Re: [Evolution-hackers] #55299: Can't change several attachment property in Mail

[Bryan Clark <clarkbw clarkson edu>]

Hi ~

On Tue, 2004-03-09 at 10:58 +0800, Bill Zhu wrote:
> Hi guys, I have some question with this bug.
> bug descriptions:
>     http://bugzilla.ximian.com/show_bug.cgi?id=55299
> 
> What do you think is the right fix for this bug?
> should we make it possible to pop up many dialogs for every
> attachments?

I'd recommend against this.  A new dialog for each item could be
confusing and frustrating, selecting a group of attachments and then
properties of that grouping is an action that is associated with
changing the properties of the group.  Having multiple dialogs would be
an action to change properties of each item in the group.

> In my opinion, to disable the "properties" menu item when selecting
> multi attachments is a acceptable solution. what do you think of it?

Removing it altogether seems to be the easiest solution, however there
is probably a use case associated with this action.  Keeping the dialog
and making the useless entries insensitive would be my recommendation.

The Properties Dialog has 3 entries and a check box.
1	File Name:
2	Description:
3	MIME type:
4	[ ] Suggest automatic display of attachment

#1: This is useful for single selection name changing, but I doubt that
someone would want all the attachments to have the same file name.  I
wouldn't say this is a useful option for multiple attachments
properties, but is for a single attachment property.

#2:  Although I think it's highly unlikely that anyone will actually set
the Description field of their attachment, it's possible they might want
to set a group of attachments a description like "Pictures from the
Lake" and such.  So this could be an options for multiple attachments
properties. 

#3: This doesn't seem to be a field for changing really, just
information display and won't be very useful for multiple attachments.
It's behavior remains the same at each point 

#4: I'm not really sure what this is.  It seems like an unnecessary
option, but I couldn't say for sure as I'm at a loss for its use.  I'd
recommend that this just goes from the dialog altogether unless its
functionality is critical.


~ Bryan


-- 
Graduate Student
Clarkson University
School of Hard UI Knocks
Potsdam, NY USA