Re: Unify things across GNOME Office (UI & icons)

[Alan Horkan <horkana tcd ie>]

How close are are applications to being compliant with the Gnome 2 HIG?
It should be possible to be mostly compliant but I think this is harder
than it sounds to be 100% compliant with the guidelines, the devil is in
the details.

While I am interested in getting Abiword to follow most of the HIG in some
places Abiword will probably break it.  Abiword has to try and fit in on a
variety of platforms.  Abiword generally* uses the same keybindings as
Microsoft Word (although Abiword also supports emacs or vi keybinding
modes) worst case scenario Abiword could have another slightly differnet
keybinding scheme just to be 100% HIG compatible.

I would like for there to be a common submenu at File, New (like open
office does.  i am/was pleasantly surprised that Ctrl+N opens a new window
of the current type which is what i hoped would happen, but i digress).
This would probably be a relatively easy way to quickly give more
consistency to the menus without interfering too much.

I think one of the thinks like to confuse users is the naming scheme and I
suggest that perhaps we do something like:
  Gnome Spreadsheet (Gnumeric)
  Gnome Word Processor (Abiword)
  Gnome Presentation (Agnubis) [or alternatively Slide Show]
(et cetera, und so weiter, and so on,  localised as appropriate).

The less time the users have to spend figuring out what the
program name means more time to getting the task done.

I had already typed this and then found this link which says suggests
Abiword Word Processor, Gnumeric Spreadsheet, Nautilus File Manager
etc. but it is talking specifically about the Global Menu I the same
reasoning should apply widely across Gnome Office.

http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/draft_hig/desktop-integration.html#menuentries

As for Splash screens (and about dialog graphics) how about taking the
example of OpenOffice.org and use only one single Gnome Office splash
screen across all Gnome Office Applications.  (This would be just for when
the applications are distributed collectively as Gnome Office.)

http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/draft_hig/desktop-integration.html#menuentries

We might also consider one single in the Help menu add a menu item About
Gnome Office, and either have one single about dialog or for Gnome Office
or have it in addition to the existing About dialog.  Abiword currently
has a menu item About Gnome Office, which link to the gnome office
web pages (but only in the Gnome Build).

Are there any plans for shared clipart?  I have some ideas but I would
like to know if anything is already being worked on.

Sincerely
Alan Horkan

* not always, and i cannot be sure if msword even uses the same
keybindings in different versions.

Disclaimer: all just suggestions and opinions etc

On 24 Jun 2002, Sven Herzberg wrote:

> Date: 24 Jun 2002 01:53:18 +0200
> From: Sven Herzberg <herzi abi02 de>
> To: gnome-office-list gnome org
> Subject: Unify things across GNOME Office (UI & icons)
>
> Hi all,
>
> i recognized that a lot of things a implemented in very different ways
> across GNOME Office. To make it easier for users to get into GNOME
> Office we should unify a lot of things (IMHO the most important and
> hardest to unify thing is the UI).
>
> I'd like to see especially gnumeric and abiword developers (as these
> apps are the 'main apps' from GNOME Office) having an IRC meeting to
> discuss the main parts of the UI (especially the menu-structure and
> common toolbar layout).
>
> I sent this mail also to usability because the have made a HIG, which
> should be kept im mind when discussing UI design (as i tried to when
> creating agnubis' menu structure).
>
> I also liked Uraeus idea of unifying the gnome-office icons. IMO we
> should have two sets of graphics:
> 1. a small icon (that can be even recoginzed in sizes of 24x24 pixels)
> that represents the application in the menu and in the tasklist (like
> the MS Office icons can be recognized at 16x16 pixels)
> 2. a bigger image (let's say 200x200 pixels) that can be used on splash
> screens or on preferences' title pages like gedit has one.
>
> --
> sven
>
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