Instead, try thinking object -> verb: present the list of themes
first,
with the actions afterwards. Like this:
This is much calmer, even while it lets you see the complete list of
themes at a glance (which the radio-button-based design wouldn't).
To be honest, it didn't strike me right away, but this could be a
pretty good way of looking at it. I'll fiddle with it a bit and see
what looks good. Any other options for laying it out? The buttons at
the bottom seem a bit.. eh, i don't know how to describe it. Would it
lose anything if they were on the right, arranged vertically?
Here's what would happen to the previous options:
* "Create a new theme" -> "New...", then type its name into the
newly-created table row.
* "Create a new theme based on an existing theme" -> select theme,
then click "Duplicate..." and type the name into the newly-created
table row.
* "Open an existing theme" -> select theme, then click "Open".
* "Edit current theme" -> open window, then click "Edit" (the
current
theme being selected by default).
* "Open last edited theme" -> select theme, then click "Edit...".
I think the "edit" and "open" actions are really the same thing here,
so they can be combined into a single button.
Thinking about the (future) general users of this application, the
"new from scratch" option is going to be not used very often. I think
the majority of themers start off by copying something (the duplicate)
and then tweaking it until it is unrecognizable, so I think the
"create based on an existing" or "edit existing" are the two most
important items on this menu. With the "new theme" being so
prevalent, I think people will miss the functionality of "duplicate"
on first glance, until they try it a few times and see what happens.