Re: Dialog boxes from 10,000 feet

[Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>]

Great points!

"Christopher D. Beland" wrote:
> For "open multiple files with current application" you could have a
> button "Select multiple files" that toggled on and off.  When it's on,
> single mouse clicks expand the current selection to include new files;
> when it's off, single clicks just change the current selection.

I don't know how I feel about that. To users used to the CTRL/SHIFT +
click behavior it might be somewhat annoying if that was the only way to
select multiple files.


> Alternatively, the usual select-multiple-files convention (Ctrl-click)
> could be used, and the text "Hold down Control to select multiple
> files" added to the box.

I think that is the best proposal so far - put a explainatory text in
there to explain how selecting multiple files with Ctrl work.

The beauty of that is that it also helps "advanced" users that might
already know how to select multiple files - it helps them by _telling_
if the app supports opening multiple files at all, without having to
CTRL/SHIFT + click to find out!

And by putting an added explainatory text in the open dialog that is
capable of opening multiple files, there is indeed a a reason for
seperating it and the dialog that only handles a single file - the
single dialog can be made smaller, since it doesn't need the extra text.


> Other ways to select multiple files (Ctrl-Arrows, etc.) might be useful for
> advanced users.

Yes, and SHIFT + arrow too... ;-)


Thanks for your long, insightful post. I agree with almost everything in
it.


Christian



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Christian Rose
http://www.menthos.com                    	    menthos@menthos.com
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