Re: [Inkscape-devel] [UI] Rework Document Properties dialog
On 1 June 2016 at 12:40, LucaDC <dicappello@...2144...> wrote:
Sebastian Zartner wrote
> Grids and guides have different usage contexts, that's right, but both
> are document related helpers that serve to align objects.
I find that speaking about guides in this terms is pretty reductive.
I use guides to make geometric constructions, to copy angles, to calculate
tangent points, to offset distances, to draw circles with a given diameter
or rectangles with given dimensions and much, much more.
Sure, guides serve more use cases than the one mentioned by me.
To me guides are mostly (temporary) objects related helpers and I
very often
open the guide dialog, even more than once for each guide to set it in the
right position and to work with it: this dialog shall be lightweight, fast
and small, focused on the single guide's options; I usually cycle between
fields with tab so they should be few and well ordered and grouped;
Regarding the options to edit a single guide my mockup currently has
the same amount of options (two more for visibility and showing dots
instead of lines and two less by removing the option for relative
changes and the unit; editing the label moved into the list).
everything more than this is only going to distract me from what
I'm doing
or going to cause time waste while waiting for it to appear and populate.
I have a very poorly equipped laptop at home, though I still never
have to wait long for the dialogs to appear.
Further, I can't see any need for relationships with global
options in here
(which I would change at most only once per document).
In few words: the current single guide dialog is good (I'd only reduce its
size rearranging what's already in it and reducing the tab for the color
which I find unnecessarily big now).
Got your point.
Sebastian Zartner wrote
> The editable vs. locked feature is just a state and as Maren wrote
> earlier,
> guides can also be locked in the next version. So, IMO there is no real
> local
> vs. global relation.
Locked/unlocked is different than editable/non editable.
There's no point in locking a non editable object. The lock feature is
useful exactly because guides are editable. Grids are not editable.
This is not completely correct. Grids *are* editable (from within the
Document Properties dialog), just not directly on the canvas. I
interpret this as 'always-locked'. My mockup would allow to unlock
them, so they could be edited (moved) within the canvas. They would
still initially be locked, though, so the default behavior would stay
the same.
Sebastian Zartner wrote
> You may be interested in https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1362061
> then.
I agree with Alvin and su_v replies.
Alvin and su_v pointed out that 0.91 features a dialog, which allows
to create a new document based on a template. My suggestion there was
to combine its features with the ability to adjust the preferences
before creating the document and to allow to save your own templates.
Also, I don't like those programs that try to guess what I need,
because
they usually fail.
And I don't like that I have to adjust the preferences after I've
created the document.
I believe programs should try to provide you with some properly chosen
defaults but always allow you to adjust them to your needs.
If I need the document's options dialog I'm fine with
having to call for it; if I don't need the dialog I'd be annoyed to have to
close it, even if the former was more frequent than the latter.
For your use case I could imagine a checkbox allowing you to skip the
dialog and always create a document based on the default template -
i.e. restore the current behavior. This would serve both use cases.
Any further discussion specifically related to the 'New Document'
dialog should take place in the bug report.
Sebastian