Re: [Usability] Nautilus: Overwrite Existing File/Folder Dialog Buttons

[Jason Hoover <jasonhoover verizon net>]

This has kind of irked me for a while as well.

The lack of a cancel/abort button has been kind of disturbing to me. In
the current version of nautilus (or at least the one sitting in front of
me), there's no way to cancel a file copy/move operation, not even by
pressing escape or the X!! 

I can only imagine what would happen if a user went to replace/append a
directory with a collection of files, intending to skip most of them
(305 skip mashes later...). Or even worse, changed their mind when they
realized that the directory already exists, and only really intended to
copy a folder to a place it didn't!

(Anyone who's been to a website with an old browser that INSISTS you
press "Yes" to something will understand this 'dialog box hell'.)

The five-button approach is a great start, but is a bit of an eyesore
(way too much to look at).

On Fri, 2005-06-03 at 11:27 +0200, Diego Moya (a.k.a. TuringTest)
wrote: 
> What about extracting the "process all" to a checkbox option, thus
> avoiding the Skip All/Replace All redundancy? You'd have this
> interface:
> 
> 
> The following existing files will be replaced with the new ones:
> <List box with all the files being processed>
> 
> [X] Ask what to do for each file
> 
> [Cancel] [Skip] [Replace]

This is a good idea, but I suspect many people will accidentally read it
as just "to do for each file" and un-toggle it instinctively.

> or with a radio button:
> 
> 
> The following existing files will be replaced with the new ones:
> <List box with all the files being processed>
> 
> ( ) Apply this action to all files
> (.) Ask what to do for each file
> 
> [Cancel] [Skip] [Replace]

This is good too but, there's no sense in using a radio button in an
operation which, once they start, won't be able to change their mind.

I think simply:

|The following existing files will be replaced with the new ones:
|<List box with all the files being processed>
|
|[ ] Apply this action to all files
| 
|[Cancel] [Skip] [Replace]

Would be more than explanatory and simple enough for the novice, and
good enough for the power-filer.

You also seriously need to consider putting at least date/size
information in there. Getting date/size information when you're trying
to replace older with newer, or smaller with larger in nautilus is not
exactly the quickest operation.

Just my $0.02USD, for what it's worth,
-Jason Hoover