Yes David, it's precisely because of the confusion you mentioned when users don't know how to operate an app, that made me wonder what's the best way for us to handle it, and then once we've settled on something, shouldn't we make it known to all app developers so that all apps present a consistent interface. thanks for your response. Chip
_____ From: David [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 12:40 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: a "best practices" question Well, could definitely agree with you here. Never understood the logic, for GW to even start out a practice, where they put all the options and settings for an App under the Help button. OK, you get used to it, but for anyone who first put their hands on WE, it will not even occur for them to look under HELP, to make any settings changes. If GW wants us to put things under that menu, or button, why not simply change its name to OPTIONS. They changed from scripts, to apps, to be more in line with general computing terms. Then why not make the change from HELP, to OPTIONS, to fulfill that change. It would make more sense, and actually more and more apps hold only so much for help, whilst they are loaded with settings for the user to interact. And, how many times, do we get questions here, on how to make this and that app change behavior. Guess, half of the amount of questions, would have vanished, if people knew where to look for the settings. But if you see a help-button, NOONE would ever think of going there, to look for settings. Further, in many cases, if now you decide to go to look for your settings under that HELP button... Well, where does that take you? Into another screen, where there is little or no settings. You now have to follow practice, and go under yet another HELP button. IF the first one was meaningless, what about the other one. I guess, we have many a user backing us on this: Please have the help button changed to something more descriptive; or, simply add on a new OPTIONS, or SETTINGS, button. Then let all developers put their adjustables in there. ----- Original Message ----- From: J.J. Meddaugh <mailto:[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 3:28 AM Subject: Re: a "best practices" question Chip, Also, just because GW does it a certain way doesn't mean it's the only option. I would likely have a preferences option under Edit or Tools in my menu structure to handle things like this. I can still link the dialog to the WE menus plus have it available from my app where I'd expect it. If I'm in a mainstream app, I look for options or preferences under tools, edit, file, etc. I wouldn't think to look under help. Best Regards, J.J. Meddaugh A T Guys Your Assistive Technology Experts (269) 216-4798 http://www.ATGuys.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Chip <mailto:[email protected]> Orange To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 8:48 PM Subject: RE: a "best practices" question Hi Aaron, I will, in order to be consistent, do it as you suggest if that seems to be the overall opinion. However, I find dialogs of controls (especially large ones) more confusing than menus usually, and harder to go into and make a change to one setting than to do that in a set of menus, where it's easier to find the particular item you seek. However, Vic points out it's harder to change many settings at once. I also don't like going into a dialog via a "help" choice, only to have to choose another "help" button to get to the help. I wish here the standard help dialog gave us an option to add an "options" button which would lead to the configuration dialog. Also, I do this just because I start out with a menu with a couple of options to turn on/off, and then I keep adding to it until it turns into menus 2 or 3 levels deep with a dozen options. But if I'm to redesign things, I wanted to do it in a consistent way, and a way most people found the easiest to use. thanks. Chip _____ From: Aaron Smith [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 9:24 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: a "best practices" question On 5/21/2011 6:13 PM, Chip Orange wrote: Now, I find myself usually designing my app interfaces so that all configuration options are controlled via the app menu entry (and it's submenus), so I can leave the help dialog managed as a standard help dialog by the help dialog object. Why not have one dialog that provides configuration options, along with a help button that will launch the standard help dialog? That dialog will then get called regardless of whether the user select the Help and Options button, or the configuration option in the app's menu entry. The Progress Indicator script demonstrates how this should be done. Aaron -- Aaron Smith Web Development * App Development * Product Support Specialist GW Micro, Inc. * 725 Airport North Office Park, Fort Wayne, IN 46825 260-489-3671 * gwmicro.com To insure that you receive proper support, please include all past correspondence (where applicable), and any relevant information pertinent to your situation when submitting a problem report to the GW Micro Technical Support Team.
