[Qgis-community-team] platform differences in GUI labels

[Tara Athan]

Tim- thanks for pointing this out- I was unaware of these differences. 
Do you have a list of all of these differences? Few if any of the 
writers will have QGIS implemented on WIndows, Mac and POSIX platforms 
to be able to see where these changes occur.

Community Team- How can we deal with this in the manual?   IMO, the 
manual should be platform neutral and give complete information about 
every platform.  To me, it is unacceptable to use, say, the Windows 
dialog name and expect the Mac user to translate. Here are some thoughts 
off the top of my head.

Option 1. - use a standard compact notation.
Example:  Click  File/File/QGIS -> Quit to close QGIS.

where the notation indicates POSIX/Windows/Mac titles.

Option 2. use platform logos for a slightly less compact but more 
user-friendly notation. I have obtained logos for Linux, Windows and Mac 
OSX, and was planning on using these in the macros \nix, \win and \mac, 
which are intended to be used for a sequence of paragraphs describing 
platform-specific instructions.
Example Click  {Linux logo)(Windows logo)File (Mac logo)QGIS -> Quit  to 
close QGIS.

Option 3. space-hogging formats.
Example:
Click

(Linux logo)File
(WIndows logo)File
(Mac logo)QGIS

-> Quit to close QGIS.

OR

\nix  Click File -> Quit to close QGIS.

\win Click File -> Quit to close QGIS.

\mac Click QGIS -> Quit to close QGIS.

Option 4. Have a separate manual version for each platform.  The Latex 
code contains macros, and each build uses a different version of the macro.
Example (does latex have an if/else structure?)
\newcommand{\File}{%
%File% use for POSIX and Windows
QGIS% use for Mac OSX
}

Click \File -> Quit to close QGIS.



Tara

Tim Sutton wrote:
> Hi
>
> One thing to bear in mind; in some cases the HIG (human interface
> guidelines) on different OS's and desktop environments may cause
> changes to dialog names and menu items. For exanple under Mac OS X the
> 'Options' dialog is called 'Preferences' and the File - quit menu is
> QGIS - quit.
>
> regards
>
> T/m
>
> On 6/21/08, Tara Athan <tara_athan at alt2is.com> wrote:
>   
>> I started reviewing the work the documentation writers have been doing
>> incorporating the macros into the manual.
>> I have changed only a few things- thank you for a great job!
>>
>> I finally understand what  Stephan H. meant by a "dialog" macro. We
>> often make reference to a dialog box by its title, however, the title
>> does not usually coincide with any button or tool name (this is perhaps
>> something to look into in the long term). So I created a \dialog macro
>> that reproduces the title bar of the popup - blue background with white
>> letters, no shadow because it is not clickable. I have implemented this
>> in Chaps 3, 4.
>> Please be sure to use the exact title so as not to confuse the newbie user.
>>
>> I am thinking we should include a reference for each time we say
>> something like
>> Open the \dialog{Layer Properties} dialog
>> as help for the reader who may have forgotten how to do that.
>> Then we can list just one time the various ways to open each dialog.
>> Would there be any value in having an appendix to summarize all the
>> dialog boxes?
>>
>> Tara
>> _______________________________________________
>> Qgis-community-team mailing list
>> Qgis-community-team at lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-community-team
>>
>>     
>
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Tara Athan
Principal, Alternatives to Invasive Species
tara_athan [AT] alt2is.com
707-485-1198
PO Box 415
Redwood Valley, CA 95470