit/:
> This is difficult. Image/ is a monster menu, Edit/ only has three entries.
> Some entries seem to belong to Edit/: Open in Editor, Adjust Exif, Rotate,
> Flip, black/white, date/time adjust, metadata, rename.
> The rest does not belong to any other menu, assuming "Image/" is our
> replacement for traditional "File/".
>
>
> View/:
> -
> Zoom +
> Zoom -
> ---
> View Mode (->Thumbnails,View,Map)
> Presentation
> Full Screen Mode
> ---
> Preview View -> ( fit zoom, 1:1 zoom, show thumbbar)
> Sort Order, group, subtrees...
> -
>
>
> Tools/:
> -
> Editor
> Light Table
> Batch Process
> ---
> batch tools
> ---
> kipi plugin actions
> -
> (database migration goes to Settings)
>
> Import/, Export/, Settings/ unchanged.
>
>
> Looking forward to your opinions ;-)
>
> Marcel
> _______________________________________________
> Digikam-devel mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-devel
>

For me all is fine. About menu, the most bloated item is Image, with
all plugin actions.

What's about Tags menu entry. It's lost ? This one is important and
must be updated with all main option available from right sidebar
(caption/tags pop-up menu)

Most of lead pop-up menu entries are missing into main menu from album
gui. user must play with digikam before to see pop-up menu. main menu
is always visible, so main actions must be there.

Under macos-x, i see that pop-up menu available from right mouse
button is disable by default. I need to go to Mac Config Panel/Mouse
Settings to enable it. Can you image the first impression from a new
user under mac.

Note : under mac, GoSC2010 code compile fine under XCode...

Gilles
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Marcel Wiesweg

Re: Cleaning up the main toolbar

> For me all is fine. About menu, the most bloated item is Image, with
> all plugin actions.

Yes. Perhaps some of them can go to the edit menu (especially those that do
image editing more or less ;-) )

>
> What's about Tags menu entry. It's lost ? This one is important and
> must be updated with all main option available from right sidebar
> (caption/tags pop-up menu)

I'm not sure about the Album and Tag specific entries. The problem is that
there are 7 Album action (new, properties, open in..., metadata, delete) only
applicate if the left sidebar is albums.
For tags, 3 actions (new, reset thumbnail, delete, properties) are specific to
the currently selected tag in one of the tag tree views; 2 are global (New
(toplevel) tag, from address book), some more act on the entries of the tag
(export, batch), and the rest is very specific to the tree view.

There are more problems: If you choose from the menu Tag->New, the parent tag
of the new tag will be the one currently selected in the left sidebar, even if
a different sidebar is selected on the left.

So I thought about removing all actions from the main menu which are only
applicable in a certain state of the left sidebar. But then I am getting
afraid this would induce UI clutter.

Alternatives:
1) Keep Album/ and Tag/ main menus, but enable them only if the respective
left sidebar is open. A possible first entry "Browse by" would switch to the
sidebar
Problem: entries disabled in many situations

2) To the album and tag left sidebar, add at the top a toolbar with three
entries "Create", "Edit" and "Actions" (or three separate buttons)
Problem: UI clutter

3) In the tree view, for the selected album/tag, draw a symbol,
something like "v " or even text, and a click on this opens the context menu.
Problem: still hidden functionality

>
> Most of lead pop-up menu entries are missing into main menu from album
> gui. user must play with digikam before to see pop-up menu. main menu
> is always visible, so main actions must be there.
>
> Under macos-x, i see that pop-up menu available from right mouse
> button is disable by default. I need to go to Mac Config Panel/Mouse
> Settings to enable it. Can you image the first impression from a new
> user under mac.

Afaik standard Mac mice dont event have a right mouse button?
And even with the hardware, many unexperienced users will simply never use the
context menu.

>
> Note : under mac, GoSC2010 code compile fine under XCode...

great. I was expecting more problems from boost graph ;-)

Marcel
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Bugzilla from andi.clemens@gmx.net

Re: Cleaning up the main toolbar

I still think that the QUIT action is totally misplaced in the "Album" menu...
This is what confuses me every time I take a look at the menues (I don't use
the Album and Tag menu, I always use the context menu, so Marcel's suggestion
about removing them is a good one, at least for my day-to-day digiKam usage).

Andi Clemens
-----------------
www.digikam.org

On Wednesday 17 November 2010 15:46:29 Marcel Wiesweg wrote:

> > For me all is fine. About menu, the most bloated item is Image, with
> > all plugin actions.
>
> Yes. Perhaps some of them can go to the edit menu (especially those that do
> image editing more or less ;-) )
>
> > What's about Tags menu entry. It's lost ? This one is important and
> > must be updated with all main option available from right sidebar
> > (caption/tags pop-up menu)
>
> I'm not sure about the Album and Tag specific entries. The problem is that
> there are 7 Album action (new, properties, open in..., metadata, delete)
> only applicate if the left sidebar is albums.
> For tags, 3 actions (new, reset thumbnail, delete, properties) are specific
> to the currently selected tag in one of the tag tree views; 2 are global
> (New (toplevel) tag, from address book), some more act on the entries of
> the tag (export, batch), and the rest is very specific to the tree view.
>
> There are more problems: If you choose from the menu Tag->New, the parent
> tag of the new tag will be the one currently selected in the left sidebar,
> even if a different sidebar is selected on the left.
>
> So I thought about removing all actions from the main menu which are only
> applicable in a certain state of the left sidebar. But then I am getting
> afraid this would induce UI clutter.
>
> Alternatives:
> 1) Keep Album/ and Tag/ main menus, but enable them only if the respective
> left sidebar is open. A possible first entry "Browse by" would switch to
> the sidebar
> Problem: entries disabled in many situations
>
> 2) To the album and tag left sidebar, add at the top a toolbar with three
> entries "Create", "Edit" and "Actions" (or three separate buttons)
> Problem: UI clutter
>
> 3) In the tree view, for the selected album/tag, draw a symbol,
> something like "v " or even text, and a click on this opens the context
> menu. Problem: still hidden functionality
>
> > Most of lead pop-up menu entries are missing into main menu from album
> > gui. user must play with digikam before to see pop-up menu. main menu
> > is always visible, so main actions must be there.
> >
> > Under macos-x, i see that pop-up menu available from right mouse
> > button is disable by default. I need to go to Mac Config Panel/Mouse
> > Settings to enable it. Can you image the first impression from a new
> > user under mac.
>
> Afaik standard Mac mice dont event have a right mouse button?
> And even with the hardware, many unexperienced users will simply never use
> the context menu.
>
> > Note : under mac, GoSC2010 code compile fine under XCode...
>
> great. I was expecting more problems from boost graph ;-)
>
> Marcel
> _______________________________________________
> Digikam-devel mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-devel

_______________________________________________
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Gilles Caulier-4

Re: Cleaning up the main toolbar

In reply to this post by Marcel Wiesweg

2010/11/17 Marcel Wiesweg <[hidden email]>:

>
>> For me all is fine. About menu, the most bloated item is Image, with
>> all plugin actions.
>
> Yes. Perhaps some of them can go to the edit menu (especially those that do
> image editing more or less ;-) )
>
>>
>> What's about Tags menu entry. It's lost ? This one is important and
>> must be updated with all main option available from right sidebar
>> (caption/tags pop-up menu)
>
> I'm not sure about the Album and Tag specific entries. The problem is that
> there are 7 Album action (new, properties, open in..., metadata, delete) only
> applicate if the left sidebar is albums.
> For tags, 3 actions (new, reset thumbnail, delete, properties) are specific to
> the currently selected tag in one of the tag tree views; 2 are global (New
> (toplevel) tag, from address book), some more act on the entries of the tag
> (export, batch), and the rest is very specific to the tree view.
>
> There are more problems: If you choose from the menu Tag->New, the parent tag
> of the new tag will be the one currently selected in the left sidebar, even if
> a different sidebar is selected on the left.
>
> So I thought about removing all actions from the main menu which are only
> applicable in a certain state of the left sidebar. But then I am getting
> afraid this would induce UI clutter.
>
> Alternatives:
> 1) Keep Album/ and Tag/ main menus, but enable them only if the respective
> left sidebar is open. A possible first entry "Browse by" would switch to the
> sidebar
> Problem: entries disabled in many situations
>
> 2) To the album and tag left sidebar, add at the top a toolbar with three
> entries "Create", "Edit" and "Actions" (or three separate buttons)
> Problem: UI clutter
>
> 3) In the tree view, for the selected album/tag, draw a symbol,
> something like "v " or even text, and a click on this opens the context menu.
> Problem: still hidden functionality
>
>>
>> Most of lead pop-up menu entries are missing into main menu from album
>> gui. user must play with digikam before to see pop-up menu. main menu
>> is always visible, so main actions must be there.
>>
>> Under macos-x, i see that pop-up menu available from right mouse
>> button is disable by default. I need to go to Mac Config Panel/Mouse
>> Settings to enable it. Can you image the first impression from a new
>> user under mac.
>
> Afaik standard Mac mice dont event have a right mouse button?

They have. In fact all is sensivite, button and wheel. It's an
incredible device. I never see the same under PC world. Right it's
expensive, but completly crazy. You can use it as a trackball. With 2
points you can zoom n/out for ex :

http://store.apple.com/fr/product/MB829Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDA1Mg&mco=MTM5MDU5MTY

> And even with the hardware, many unexperienced users will simply never use the
> context menu.
>
>>
>> Note : under mac, GoSC2010 code compile fine under XCode...
>
> great. I was expecting more problems from boost graph ;-)

no. boost is available in macports. It's a great project.

http://www.macports.org/

Gilles
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Gilles Caulier-4

Re: Cleaning up the main toolbar

In reply to this post by Bugzilla from andi.clemens@gmx.net

I don't use myself these menu entries, excepted sometime Album, but
i'm not perturbated to see it by default.

New user don't know contextual menu. So we cannot removing it without
a risk. We need more users feedback here

Gilles

2010/11/17 Andi Clemens <[hidden email]>:

> I still think that the QUIT action is totally misplaced in the "Album" menu...
> This is what confuses me every time I take a look at the menues (I don't use
> the Album and Tag menu, I always use the context menu, so Marcel's suggestion
> about removing them is a good one, at least for my day-to-day digiKam usage).
>
> Andi Clemens
> -----------------
> www.digikam.org
>
> On Wednesday 17 November 2010 15:46:29 Marcel Wiesweg wrote:
>> > For me all is fine. About menu, the most bloated item is Image, with
>> > all plugin actions.
>>
>> Yes. Perhaps some of them can go to the edit menu (especially those that do
>> image editing more or less ;-) )
>>
>> > What's about Tags menu entry. It's lost ? This one is important and
>> > must be updated with all main option available from right sidebar
>> > (caption/tags pop-up menu)
>>
>> I'm not sure about the Album and Tag specific entries. The problem is that
>> there are 7 Album action (new, properties, open in..., metadata, delete)
>> only applicate if the left sidebar is albums.
>> For tags, 3 actions (new, reset thumbnail, delete, properties) are specific
>> to the currently selected tag in one of the tag tree views; 2 are global
>> (New (toplevel) tag, from address book), some more act on the entries of
>> the tag (export, batch), and the rest is very specific to the tree view.
>>
>> There are more problems: If you choose from the menu Tag->New, the parent
>> tag of the new tag will be the one currently selected in the left sidebar,
>> even if a different sidebar is selected on the left.
>>
>> So I thought about removing all actions from the main menu which are only
>> applicable in a certain state of the left sidebar. But then I am getting
>> afraid this would induce UI clutter.
>>
>> Alternatives:
>> 1) Keep Album/ and Tag/ main menus, but enable them only if the respective
>> left sidebar is open. A possible first entry "Browse by" would switch to
>> the sidebar
>> Problem: entries disabled in many situations
>>
>> 2) To the album and tag left sidebar, add at the top a toolbar with three
>> entries "Create", "Edit" and "Actions" (or three separate buttons)
>> Problem: UI clutter
>>
>> 3) In the tree view, for the selected album/tag, draw a symbol,
>> something like "v " or even text, and a click on this opens the context
>> menu. Problem: still hidden functionality
>>
>> > Most of lead pop-up menu entries are missing into main menu from album
>> > gui. user must play with digikam before to see pop-up menu. main menu
>> > is always visible, so main actions must be there.
>> >
>> > Under macos-x, i see that pop-up menu available from right mouse
>> > button is disable by default. I need to go to Mac Config Panel/Mouse
>> > Settings to enable it. Can you image the first impression from a new
>> > user under mac.
>>
>> Afaik standard Mac mice dont event have a right mouse button?
>> And even with the hardware, many unexperienced users will simply never use
>> the context menu.
>>
>> > Note : under mac, GoSC2010 code compile fine under XCode...
>>
>> great. I was expecting more problems from boost graph ;-)
>>
>> Marcel
>> _______________________________________________
>> Digikam-devel mailing list
>> [hidden email]
>> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-devel
> _______________________________________________
> Digikam-devel mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-devel
>

_______________________________________________
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[hidden email]
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Gilles Caulier-4

Re: Cleaning up the main toolbar

In reply to this post by Bugzilla from andi.clemens@gmx.net

About the Quit action, i agree.

under mac, KDE wrap this action automatically into application name
menu entry, managed by OSX :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/digikam/5166481922/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/digikam/5166468008/

It sound logic for me.

under Linux and windows we can do the same as Amarok do. We just take
a care about KDE action wrapping unde OSX to not have twice digiKam
menu entries. I don't know how amarok do it exactly under mac, here
amarok won't compile fine...

Gilles

2010/11/17 Andi Clemens <[hidden email]>:

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Bugzilla from andi.clemens@gmx.net

Re: Cleaning up the main toolbar

For me the QUIT action is the most useless action in any application. Who on
earth uses it anyway (besides the shortcut)? I never clicked out File->Quit in
my life :-)
And almost all computer newbies click on the X in the right corner as well.
Unfortunately it seems to be a styleguide that must be fullfilled. But where
to put this action, "Album" is definitely wrong!

Andi Clemens
-----------------
www.digikam.org

On Wednesday 17 November 2010 16:03:07 Gilles Caulier wrote:

> About the Quit action, i agree.
>
> under mac, KDE wrap this action automatically into application name
> menu entry, managed by OSX :
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/digikam/5166481922/
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/digikam/5166468008/
>
> It sound logic for me.
>
> under Linux and windows we can do the same as Amarok do. We just take
> a care about KDE action wrapping unde OSX to not have twice digiKam
> menu entries. I don't know how amarok do it exactly under mac, here
> amarok won't compile fine...
>
> Gilles
>
> 2010/11/17 Andi Clemens <[hidden email]>:
> > I still think that the QUIT action is totally misplaced in the "Album"
> > menu... This is what confuses me every time I take a look at the menues
> > (I don't use the Album and Tag menu, I always use the context menu, so
> > Marcel's suggestion about removing them is a good one, at least for my
> > day-to-day digiKam usage).
> >
> > Andi Clemens
> > -----------------
> > www.digikam.org
> >
> > On Wednesday 17 November 2010 15:46:29 Marcel Wiesweg wrote:
> >> > For me all is fine. About menu, the most bloated item is Image, with
> >> > all plugin actions.
> >>
> >> Yes. Perhaps some of them can go to the edit menu (especially those that
> >> do image editing more or less ;-) )
> >>
> >> > What's about Tags menu entry. It's lost ? This one is important and
> >> > must be updated with all main option available from right sidebar
> >> > (caption/tags pop-up menu)
> >>
> >> I'm not sure about the Album and Tag specific entries. The problem is
> >> that there are 7 Album action (new, properties, open in..., metadata,
> >> delete) only applicate if the left sidebar is albums.
> >> For tags, 3 actions (new, reset thumbnail, delete, properties) are
> >> specific to the currently selected tag in one of the tag tree views; 2
> >> are global (New (toplevel) tag, from address book), some more act on
> >> the entries of the tag (export, batch), and the rest is very specific
> >> to the tree view.
> >>
> >> There are more problems: If you choose from the menu Tag->New, the
> >> parent tag of the new tag will be the one currently selected in the
> >> left sidebar, even if a different sidebar is selected on the left.
> >>
> >> So I thought about removing all actions from the main menu which are
> >> only applicable in a certain state of the left sidebar. But then I am
> >> getting afraid this would induce UI clutter.
> >>
> >> Alternatives:
> >> 1) Keep Album/ and Tag/ main menus, but enable them only if the
> >> respective left sidebar is open. A possible first entry "Browse by"
> >> would switch to the sidebar
> >> Problem: entries disabled in many situations
> >>
> >> 2) To the album and tag left sidebar, add at the top a toolbar with
> >> three entries "Create", "Edit" and "Actions" (or three separate
> >> buttons) Problem: UI clutter
> >>
> >> 3) In the tree view, for the selected album/tag, draw a symbol,
> >> something like "v " or even text, and a click on this opens the context
> >> menu. Problem: still hidden functionality
> >>
> >> > Most of lead pop-up menu entries are missing into main menu from album
> >> > gui. user must play with digikam before to see pop-up menu. main menu
> >> > is always visible, so main actions must be there.
> >> >
> >> > Under macos-x, i see that pop-up menu available from right mouse
> >> > button is disable by default. I need to go to Mac Config Panel/Mouse
> >> > Settings to enable it. Can you image the first impression from a new
> >> > user under mac.
> >>
> >> Afaik standard Mac mice dont event have a right mouse button?
> >> And even with the hardware, many unexperienced users will simply never
> >> use the context menu.
> >>
> >> > Note : under mac, GoSC2010 code compile fine under XCode...
> >>
> >> great. I was expecting more problems from boost graph ;-)
> >>
> >> Marcel
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Digikam-devel mailing list
> >> [hidden email]
> >> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-devel
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Digikam-devel mailing list
> > [hidden email]
> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-devel
>
> _______________________________________________
> Digikam-devel mailing list
> [hidden email]
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/digikam-devel

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Marcel Wiesweg

Re: Cleaning up the main toolbar

In reply to this post by Marcel Wiesweg

Hi,

it took some time, but an initial implementation of these suggestions is now
in git. Feedback is welcome.
Except for some details, it's pretty closely following the initial proposal.
Of course, bugs are to be expected.

I am unsure about the forward/backward buttons in the toolbar - they are
removed now, but if there is need, they can come back.

Marcel
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Paristo

Re: Cleaning up the main toolbar

On 13 February 2011 01:09, Marcel Wiesweg <[hidden email]> wrote:

I am unsure about the forward/backward buttons in the toolbar - they are
removed now, but if there is need, they can come back.

Marcel

My opinion is that we need the Back/Forward history buttons in toolbar as they have been (or have I been misunderstanded?) as it is easiest way to get sometimes back and forth the places where user actually were.

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