Re: [Nautilus-list] FW: Preview Release Comments

[Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>]

John Sullivan wrote:
[...]
> In addition, some of the properties in the Properties window are text-based,
> which make no sense in a three-state design. Perhaps the multiple-file
> Properties window would just leave these ones out, but that might confuse
> people who wonder why they sometimes see certain properties in the window
> and other times don't. My point is not that there's no UI approach for
> making the properties window work with multiple files simultaneously, but
> that the solutions may cause usability problems on par with the problems
> they're trying to solve.

I remember seeing some solution to this (sorry, don't remember where,
might have been the Windows Explorer).
When a properties window is shown for multiple files, properties that
make no sense to change or display for multiple files is just marked
with "<Multiple files>".
An example would be the file name. Since each file hopefully has a
unique filename (not a common property) and it doesn't make sense to
change them to the same either, "<Multiple files>" is displayed in the
file name field and it is greyed out and won't accept input.

I don't know if the solution is good, but I think it is nice in the way
that it gives a clear hint why you suddenly can't change a particular
property: because you selected more than one object.


Christian