Re: Synchronizing WAS [Re: [Usability] The ``Replace File'' dialog should display the two]

[Joachim Noreiko <jnoreiko yahoo com>]

--- Christian Neumair <chris gnome-de org> wrote:

> Am Dienstag, den 09.08.2005, 20:57 +0100 schrieb
> Joachim Noreiko:
> > --- Christian Neumair <chris gnome-de org> wrote:
> new ways of dealing with conflicts, like:
> 
> * prefix all moved files with: [ bla-2005 ]
> 
> I think my second mockup [1] fits very nicely with
> this, plus having
> renaming/prefix functionality.

I like the idea of a dialog that groups all conflicts
together.
The text at the top of this mockup [
http://www.geocities.com/philbull_tk/gnome_dlg_mockup.png
] is great. Both the heading and the paragraph are
very clear and simple.

Since I submitted my mockup to bugzilla I've been
thinking about what possible actions a user might want
to perform when a conflict occurs, and which ones can
be feasibly performed through the conflict dialog.

For a single file, the basic possibilities are:
* cancel the move/copy
* overwrite the existing file
(I can however think of another possibility, though I
admit it could seem a little peculiar.
If I choose to move a file, say from old/ to new/, my
intention is that it should be removed from old/. If I
get a conflict, and find that the file in new/ is
better and I choose to keep it, I have to go back and
clean up the file in old/.
However, while I might consider this a useful option,
I don't see a way to simply convey it in a dialog
box.)

Then there's:
* rename one or both files. Just prefixing the files
would simplify the interface.
* compare file contents (as has been said before, this
is possibly the role of another application)

The problems I see with the dialog suggestions are:
* It's not immediately clear what happens to
non-checked items
* If the dialog appears at the start of the operation,
it doesn't seem clear to me that the "overwrite
selected" button will also copy/move the
non-conflicting files.

My proposal to get round this & also include some more
advanced possibilities would be change the checkbox
column to a "action to perform" column, and the final
button to "Copy" or "Move" (whatever the user wanted
in the first place).
But I can't think of a clean way to interact with an
"action to perform" column. A whole column of
drop-down menus, would be ugly & involve far more
clicking for the user. Several columns for each of
"overwrite", "skip", "rename" would be cluttered and
could lead to confusion.
Perhaps some of you can find a way to make this
feasible?

Joachim





		
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