Hei, just trying to give a few crumbs to these interesting questions...
> Well, it's just a demo. > Before we invest time to fix the little flaws we have to solve the more > annoying problems and clarify the open design questions: > > - should we allow to open more than one window? +10 ;-) Yes, definately. We shouldn't force the user into a single window interface. First, because some users (which use good window managers that actually aid productivity) will hate it. Secondly, because there are real use cases of multiple window office work, like e.g. big screen setups or multi-monitor/projector setups. Thirdly, because it drops one of the advantages...see below. > - if yes, should we automatically group by application? Nope. Grouping by application represents a coder point of view. From a user point of view there isn't much purpose in it. On the other hand, grouping by project or grouping by workflow would be of good use. But this isn't quite doable automatically, except if combined with some kind of project management implementation (which would be a beneficial addition - for later on or so). Nonetheless, i imagine there would be possibilities to aid grouping by project. > - how should the UI be changed to support explicit creation of new windows? - "Open Document in new window...", "Open Document in new Tab..." - "Send Document to new window...", "Send Document to new Tab..." - Ideally, drag a tab out of the window to create a new window. - How flexible is ODF metadata and the extension system? Would it be possible to save a tag with each document, telling it which "window group" it belongs to? Of course, this suggests creating some kind of management for window groups. - Most gorgeous would be something like a "Save/Load session" feature. It would allow to save "projects" rather than documents. > - how can users understand the difference between the new document tabs > and the existing tabs e.g. in Calc and Impress? One idea would be vertical tabs, but that has issues. A probably better approach would be the combination of some other ways: - Make document tabs look different than "page" tabs. - Include a mime-type icon on each tab. This also adds further usability improvement. - Place the tabs above the toolbar (although i wouldn't advice that, really). Ideally, if combined with a means of project management, there could be a vertical docked window (like the styles list) that lists the projects documents. This way no tabbar would be needed at all and further benefits would apply. But i know of course that that's a whole different story. André.
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