[HIG] Small issues with the HIG

[Sebastian Rittau <srittau jroger in-berlin de>]

I noticed the following issues while browsing the "Controls" chapter
of the HIG:

Chapter 8.5 "Buttons" contains a duplication. In the recommendations
list it says:

| If your button can display text, an icon, or both, choose which label
| to display at runtime according to the user's desktop preferences.

This is repeated in the last paragraph:

| A button may contain a text label, an icon, or both. Normally, you
| should decide at runtime which label to display according to the user's
| desktop preferences. However, there may be occasions when it is
| necessary to over-ride these, for example when there is no suitable icon
| to describe the button's action graphically.

I would suggest merging this into one paragraph. Otherwise the reader
tends to skip the second - more verbose - paragraph because e gets the
impression that he has already read it.

Chapter 8.6 "Check Boxes" contains the recommendation:

| Do not use groups of more than about eight check boxes. If you need more
| than this, consider using toggle buttons or a check box list instead--
| but it is more likely you need to think about how to simplify your
| interface.

Maybe an explanation of the term "group" is needed here. I guess this
point should mean: "If you need to use more than eight check boxes[1],
think about dividing them sensibly into groups of similar functionality.
Use visual cues like separators or frames to make this distinction clear.
If that's not possible, consider using toggle button or a check box
list, instead."

Maybe a picture would be at hand, too. Also, I don't see the advantage
of toggle buttons over check boxes. The recommendation is repeated in
the next chapter on "Radio Buttons".

| When a check box is showing the properties of a multiple selection, it
| may be in the mixed state.

Sorry, but I don't understand this sentence at all. So the bulletted
list following it doesn't make sense to me, either. A linked glossary
would help, but maybe an explanation of what is meant would be better.
(What's a "multiple selection", what's a "mixed state"?)

This applies to the second and seventh recommendation of Chapter 8.7
"Radio Buttons", too. Finally, in chapter 8.8 "Toggle Buttons it says:

| If the toggle button represents a setting in a multiple selection that
| is set for some objects in the selection and unset for others, show the
| button in its mixed state.

Now, I'm beginning to understand what a "multiple selection" is. But
the "mixed state" is not really clear to me, yet.

In chapter 8.9 "Combo Boxes" I'm missing the recommendation that
selecting one of the options from the drop down list should not initiate
an action (except in instant-apply dialogs).

Similarily in chapter 8.12 "Option Menus":

| Option menus are used to select from a mutually exclusive set of
| options. They should not be used to initiate actions.

Put the second sentence in the recommendations. It's out-of-place in the
brief introduction of an option menu.

| You should normally use radio buttons or a list  in preference to option
| menus, as those controls present all the available options at once
| without any further interaction. However, option menus may be preferable
| on toolbars, in windows where there is little available space, or where
| the list of options may change.

You could add "where the choices are obvious". (I'm thinking about a
month chooser, for example. I don't think there's much reason to waste
screen real estate on obvious things like that.)

I'm also missing a recommendation for a maximum number of items that
should appear in Option Menus. Twelve is a common recommendation AFAIK.
(For a higher number of choices, lists should be used.)

In chapter 8.13 "Progress Bars" a space is missing between "be" and
"precisely".

Chapter 8.14 "Status Bars" says:

| Status bars should only contain information which it is not critical
| that the user sees. Important information should be presented to the
| user by other means.

Please give examples to make this more clear. One suggestion: If an
action is normally successful, its success should be shown in the status
bar (so as not to annoy and hinder the user), while an error should be
displayed as an error message box.

Chapter 8.15 "Sliders and Spinboxes" says:

| Both these controls allow the user to quickly increase or decrease a
| value, optionally (in the case of a spinbox) within a valid range of
| values. When is it appropriate to use each type of control?

The last sentence doesn't fit with the style of the HIG and is
redundant. The first point of the recommendations is missing the final
period. The second recommendation uses the word "realtime". Should be
"real time" IMO.

One of the recommendation of chapter 8.16 "Notebooks" says:

| Although the contents of each page in a notebook will take up a
| different amount of space, do not use larger than normal spacing around
| the controls in the "emptier" pages, or center the controls on the page.

It is not clear to me whether the last subordinate clause "or center the
control on the page" belongs to the "do not" part, or if it is in fact a
"do instead" recommendation.

 - Sebastian, who has now written way more than intended

[1] Which is quite common for Settings dialogs.