Re: revised patch to change tooltips

[nils <n p sun com>]

Kevin Vandersloot wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Calum Benson" <calum benson sun com>
> To: "nils" <n p sun com>
> Cc: <usability gnome org>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2001 8:12 AM
> Subject: Re: revised patch to change tooltips
>
> > nils wrote:
> >
> > > http://www242.pair.com/nilsp/nils/panel/menus.html
> > > Well, here's another update. This time there are proposals for the
> tooltips.
> >
> > Are multi-line tooltips possible in gtk2.0?  I think some of the longer
> > suggestions could get quite hard to read if they had to go on a single
> > line.
> >
> > > I think the big open issue is, what happens
> > > when we change a menu item so it does not map 1-1 with the app name?
> > > Do we change the app name (hard) or do we at least make some reference
> > > to the menu item in the app title bar (easier)?
> >
> > I guess a related question with this approach is what do you do when
> > people add two different apps to the menus that do much the same thing,
> > e.g. Xchat and GnomeChat, Gnotepad and Gedit, Clock and Another Clock?
> > The tooltips and menu items would be pretty much identical for the two
> > apps.  Perhaps the application name also needs to be retained in the
> > menu or the tooltip somehow?
>
> How about
> Gedit Text Editor - like Ximian does
> or
> Text Editor (Gedit)

Any preferences on which way to go?

</controversial statement>
However I still think that for some apps we should try and change their name to
something more generic. Although I am unclear what the list of those apps would be.
<controversial statement>

>
>
> >
> > Cheeri,
> > Calum.
> >
>
> I have a few comments on the proposal also. Hope you don't mind :)
>
> First it seems there is an inconsistency with appending the term "with a
> program called .." to the tooltip. This seems unnecessary to me. If it is
> used shouldn't it be used for every tooltip?

okay

>
>
> Second it seems that comments like "if you have a microphone connected to
> your computer" are also unnecessary. Again for consistency there are some
> tooltips missing comments like this - for example the volume meter which
> would have to read "If you have speakers connected to your computer, you can
> use this program to adjust the volume." Same thing with gdict, evolution -
> "If you are connected to a network, ...." Taken to the extreme - Gnucash "If
> you have any personal finances, you can use this program to manage them" ,
> or even better - Gnibbles "If you have too much free time, use this program
> to waste it" ; )

yes - your not the first one to point that out - i will remove those

>
>
> Also, is it right to actually put tooltips for the menu items? For the theme
> I use the tooltip background color is exactly the same as the menu
> background, so the tooltips look like menuitems. Does this happen for the
> default theme or most themes? I was glad that Ximian removed the tooltips
> from the menu.

maybe tooltip background colour should also be an attribute of a theme?

Thanks for your feedback - and everyone elses :)

I will update the table in a day or so to reflect everyones input.

Nils