[Usability] Preview Image in File Chooser?

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

Preview Image in File Chooser?
or
Designing the File Chooser to account for future changes.

On Sat, 10 Jan 2004, David Christian Berg wrote:

> Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 22:57:04 +0100
> From: David Christian Berg <david berg gmx net>
> Reply-To: david sipsolutions com
> To: Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>
> Cc: Daniel Borgmann <spark-mailinglists web de>, usability gnome org
> Subject: Re: [Usability] Getting rid of Open and Save entirely?
>
> Alright, I'm new to the list and therefore don't really know, what
> already has been discussed, so forgive me, if I'm bringing old topics.
> But here's my view on open/save file dialogs:

no problem, the archives are vast and there aren't any convenient
summaries available so I dont realistically expect you to know all that
has gone before.

> One problem, I'm not yet quite sure how to solve is the preview, which
> for instance gimp uses. The point is, I'd greatly appretiate a
> preview-panel for the nautilus navigator anyway, but this doesn't help
> with a open dialog, because for that the app itself must generat the
> preview. However, I'm confident, that there'll be a good solution to
> this problem, too.

As far as I am concerned this is a known problem.
<tongue-in-cheek>
The GIMP is slow and should try and cooperate with more with Gnome and
try to integrate with a thumbnail browser or maybe someone will revive
GUASH the GIMP thumbnail browser (CinePaint is already sort of, but I
wouldn't hold out for a GTK2 port they are investigation lighter toolkits)
</tongue-in-cheek>

I love the GIMP really it is a great piece of work but taking my tongue
back out of my cheek and being serious I'd say that this is a known
problem and knowing that developers will definately want to change
whatever File chooser is decided upon and that we probably cant think of
everything we should keep it simple but design it with a few basic
additions in mind.

The seemed to recognise the problem and as an example included a checkbox
like this
[] Send love to Ximian Monkeys
Similarly a really good File chooser design will include a space for an
Image Thumbnail or some sort of plan for where it will need to go.
In Mac OS X the thumbnail slides out from behind the File chooser rather
than messing around with the existing file chooser window which usually
ends up with a cramped ugly looking dialog.

If I can convince the right developers I would also like to see an
"Options..." button in the bottom row.  It would be instead of popping up
some sort of a special options dialog absolutely everytime you choose to
save in a particular file format which gets really annoying really fast
(use the GIMP and you will know).  Even though for some file formats I do
change the settings nearly every time for the times that I dont change
things I'd really prefer not to have to deal with an extra dialog or lots
of extra inconsistant widgets bogging down the dialog.
The "Options..." button would take you to a preferences dialog and allow
you to change the settings such as HTML markup settings, PNG Compression,
Jpeg quality (perhaps even with an option to do so only once and not to
override the defaults)

Another way to deal with the problem of extra widgets is to provide a
'More...' button that reveals more of the dialog and extra options but I
dont personally like the approach much.  I know I should try and be more
objective about it this and quantify the whys and the wherefores but I've
seen and used the 'Options...' button as I have described and liked it
very much.

> I've made a mockup (without any kind of a preview-panel) for a
> nautilus-based open dialog. Take a look at it at
> http://www.sipsolutions.de/open-save-mockup.png
> I hope it helps you to get an idea of how I'd suggest a new open/dialog
> to be like.

The theme reminds me of something unpleasant and for a moment I thought
you were taking the piss by posting a Windows XP screenshot.  But that
seems about right for a feature filled file manager based File chooser,
pretty much your standard nautilus with an extra bar at the bottom and it
is exactly what I was trying to get at when I suggested allowing a more
complex file manager approach (complex bad, consistancy good) for those
who want it.  I still think the default should be very simple though and
this should only be an option.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

> PS.: Why is everybody always refering to file->open? I usually use the
> open button, if there is on in the toolbar.

I usually use Ctrl+O


--
In Memory of Mark Finlay aka 'sisob'
http://advogato.org/person/sisob