New Preferences dialog is sweet.
It has been a while since I tried out Inkscape and I've filed a few requests already today but I'm thoroughly impressed by the new Preferences dialog (notwithstanding my old complaints about having the Inkscape branding directly in the lable and it taking up a valuable shortcut). The layout is clean, the bits which change dynamically are clearly delinated and predicatable and the lables are clear and understandable. This style of dialog has the advantage of room to expand but that requires developers have the discipline to consolidate and rework things so less preferences are needed and the list doesn't get too big.
In the broad sense there is really very little wrong with it and I was only able to find a few very minor issues. The first is the use of abbreviations. Abbreviations should be avoided. Misc should be the full word Miscellaneous but ideally someone can figure out a suitable category for these options. The Scrolling section uses the lables pixels and the Steps section uses the lable abbreviation px.
Mouse is a nice simple lable but unfortunately there is a good chance users will be using other pointer types such as a pen and tablet device. Much as I hate to reference the user interface of the GNU Image Manipulation Program uses the more generic and techincally correctly category "Input Devices". Maybe the technically incorrect lable is the best option and I should leave well enough alone for this one. Somewhat confusingly the Scrolling category includes options for the mouse wheel scrolling but it also looks like a difficult one to decide.
Tools, Shapes, Rectangle (and others) includes a colour widget with abbreviated labels "F" and "S" rather than Fill and Stroke. I wonder if a standard gtk colour widget could be used but there is probably a benefit to using the inkscape colour widgets consistently.
Let me know if you think any of the issues I have raised require reports.
Overall the Preferences dialog is an excellent piece of work, congratulations.
Sincerely
Alan Horkan
Inkscape http://inkscape.org Abiword http://www.abisource.com Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org
Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/