At 4:59 AM -0400 8/28/02, Hubert Figuiere wrote:
>1) Almost everyone makes consistent use of a sans-serif font and a serif
>font. Most people don't really care which sans-serif or serif font this
>is as long as it is a good one.
I would argue that 90% of the world using a word processor
has never even HEARD the term "serif" - let alone know what it is,
and when to use it.
>Instead I propose to only include 5-8 MRU items in the font pulldown
>menu (organized alphabetically, to organize by recency of use will
>probably only serve to confuse), then a seperator then "Other Fonts..."
>which will open up a font selection dialogue.
Interesting suggestion, and one that certainly addresses the
issue(s). I believe that I have seen this done before, but can't
place where.
>As a further optimization allowed by resticting the pulldown menu to a
>fixed length, AbiWord could move to using an option menu control rather
>than a combo box. Fitt's law says that time to acquire a target with the
>mouse is a function of distance from the cursor and size of the target.
>The pulldown button for combo boxes is a very small target indeed.
>Option menus provide a much larger target. Combo boxes have a scrolling
>ability however, that, I conjecture, is the main reason they have
>traditionally been used for font menus. This need is eliminated with a
>fixed length menu.
All true.
If you reduce to a maximum length menu (MRU list + Other) you
have eliminated the need for the combo box. As you point out, it's
advantages of scrolling and type-ahead are pretty useless for a menu
with only about 10 items in it.
>The only other advantage of a combo box is that you can directly type
>the name of a font in rather than going through the list. I have rarely
>seen this used, and its very hard to do without typeahead (which abiword
>doesn't provide in the font combos anyway).
I use it all the time in Word - but as you point out, they
have typeahead which helps A LOT!
>Also, the Other Font feature could have typeahead font selection
All lists should provide type-selection!
Leonard
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Leonard Rosenthol <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
<http://www.lazerware.com>
