Re: The Help Menu

[Gleef <gleef capital net>]

On Fri, 31 Jul 1998, Tim Moore wrote:

> On Fri, 31 Jul 1998, M.Watson wrote:
> 
> > Bowie Poag wrote:
> > > <Stuff about "About" snipped>
> > >
> > > A simple little Gnome Footprint present in the menu bar of each apps
> > > window would do the trick nicely, at first thought. I'm open to
> > > suggestions. Even yours, Tom. ;) hee
> > > 
> > 
> > I think it would be bad to over-use the GNOMEprint in such a fashion. It
> > already has a use, which is to signify menus/drawers on the panel.
> > "About" should stay under help, because (1) that is where it has always
> > been, and (2) knowing the copyright and version info is a form of
> > "Help." Besides, do we have to flaunt convention simply because we can?
> 
> >From what I hear, this issue has been over many times on the list
> already. Hopefully I can add something new:
> 
> Has anyone suggested using the application's icon instead of the
> gnomeprint? I think this has several advantages:
> 
> * It doesn't overload the meaning of the gnomeprint.
> * It doesn't put it all over your screen.
> * It identifies GNOME programs as such, but it also serves other purposes
>   (so it doesn't look funny on a pure-GNOME environment).
> * It identifies an app at a glance.
> * It suggests this-app-menu (which is really what it is) rather than
>   GNOME-menu.

Using any icon (Gnomeprint or application icon) as a menu is, from my
experience, a tech support nightmare.  It is far easier to refer to text
on screen than a picture.  Application icons would have the additional
disadvantages of being inconsistant, likely to change from one version of
the application to the next, and potentially very difficult to describe.

To further complicate matters, colorblind people will always make the text
easy for them read, a multi-colored icon might be completely 
incomprehensible, perhaps invisible, to such a user.

I think all menu headings should be Text, not pictures.

-Gleef