On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 02:22:19 +0100, Jakub Steiner <jimmac@...659...> wrote:
Edit>Preferences is the proper thing to do if you want Gnome users to be familiar with Inkscape's interface,
It always struck me as something extremely odd that the global preferences of a program are in "Edit", just below Copy and Paste. What's the connection? I fail to see it. Yeah, I know, everyone does that. But it does not make it less stupid in my opinion. And in other programs, it's in Tools instead, which isn't any better. I always swear when I'm trying to find it on one of these menus while it's (of course!) in another.
In my experience, most users of most programs have very vague idea of what are the various kinds of properties and preferences. In many cases they are surprised to find that some of those thingies they changed are saved with the document and some are with the program itself. And most programs don't make it easier for them to figure this out.
A typical user goes like this, "I think it must be settable somewhere... OK, let's try Properties... Nope... Maybe Configuration... No. Where did I see it last time? Ah! It also has this Preferences thing, dammit. Yeah, there it is. OK, let's hope it will now remember it and I won't have to set it again." It's more trial-and-error than anything else. And it's frustrating.
So, in an attempt to fix this, I put the two configuration commands next to each other so that: 1) the user is instantly aware that there are two similar-but-different commands for setting various things; 2) the user is given an idea of how they are different (the statusbar tips explain that document preferences are saved with the document); 3) the user does not need to hunt these commands down in different menus. So, I think it's much easier to understand and remember it this way.
I don't want to start a flamewar, so if the consensus is that we must change that, let it be. I just wanted to explain my reasoning.