Re: Dia's user interface

[James K.Lowden <jklowden speakeasy org>]

On Fri, 26 Apr 2002 00:43:05 +0200 "Hubert Figuiere" <hfiguiere@teaser.fr>
wrote:> Properties Dialog
> -----------------
> it can be opened using Dialog->Property. 

I didn't guess that.  "Dialog" is an odd menu item IMHO.  There are
several reasonable locations on the main menu for Properties: Edit, View,
and Objects all seem like logical places to find "Properties" of the
selected object.  

> If no object is selected this
> menu should be disabled. Anyway, I'll talk about how this should
> really work instead. The Properties dialog should act like an
> "inspector". A floating toolbar that changes its content upon
> selections. If nothing it selected, it becomes empty, but stays here.
> That is not the current behavior. It does not update, unless you
> "reopen it". That is not user friendly as you may select another
> object, then click apply to discover that the wrong object has been
> changed.... :-/ BAD. (I know, this happened to me several time, and I
> won't told you how frustrated I was with that).
[...]
> This property dialog should have tabs for object specific properties.
> In case of multiple selection, it should handle that and allow mixed
> states and changing parameter globally on the whole selection.
> 

If I may, this is a very powerful idea.  

--jkl