Re: [Usability] Modified Documents [emblems]

[Curtis Hovey <sinzui cox net>]

On Fri, 2004-09-17 at 11:05 -0400, Boris Goldowsky wrote:
> > On Fri, 17 Sep 2004, Boris Goldowsky wrote:
> 
> > > Why not adopt the NeXT & Mac OS X practice of putting a mark inside or
> > > over the 'close window' control?  It makes sense because if you are
> > > about to close a document window, that's the moment you need to be
> > > reminded that it has been modified.
> 
> On Fri, 2004-09-17 at 14:16 +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:
> > Could you provide a sample (screenshot/mockup?) of what this looks like?
> 
> I placed a screenshot at:
>    http://www.goldowsky.com/images/osx-icons.png
> 
> Note the black dot inside the red dot on the modified document.  It
> doesn't stand out, but it's always there if you want to know the state
> of a document.

Damn!  I've never noticed that in my years using OS X.  I have seen the
'*' in the window title.  I look for the '*' when I return to an editor.

I think an emblem is the best way to communicate to users that the open
file is modified.  The application should display the emblem in the
status bar if it has one.  The emblem should also be applied to the icon
in the window list, window selector, and the document icon on the
desktop.  If the theme displays the document icon in the window frame of
the GUI, it too should have the emblem.

Once we do that, we can be consistent, and do the same for no-write.
-- 

__C U R T I S  C.  H O V E Y____________________
sinzui cox net
Guilty of stealing everything I am.