Re: Keynav in standard dialogs

[Calum Benson <calum benson sun com>]

Owen Taylor wrote:

> > - Cancel and OK have access keys, which they shouldn't, and Preview
> > doesn't, but it should.
> 
> "mnemonics" :-)

Nah, we definitely call them "access keys" in the HIG  :-)

> Using an entry here could be considered pretty useless. I guess the
> possibilities are:
> 
>  - Remove the entry, extend the lists to the top
>    (http://people.redhat.com/otaylor/gtk/fontsel.png)
> 
>  - Use a label for the headings (think this would look a bit ugly)
> 
>  - Make the entries editable and make them control an "incremental"
>    search in the lists in some fashion. (the most work.)

Also the nicest solution, though :)  It's a pity TreeViews don't support
this feature automatically either; I discussed it with jrb a long time
ago, but we concluded the Ctrl-S search he's implemented was a more
global solution as it allows input of international characters etc.  It
would be cool if it supported both, though.

>  - Just remove them from the tab chain and leave entry-looking
>    headers.

Another option is to give read-only fields a more distinctive
appearance, and remove them from the tab chain (unless there's any
reason people want to focus them to copy the text).  Right now they just
look identical to editable fields, which strikes me as a general
usability problem if this is the usual appearance for read-only fields.

In this case, though, I think I prefer your first suggestion (extending
the lists to the top and losing the entry fields altogether).

> CList focus bugs/oddities, dont' happen with the treeview version.

Cool, thanks.

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson ireland sun com    Desktop Engineering Group
http://www.sun.ie                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems