RE: "Reveal Drawer" button in title bars
RE: "Reveal Drawer" button in title bars
- Subject: RE: "Reveal Drawer" button in title bars
- From: Jeff Laing <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 12:49:07 +1000
> The right-hand end of the title bar may have the show/hide
> button for the TOOLBAR.
>
> But that's not green.
Brian Ganninger points out that it appears when you have an NSToolbar in
your window, but I was sure I've seen windows with toolbars that don't have
it - on this I could be wrong - or perhaps it only shows if the toolbar is
hideable, that would fit the symptom, I guess.
However, I am sure I remember past incarnations of Mail.app (and other
applications) opening a drawer when that button was clicked.
> Usually, if there is a button for show/hiding a drawer, it is
> implemented as a a Toolbar Item (in addition to being in the menu).
Yes, but its not the user interface I'm striving for.
> I don't know what you want, but without the proper context, it sure
> sounds like you're trying to do something really ugly and against
> good design practices. Without knowing the context, I'm going to
> also recommend that you look at using utility windows.
Lets say I have an app which displays "chessboard documents". Lets say I
want various options to be associated with the process that manages that
chessboard.
>From a users perspective of the application, I want to see the chessboard
and NOTHING else in that window. No icons in a toolbar. No disclosure
triangle. Just the chessboard. Thats what the user wants to think about,
and they don't want to be distracted by administrative controls.
Sometimes I want to view certain analytical info about the board, and
perhaps manipulate some criteria - so I click the green button and it
reveals the drawer containing the settings relevant to this instance of the
document. Perhaps it decides which graphics to use in this instance of the
document. Perhaps it contains 'hint controls'. Perhaps it contains a "how
am I going" score. The actual content is irrelevant, but its certainly not
the sort of thing you want floating there all the time which a Utility
window would do. Its not a preference because I want different values for
different documents.
I don't want a sheet because I don't want the graphics obscured while the
settings are visible.
I don't want to put up a seperate panel because I want a close tie between
"select this checkbox" and "the graphics change like this", which I think
seperate windows breaks visually - after all, I expect people to have more
than one document open, each of which should be displaying its drawer.
Seems to me that a drawer is a perfect fit.
Having to mouse up to the menu to open the drawer, then mouse back down to
the drawer to change things is lame. Remembering keyboard shortcuts is lame.
Having to open the toolbar, just to reveal the 'open the drawer' button is
lame.
(where 'lame' is completely subjective)
> It's not green. It never was green. It's only "green" if you're
> using some non-standard theme or if you're colorblind. So, you must
> be speaking about something else.
Well, for me it glows green when I hover over it. So perhaps I am using
some non-standard theme. Or perhaps my screen needs its colours adjusted.
Or my rose coloured glasses need cleaning.
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