Re: Modifying properties of several objects at the same time

[Daniele Pighin <daniele dcs it>]

Alle 17:47, venerdì 24 ottobre 2003, Lars Clausen ha scritto:
> > I also assert that the imaginable possibility of being able to set
> > multiple values for the same field at the same time (when multiple
> > objects are selected), is not really a feature that is
> > needed. Because, if one really wants different values for some
> > specific property, then one can simply bring up the properties dialog
> > individually for each object in turn.
>
> Indeed.  That'd be way too confusing a feature...
> <daydream>Would be nice though to be able to, say, add 1 to all
> linewidths...</daydream> but it's so rarely useful that the interface would
> be clutter.


 I'm sorry I don't agree here.

 If you edit a diagram with, say, 20 arrows, and then you decide that the 
arrows must bu thinner or thicker (if I have to put the diagram in my thesis 
I want it to be informative AND _nicelooking_, so this make-up is part of 
diagram editing), you have to click something as 100 buttons, and move across 
menu entries too.

 Further more, I guess that most users do first draw the diagram using 
standard values (the informative part of the action of drawing) and then 
rearrange items and edit properties to their taste and needs (the make-up 
part).

 IMHO this is the mising-feature that introduces more overhead.

 Furthermore, I'd love to resecond the proposal of using the program window to 
edit properties of multiple objects, that is:

- say that I have selected 2 text objects (T1 and T2), a box (B1) and a line
  (L1). If I:
 - double click on the text button in the app window and change some text
   properties, this changes are reflected by T1 and T2.
 - If I change the foreground color, all of the four objects get their fgcolor
   changed.
 - If I select a thicker and dashed line, B1 and L1 get such an outline.

 This approach has 2 advantages:

 - NO work at all needed at the interface level (as the interface is already
   there). If you want to make things harder, you could provide some visual  
   hint about the fact that selected object don't share one of their
   properties' values, for example "shading" the corresponding widget in the
   application window).
 - This is far more intuitive than the others.

I said :)

Daniele