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

[Otto Dassau]

Hi Tara,

On Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:10:59 -0700
Tara Athan <tara_athan at alt2is.com> wrote:

> 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.

I would vote for option 2 and hope the list of different "human interface
guidelines" is short so adding it won't make reading too confusing.

 regards,
  Otto

> 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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