Re: Setting the properties of multiple selected objects in stead of just one (the first or only selected->data)

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005, Philip Van Hoof wrote:

> Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 01:54:57 +0100
> From: Philip Van Hoof <spamfrommailing freax org>
> Reply-To: pvanhoof gnome org,
>      discussions about usage and development of dia <dia-list gnome org>
> To: discussions about usage and development of dia <dia-list gnome org>
> Cc: "Cyrille [ISO-8859-1] Chépélov" <cyrille chepelov org>,
>      Hans Breuer <hans breuer org>, Lars R. Clausen <lrclause cs uiuc edu>,
>      Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com>
> Subject: Re: Setting the properties of multiple selected objects in stead
>     of just one (the first or only selected->data)
>
> On Mon, 2005-01-10 at 19:52 +0100, Philip Van Hoof wrote:
> > [subject]: This patch will do that.
>
> This new one fixes some issues Hans explained on the mailinglists.
>
> Aside from the issue's this one also adds undo/redo history support for
> new functionality.
>
> I haven't yet introduced a checkbox before each property that could
> allow the user to choose whether or not setting it should be shared
> across all selected instances of objects.
>
> I'd rather create a new menu "Object" and a submenuitem "Properties" and
> leave the "Objects->Properties" menu the way after applying this patch.
>
> It sounds like a much more convenient and more "usable in terms of
> usability"-solution to me, than to introduce a checkbox before each
> property in the intersection of properties of the selected objects.
>
> It's clear to the user that the menu selection "Objects->Properties" is
> about setting the properties of all object in the current selection. If
> the user dislikes that, she'd probably search for a menu "Object->
> Properties" rather than "Objects->Properties". Creating custom widgets
> which massive amounts of checkboxes and a jungle of options isn't going
> to make it more easy for her to understand what exactly is going to
> happen. I did the test with my girlfriend using a prototype of such a
> dialogbox quickly created with Glade-2. I can assure you that the
> usability-aspect of my prototyped dialogbox was below low. She didn't
> understand a thing about that checkbox next to each object-property. I

It is really simpler than that.

If one object is selected the properties apply to one object If more than
one object is selected then the properties should apply to the current
selected objects.  The user should only select the objects they want to
mkae changes to, there is no need for seperate menus depending on how many
objects are selected, or if a group is selected.

I'd encourage you to look at OpenOffice.org Draw or perhaps Microsoft
Visio or other long established vector graphics software to get a
better sense of how the manage to keep this relatively simple and
straigh forward.

Hope that helps.

- Alan