"Ben Ruppel (slate)" wrote: >... > Holger Metzger wrote: > > > > On 10/30/2001 4:48 PM, Pratik wrote: >... > > > Ok I want to know how to do this. How do I get different quote > > > levels in different colors? >... > > Yes, I'd like to know that as well. Would be great! <... > I was gonna ask about that, it seems like the next logical step, but > could you imagine the UI?
The UI in Outlook Express is usable, but poorly presented: | | Color Quoting ______________________________________________________ | +-----------------------------------------+ | | >>>> Click to change level four quoting | Click the quote level and | | >>> Click to change level three quoting | select a color to change | | >> Click to change level two quoting | the color of quoted text | | > Click to change level one quoting | in an e-mail message. | +-----------------------------------------+ Mousing down on any of the quoted rows opens an option menu, with a list of likely colors, and an `Other...' item which opens the Mac's gorgeous native colorpicker (which Mozilla carefully avoids using, of course). However, anything in UI which says `Click to' (such as the awful `click here to select' folder menu in Mozilla) is wrong, because clickability should be made clear by the appearance of the control rather than having to be spelled out in text. (There are a number of similar UI bugs in Outlook Express.) Mozilla's UI could look something like this: | | Background: [ :: Silver :^] | Text: [ MM Black :^] | Links: [ ## Navy :^] | Recent links: [ && Purple :^] | Active links: [ %% Red :^] | Quoted text: [ HH Dark Purple :^] | | [/] Use different colors for nested quotes | Level 2: [ WW Dark Blue :^] | Level 3: [ @@ Turquoise :^] | Level 4: [ XX Dark Green :^] That could probably be arranged more neatly if I gave it a bit of thought. > MPT would never approve ;) On the contrary, I think it should be on by default! I find it amusing that a thread about what the default color should be got so easily sidetracked into discussion of greater configurability that H�kan's original bug ended up being wontfixed in the meantime (!), but I agree with the configurability part here anyway. :-) I'm not against prefs in general (though if there are too many prefs, as there are in Mozilla currently, that makes it unreasonably difficult for users to find the options they *do* want to change). It only seems that I'm against them, because usually when someone proposes a pref it's a copout from not wanting to make an obscure decision (e.g. `Maintain table layout when inserting or deleting cells' -- eh?), a workaround for not fixing performance bugs (e.g. offering tabbed browsing instead of fixing new window performance and allowing an icons-only toolbar), or a copout from fixing bugs where UI isn't smart enough (e.g. having a pref for newsgroup name abbreviation, instead of fixing the bug that the name is thoroughly abbreviated even when there's room for some or all of it to appear in full). All too rarely are proposed options actually useful for users to improve their experience when reading Web pages or messages -- e.g. controlling popup windows, setting a minimum font size, or changing quoting colors. -- Matthew `mpt' Thomas, Mozilla UI Design component default assignee thing <http://mozilla.org/>
