Re: Additional Panel Menus (was Re: [Usability]recent documents in panel)

[Damien Covey <djcovey softhome net>]

Dave Bordoley wrote:

> Hi James:
>
> On Sat, 2002-09-14 at 02:07, James Willcox wrote:
>  
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I'm putting together a patch that uses my recent-files code in the
> > panel.  Here's what it looks like so far: 
> > http://snorp.coreyo.net/files/Screenshots/panel-recent-menu.png
> >
> >    
>
> I think this is a cool idea, but with some caveats. First, I know seth
> is planning on moving all the preferences and settings out of
> applications menus and into the main menu. My main concern is that we
> may add too many menus to the top panel, cluttering it and potentially
> annoying some users. Of course this concern can be easily addressed
> if/when we move to using the menubar applet, which allows the user to
> choose what menus they would like to be available. 

What is this menubar applet?  Is it a way of editing the menu or 
something similar?

>  
>
> > I would like to know what the usability crowd thinks about where this
> > menu should go, how it should look, etc.  I think it would also be cool
> > to have a "recent applications" menu as well (I used this all the time
> > back when I had a mac).
> >    
>
> I'm sort of mixed on the recent applications menu, while i think it may
> be a good idea, i think a task menu would be in general more powerful. I
> haven't thought this through too much but this menu would probably
> something like:
>
> Tasks
> |-Browse the web
> |-Compose a Document
> |-Search for Files
> |-Send an Email
> |-Take a Screenshot
> |-Help
>
> This list is obviously incomplete, but i'm willing to guess that most
> users have a fix set of tasks they perform most often, and that a recent
> applications menu is really a way for users to easily find the apps they
> use to perform these tasks most quickly, so why not instead provide a
> list of tasks. Of course, if we move to the menubar applet and make both
> tasks and recent apps preferences, there would be little cost in adding
> both.
>
> All said, I think both these ideas are worth looking at but i think we
> should examine the menus as a complete set, so that we're not just
> adding stuff without some kind of vision of where we are going.
>
> Good Work,
>
> dave
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