On 17 Dec 2008, at 23:56, Gary C Martin wrote:
3) The 'Reinier' way, put a help item in a hover palette/menu that reveals help 'in some way'.PROs- context sensitive (and developers only have to add help for complex features)- uses existing Sugar UI features CONs- Edward can't find it ;-b (not so easy to discover due to delayed reveal) - the 'in some way' needs some work. In calculates specific case, inserting a help command into the calculator input is not great as it mangles the formula you were half way through and needed help on. The resulting help text answer display is also pretty truncated just now.I'm still liking option 3 the most. It requires no special sugar inventions, just some HIG from Eben so that activities have a standard style to aim for. Once a few activities use it, you'll know where to look if you need help elsewhere.The 'in some way' could be resolved for a generic activity use case by:3.2 Replace the help item with the actual help text, right there in the palette.PROs - help is just right there, no clicking, no pop-ups! CONs- non-standard use of menu/palette items (relative to other platforms, non functional menu text is frowned upon in most HIGs) - limited quantity of help text (needs to be short and sweet or will look silly) - will be confusing if a palette needs other real working items. Can inactive help text be styled? Italics perhaps?
For comparison with the previous menu screen shot, here's a shot of a tweaked version of Calculate, where the full help text is placed directly in the menu:
<<inline: new-plot-help2.jpg>>
FWIW: I've just spotted there is precedence for this style of help in the Sugar UI, it's used by Log to describe its "Log Collector: Send XO information" toolbar feature (allegedly sends logs to a server, does anyone actually use this? sounds like a useful feature).
--Gary
Any other help suggestions out there? Shall we all go open trac tickets for Even and the HIG ;-)Regards, --Gary
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