Singe click selection with checkboxes

[Kristoffer Lundén <kristoffer lunden gmail com>]

Hello, sorry if this has been discussed and dismissed earlier, I've been searching but didn't find anything.

I'm using single click interface in Nautilus, and I'm starting to like
it more and more; I first tried using such an interface on my laptop,
because when when you have no actual mouse but only those crappy pads,
double clicks can be cumbersome to say the least. I found out that I
liked it even for normal operations - after all, it works just fine for
browsing the web, right? It felt faster and more natural. =)

There's just these little cases when it breaks down and becomes a bit
clumsy - on the web it is for instance when you want to select the text
of a link, in a file browser it is when you want to select a few files
without activating them. On Windows, you can select files and folders
by hovering over them slightly, I didn't like that much - it felt shaky
and there was that small wait for each. In Nautilus, as far as I can
tell, you either drag-select or use SHIFT or CTRL while clicking. None
of these feels as smooth as all other operations, and for people
uncomfortable with computers, I've seen that "multiple" operations like
these are confusing or hard to handle - for some, even double click can
be a bit on the hard side.

What I really wanted was a way to simply click on the files/folders as
easily as activating them. I was thinking about middle clicks and other
things, but then it struck me: why not simple checkboxes? It would even
make lots of sense for total newbies, since it's quite a common
metafor. 

In list mode, it could sit to the left of the icon, and in icon mode it
could be in one of the corners, say upper left. Doesn't need to take
much space, just enough to make it clear what it is and easy enough to
hit. All other visual hints and mechanism could very well say (changing
background color, being able to do CTRL/SHIFT/Drag maneuvers etc). And
of course, this could be disabled, maybe even by default.

This is all just speculation, of course, which is why I submit it here.
=) But I think that this addition might make single click a really fast
and intuitive interface to work in, for newcomers and old timers alike.
It's a single operation, no combinations. It provides extra visual
clues. And those who prefer double click, well the initial problem
isn't as big for them, but they could also benefit from it as they
wouldn't need the added CTRL for multiples.

For extra goodliness in multiple selections, add the ability to (in
list view) to simply hold the button down and drag it over several
checkboxes to toggle them - making it easy to do CTRL-type selections
on series of files/folders.

If I've been unclear on any point here, feel free to ask for
clarification. And if I'm way off in some way, please tell me how and
why, and I'll willingly hang my head in shame. :)

Personally, I think this would make my days more comfortable, and hopefully it'd help others too.

Thanks for your time,
Stoffe

-- 
Kristoffer Lundén
☎ 0704 48 98 77
✉ kristoffer lunden gmail com
ICQ: 618 289 83
http://www.gamemaker.nu/

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