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

["John Sullivan" <sullivan eazel com>]

on 1/15/01 9:27 AM, Christian Rose at menthos menthos com wrote:

> 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

That does sound like a good way to handle text properties for multiple
files.

John