[Qgis-developer] legend menu

[Martin Dobias]

On 2/1/07, Tom Elwertowski <telwertowski at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> I'm not in favor of adding permanently visible controls because it takes
> away from content space. A row of buttons means one less row for layers.

I think that taking one row from legend for the buttons is not such a
waste of space. I was focusing mainly on usability - mixing global and
item-specific menu items IMHO is not very good, using a toolbar
instead of global menu items seemed to be a good solution for me how
to split them.

>
> If the controls could be implemented as a hidable toolbar, that would be
> ok because it could be hidden by those who prefer content space over tools.
>
> Personally, I don't think the menu is too long, however, I prefer
> applications that are primarily menu controlled.
>
> Ideally, it should be possible to use the application either way. On a
> Mac, there is a 'hide tools' control in the window title bar. Apple
> recommends designing applications so every command is on a menu
> somewhere but to also provide toolbars for those who prefer that style.
> Each user then decides whether space should be devoted to content or tools.
>
> Perhaps there can be a preference item: "Layer tools are buttons/menus".
> Depending on the choice, the items are displayed as buttons or appended
> to the menu as they are now.

Giving user a choice to select which approach suits better his needs
might be good...

> This is not an immediate goal but somewhere in the future, I wouldn't
> mind having the legend be a separate window. In this case, a legend
> toolbar would be the place for these controls.

Isn't legend in separate window somewhat less user-friendly? Usually
software tries to have everything in one window rather having multiple
windows for one application (e.g. Gimp), or am I wrong?

Martin