A word on Surfulater (today on Bits du Jour)

Posted by Bob Mackreth
May 31, 2007 at 03:56 AM

Thanks for popping in Neville, and taking the time to respond.

Just a couple of clarifications:

>>On the down side, the UI is just
>>a bit quirky-
>eg, no “Edit” item in the menu bar, though cut/ copy / paste /undo
>>functions are
>available through toolbar icons or right-click. You can set most font
>>aspects for
>text you enter, but not color. Right-clicking the document icon in the
>>tree pane-
>intuitive for most of us - does not bring up the normal set of choices; you
>>have to
>select the label TEXT instead. Odd!
> >- What action would “Edit item” actually
>perform? About all I can think of would be to enter edit mode on the Title for the current
>record. There are already plenty of ways to edit content and this seems like adding
>unnecessary clutter to me. Note also that Edit works on a Record -> Field basis
>wherease Cut/Copy/Paste etc. all work on complete records.

You misread my post, specifically reading :

“edit” item on the menu bar

as:

“edit item” on the menu bar

What I was trying to say is that in the vast majority of Windows applications, the menu bar, reading from left to right, will include FILE - EDIT - and then other items specific to the app. (Maybe I should not use the word “item” here, but I can’t think of a better term right now.)

In most other programs when you choose EDIT, the drop-down menu will include choices such as UNDO - REDO - CUT - COPY - PASTE, etc.

I find it a bit odd that Surfulater does not follow this Windows convention. Personally, I like to minimize toolbar clutter, and in most software, I can confidently delete seldom-used buttons from toolbars knowing that, should I ever need to use that command, it will be available from a drop-down menu. This does not seem to be the case with Surfulater.

And while we’re speaking of Windows conventions,

>- Surfulater makes extensive use of right click context menus
>throughout the program. It seemed logical to me at least that right click on an image
>would limit itself to menu items to change the image and right click on the item title
>would provide the full complement of capabilities.

But is it not a Windows convention that when you right-click on an icon, the context menu choices affect the associated file, document, item, whatever? Go to Windows Explorer, for example: right-clicking the file icon will bring up the same context menu as right-clicking the file name.

I find it jarring when I want to cut or copy or delete an article in a knowledge base, and I right-click on the icon as I have learned to do, lo these many years, and the choices that appear are, “Change This Image,” “Restore To Default Image,” and “Set This Item Type’s Default Image.” Seems to me most Windows users will be expecting the CUT- REMOVE - RENAME etc choices here.

> I could also add these to the image context menu, but surely that’s unnecessary clutter. Context menu’s are after all,
>all about what you click on.

Perhaps clutter is in the eye of the beholder. To me a toolbar button for “Select A Content Color Theme” qualifies as clutter; how often do most of us change color themes in the middle of a session?

>Product design and development comprises various
>tradeoffs.

Indeed; I think you’ve done a good job, and I have stated elsewhere that your accessibility and communication with users is a strong point in Surfulater’s favor.