Some new design prototypes

[Jörg Rathlev <joerg jrsoftware de>]

Hi,

I've created some new dialog prototypes. Note that it's a Windows look, I've
used Delphi, it's the UI tool I'm most familiar with and anyway I was too
lazy to reboot.


http://www.jrsoftware.de/gnome-gui/open-dialog.png

This shows the default open dialog. I know there aren't any delete file,
rename file or start file manager buttons - actually my idea was to put all
of this into the context menu. They can however be added quite easily. The
buttons "<-" (back) and "up" are supposed to be replaced by toolbuttons with
icons. Maybe a text should be added above the "File name" field to explain
the autocomplete feature (if Ctrl+Space and not automatic)? I'm also not
sure whether the help text at the top is really a good idea, but this is one
of the most important dialogs even to complete beginners.

I've decided to put the type selector above the file list (this is different
in the save dialog) to visualize that you don't change the file type but
that this is only a visual filter.


http://www.jrsoftware.de/gnome-gui/open-dialog-with-extensions.png

This shows what I was thinking of when I talked about extensions provided by
the application for previews etc. In this case, it's some CVS functionality.
The highlight color is only to show the extensions more clearly, the real
dialog would have a single color.


http://www.jrsoftware.de/gnome-gui/save-dialog.png

The save dialog. Note that the file list is not shown by default. You can
click "Show folder contents" to display it, the list would look exactly as
in the open dialog. I'm not really happy with how this looks (a bit
cluttered because the text is too long), but it makes the dialog more simple
and I think you don't really need the list 90 % of the time. Maybe it would
look better if there was a toolbutton (like back and up) to display the
list. Of course the dialog will remember if you've decided to display the
list, so you don't need to click "Show folder contents" over and over again.

The "Note: A file with the selected name ..." message is not a replacement
for a warning dialog (Overwrite/Cancel) which will stop you from
accidentally overwriting any files. It is simply meant as an additional
hint, which is especially important since by default you don't see a list of
existing files.

I just realize that I've forgotten to put the file type selector into this
dialog. Ooops... it's supposed to be *below* the file list, and be labeled
"Save as type", not "Show types", to visualize that it is not just a visual
filter, but that you're actually changing the file type.

Actually, the type selector could also appear as an extension, which will be
used only by applications that really need it. Of course it needs to be
provided as a standard component so application developers don't need to
write their own one.


http://www.jrsoftware.de/gnome-gui/save-dialog-with-extension.png

Another example of an application defined extension.


Jörg