Re: [Usability] File Chooser Dialog

[Lars Clausen <lrclause cs uiuc edu>]

On 19 Sep 2003, Magnus Bergman wrote:
> On Fri, 19 Sep 2003 16:52:57 -0400
> Rodney Dawes <dobey free fr> wrote:
[...]
>> Things like metadata,
>> compression level, etc... are very much so.
>
> Metadata, yes. It is a part of the document and should and should be set
> in the editor for the document. Compression level on the other hand is
> something I consider to be a part of the saving process rather than to
> the document. Is your opinion that it should be set in the document
> properties?
>
>> File type is not, and if
>> you would have looked at the mockup, you'd see that it provides a
>> place to choose that. I think you are very confused as to what belongs
>> where, and didn't even look at the mockup. I sent fair warning about
>> such.
>
> Then I looked at your mockup it wasn't clear to me that there was no way
> to add extra options. My opinion is that there should be possible for
> applications to add extra widgets. But only widgets related to *how* to
> open/save particular files. And these widgets must always be placed
> below the file name entry. See my proposal for more information.

Before you axe the option of adding extra widgets to the file chooser, let
me point out that it's not just for loading and saving.  Dia for instance
uses it for exporting to a number of formats, in which case the parameters
certainly are not part of the document.  Things like PNG picture
size/PPI/whether to embed fonts/what version of a format to use, etc etc.
Just about any option that you see in printing dialogs and probably some
others for other file types.  Removing this flexibility just because the
few examples you've thought of can be handled in other ways is not good
design. 

-Lars

-- 
Lars Clausen (http://shasta.cs.uiuc.edu/~lrclause)| Hårdgrim of Numenor
"I do not agree with a word that you say, but I   |----------------------------
will defend to the death your right to say it."   | Where are we going, and
    --Evelyn Beatrice Hall paraphrasing Voltaire  | what's with the handbasket?