Re: [Usability] Inconsistent states

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Mon, 28 Apr 2003, Lars Clausen wrote:

> Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 19:54:52 -0500
> From: Lars Clausen <lrclause cs uiuc edu>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: [Usability] Inconsistent states
>
>
> Hi!
>
> We're considering how to handle inconsistent states in Gtk widget for Dia.
> We have various widgets like checkbuttons, entry fields, spinners, and
> optionmenus, and need to be able to show an inconsistent state for these
> when editing the properties of several objects.  One widget has an
> inconsistent state: GtkToggleButton has gtk_toggle_button_set_inconsistent,
> but how to mark other things inconsistent?

The evil Yes/No toggle buttons must die!
Checkboxes all the way.

There may be circumstances where toggle buttons could reasonably be used
instead of checkboxes (and I cannot think of any in Dia) but buttons that
change their label depending on state are very bad for accessibility and
to a lesser extent usability.

Not that it changes the point of your question (but one less widget type
to worry about trying to fix).

> GtkEntry:  Grey out the entry area, but have a popdown menu with the
>   existing choise.
> GtkSpinner:  Same.
> GtkOptionMenu:  Have several items selected at the same time, the button
>   greyed out.

Best I can tell, what OpenOffice.org Draw does is show the current value
(colour, line width, etc) if the objects are all the same but show a
blank if they are inconsistant.

> We have our own color selection widget that we can reasonably deal with.
>
> Any comments on these ideas?

If you asked this on the Dia list already I must have missed it, otherwise
I'd have found out how Visio manages and provided some screenshots (which
I'll try and do over the next few days).

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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