Re: [evolution-patches] Redesign of To, Cc and Bcc fields of Composer (THIS TIME WITH SOME SNAPSHOTS)

[Devashish <sdevashish novell com>]

On Wed, 2005-11-09 at 09:53 +0530, Srinivasa Ragavan wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-11-08 at 13:11 -0500, Jeffrey Stedfast wrote:
> > I think the ideas have merit but at least in the case of the menus
> > listing the email addresses (e.g. the mailing-list screenshot), the menu
> > might become too long. Same with the multiple email address selector
> > (altho this is less likely to become out-of-hand).

Showing all the email addresses of a mailing list on the right click
menu may become useless if the list is too long. hmmm.. may be we can
also make the right click menu scrollable (any ideas).

In case of the popoup menu (multiple email address selector) there is no
point in showing all the email addressed of a list, only the list name
will suffice. This popup menu is scrollable so it should not suffer even
if there are too many email addresses.  

> > 
> > A mailing list of users might be far too long to squeeze into a
> > reasonably sized menu (think of the Novell mailing lists for example
> > where every single email address in the company is added...ugh, 6,000
> > email addresses in a menu would never work).
> > 
> Hmm interesting thoughts. I agree that we might have issues if the list
> is more. 6000 address lists in Novell are single email and not a list
> (FYI). These are contact lists, but still this can be huge on some
> occasions. Ill employ some more thoughts to it. thanks for ur
> directions :-)
> > Screenshot #2 is okish (it doesn't suffer from the 6,000 item menu),
> > altho it seems to allow "selecting" of an email address, but that's not
> > what the widget is meant to do. It's meant to only list the email
> > addresses on a more readable way, correct? I look at that screenshot and
> > think "what happens if I click an email address? will it wipe out my To:
> > field and replace it with the one I selected?" and that is kinda
> > frightening if I've just manually entered a bunch of addresses. So I
> > wonder if there's a betetr way of showing this to avoid users having my
> > first frightened instinct.

In addition to providing an easier way of presenting the email addresses
in a more readable way, it also allows easier modification ( u
accidentally added an address you dont want to send the mail to), just
select it in the popup and press delete, its gone. Isn't it easier than
going to the text field clicking there and removing it. The whole
purpose is to allow the user to send a mail without even touching the
mouse (which is a feature i think most users will appreciate).

But the point is valid users will need some time to get accustomed to it
and they have to be told that such a feature is there.

> The screenshot shows the list of emails entered. It holds further on
> clicks. Meaning, you can multiselect delete, etc. When you press ESC or
> start typing it hides and continues adding addresses. Hope i have
> cleared your doubt. The horizontal scrolling has huge issues, in
> browsing and we were trying to solve those issues. 
> > 
> > Anyways, hopefully my thoughts are useful...
> > 
> Of course useful :-).
> > Jeff
> > 
> > On Tue, 2005-11-08 at 17:21 +0530, Devashish wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > This patch proposes some UI changes to the Composer fields to make them
> > > more flexible and easy to use.
> > > Earlier there was no mechanism to verify or check the email addresses u
> > > have entered except for horizontal scrolling.
> > > Now the entered email addresses can be easily verified by pressing the
> > > button at the end of To, Cc, Bcc fields or by pressing (Ctrl ->), this
> > > pops down a list which shows all the email addresses entered in the
> > > particular field. This list is easily scrollable and supports delete
> > > operation also.
> > > Also included in this patch is srinis patch which allows u to remove
> > > names from contact list for a single mail.
> > > 
> > > By joining these two patches almost all the enhancement requests and
> > > bugs related to composer fields are solved.
> > > 
> > > Related Bug Numbers are:
> > > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=220570
> > > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=231751
> > > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=207635
> > > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=272391
> > > 
> > > Links to Snapshots:
> > > http://gnomebangalore.org/~sragavan/snapshot1.png
> > > 
> > > Snapshot 2 showing the popup dropdown which allows you to traverse and
> > > verify email addresses easily.
> > > http://gnomebangalore.org/~sragavan/snapshot2.png
> > > 
> > > Snapshot 3 shows mailing list with all the addresses selected
> > > http://gnomebangalore.org/~sragavan/snapshot3.png
> > > 
> > > Snapshot 4 shows mailing list with some addresses left out , so some
> > > names can be removed from a mailing list for a particular email.
> > > http://gnomebangalore.org/~sragavan/snapshot4.png
> > > 
> > > Snapshot 5 shows a name with multiple email addressed associated with it
> > > and user can select to which email address he wants to send the mail.
> > > http://gnomebangalore.org/~sragavan/snapshot5.png
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Please give a try to this and give your feedback regarding any bugs or
> > > usability issues.
> > > Also as of now we have used a stock icon for the button but we are
> > > looking for some better ones and hope somebody will suggest a really
> > > neat and fitting icon for this.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Thanks
> > > Devashish Sharma
> > > 
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > 
>