[Evolution] Re: [Evolution-hackers] Evolution 2.0 UI proposal

[JM5379 sbcglobal net]

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> On Fri, 2003-07-11 at 13:59, guenther wrote:
> > By a quick look at the mockups that is *exactly* what I
thought. These
> > icons are neat, but a dropdown menu with icons would save me a
lot of
> > space for my fairly huge list of mail folders.
>
> Looks fairly good.
>
> What about completely seperating that stuff to multiple toplevel
> windows? So we could drag an e-mail message to the calendar
window and
> create a meeting entry. And dragging the entry to the tasks
window can
> create a new task entry, or even, vice-versa.
>
> In the current design, I don't see any usable way of achieving
this; if
> you see such a feature something useful, though.
> -- 

a couple of suggestions:

for the buttons with more than one word (Send/Receive, Work Week,
etc), maybe stack the words on top of each other since the icons
already take up enough vertical space to minimize that impact;
this would reduce the horizontal "clutter" while allowing more
functionality on a given menu bar.  also, maintaining the option
to place the text beneath the icon.  either of these could, with
planning and luck, allow for the need of fewer menu bars,
permitting more functional use of visual space

with the aforementioned in mind, perhaps putting the "contains"
search fields in the menu bar, since there is adequate space in
most of the photos, even without the suggested modifications

if the new buttons are retained, having them immediately below
the menu bar, in a horizontal line along the same horizon as the
current "contains" search field, possibly slightly smaller
buttons; this would allow the full new style of functionality
while reducing the negative impact on usable space

maybe hotkeys if they could be done mnemonically without hurting
what people are already used to.  this may reduce the desire for
additional buttons while allowing speedier access to those functions