Re: Nautilus' context menu

["Eugenia Loli-Queru" <eloli hotmail com>]

Duh... I forgot the write the 5th.....

5. The "Delete" should not be there, because of the "keep it simple" rule.
The "Move to Trash" is more than enough. The Delete function should be
available on Trash's menu, not on Nautilus'. The user doesn't have to know
the difference, as long the basic job is done... If the user does understand
the difference, I am sure he  can find that option in Trash's context menu.

Eugenia


----- Original Message ----- 
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 5:43 PM
Subject: Nautilus' context menu


> The screenshot Mason sent earlier (it hasn't appeared in the list yet
> possibly cause of the attachment's size ) made me think about the top
level
> menu of Nautilus (no, this is not an "addon" discussion ;-)
>
> Havoc was telling me some time ago that there should not be more than
10-12
> items per menu, as users can't comprehend the options with a quick glance
> (something that is imperative on a good UI). The current menu (after
Mason's
> patch hopefully makes it to the main CVS) has... 16 items when
> right-clicking on a folder/file. This should be improved and get down to
> 10-12 items.
>
> My logic is that the obvious options (e.g. top level menus and other
easily
> accessible controls) should _only_ do the absolutely important things, and
> not more. Advanced functionality should only be accessible via other
methods
> that users will discover as they go along (or when they decide to actually
> read a manual).
> The "less is more" philosophy that Gnome is pursuing is similar to MacOS,
> OSX, BeOS and Windows as they also always allowed the absolutely important
> options to be easily visible by the newbie and nothing more. With the
> current situation, if you try to move all these menu options to a newbie,
> you scare him away, even if these options are dead simple. The visual
> complexity of the menu itself with all these (simple really) options don't
> help in the psychology of a new Gnome user. The UI should be both
> accessible, simple and unbloated, and at the same time to have "backdoors"
> for the advanced user to do his stuff his way.
>
> Mockup here: http://www.osnews.com/img/3721/nautilus.png
> Explanation of the mockup above:
>
> 1. Get rid of the "Open in New Window". I must say that this option is the
> only one of the rest 5 that I took away that I am not sure of and I
require
> more input. On the other hand, it is bad enough to have three "Open"
> functions crammed there. It is confusing at first for new users. I am
_not_
> saying that this function should go away. It should either move to the
> "Extensions" folder as an addon, or it should simply get invoked by the
> third mouse button, as you do when you open links to new tabs/windows on
the
> web browser. In other words, hide the option ("keep it simple") but make
> sure the functionality _is_ there via one of the two methods mentioned
> above.
>
> 2. Merge Scripts and Addons under a new name that is easy to understand.
> "Services" or "Extensions" are good for me, but most of you are better
than
> me in the english language, so please pick a name. :D
> Yes, Scripts are not the same as addons, but the user doesn't need to know
> that, they have similar functionality anyway. Allow both the traditional
> nautilus scripts and the addons to run from the same submenu,
transparently
> (in case you want to keep the Script functionality that is).
>
> 3. Get rid of Rename, and please adopt the Mac and BeOS way of renaming a
> file. Click once (or slowly twice) and rename the file. If you want to
> rename more than one files, the user should use the included with Nautilus
> "Bulk Rename" addon, as shown in the other mockup the other day
> (http://www.osnews.com/img/3721/gnome.png). I can understand that people
> will get too emotional about removing Rename from the menu, but if the
addon
> thingie takes off, you will going to end up having a "bulk rename" on the
> addons folder, and a rename menu on the top level menu. Not good. I
suggest
> to let the user rename a single selected file either via clicking on the
> filename or the properties dialog and let more complex renaming functions
to
> be made via the "Bulk Rename" addon.
>
> 4. The stretching icon business have absolutely no place in the top level
> menu. It is not like we are playing with our icons all day if we have
> nothing better to do (we got Solitaire in this case :-) Just create an
addon
> for this functionality, with a nice and small gui, in where you can also
set
> the size you want for _all_ the files shown in the current directory (when
> nothing is selected), or for the selected files. In fact, this can also go
> to the "Properties", but no way in the root nautilus menu as it is now.
> Personally, I am fond for an addon for this functionality, to set the size
> to all icons on a certain dir, while when you have selected 1 or few
files,
> the same addon will allow you to change their sizes (or get them back to
> normal size).
>
> And yes, addons can have more than 20 items after a few months if the idea
> takes off. And this is why at this time we might need an "Extension
Manager"
> which will list for you all the addons with a checkbox next to them, and
the
> user should be able to easily enable/disable (show/hide) addons via it.
And
> this is another reason why these .server files might need some extra info
in
> them (that is, if you are going to keep these .server files instead of
> another way that helps the easy show/hide functionality).
>
> Your thoughts?
>
> thanks,
> Eugenia
>