Re: RFP: File chooser user interface

[Thomas Leonard <tal00r ecs soton ac uk>]

On Tue, Sep 16, 2003 at 04:39:26PM +0200, Magnus Bergman wrote:
> On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 10:16:10 +0100
> Thomas Leonard <tal00r ecs soton ac uk> wrote:
[...]
> > The system is already implemented. Screenshots:
> > 
> > http://rox.sourceforge.net/phpwiki/index.php/HintsAndTips
> > http://rox.sourceforge.net/archive.html
> 
> This must be he most interesting proposal so far. I personally like idea
> very much, but I don't think the world is ready for it yet.
> 
> Just one question: How do you save a file without using the mouse?

If it has already got a path, press Return.

Otherwise, apart from entering the path manually, there should be some
keyboard-driven system for DnD.

I guess we need this anyway (not just for saving), since all features
should be available through the keyboard. Perhaps a key for 'start drag',
and then focus the target, 'end drag'? This could perhaps be done with
cut-and-paste instead.

One effective system, which I implemented a few years ago on another OS
(though it wasn't my idea originally), is to save to whatever filer window
happens to be open. I used the highest one in the window stack, but you
could present a menu instead.

That way, you open your Work folder when you log in and load something
from it, and whenever you go to save something for the first time (from
any application), it goes there by default.

This still gets the nice benefit that the user sees the file appear in the
filer window as soon as the save completes, and they can Alt-Tab to it to
do anything more complicated (delete, rename, change directory).

Of course, this assumes a method of working where the user tends to keep a
few filer windows open all the time, which is probably a bit ROX-ish for
most people.


-- 
Thomas Leonard			http://rox.sourceforge.net
tal00r at ecs.soton.ac.uk	tal197 at users.sourceforge.net
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