oster@ucblapis.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster) (04/27/86)
In article <921@watdragon.UUCP> jmsellens@watdragon.UUCP (John Sellens) writes: >The option and command keys have to be just about the stupidest thing >on the mac. Yes and no. If more developers read the bible: the chapter on user interface guidlines in Inside Mac then they would know that all commands should have either menu items or labelled places to click on the screen. Sure, expert users want the command keys, But please, developers, include a glossary and in so far as is possible, put the commands in the menu bar! --- David Phillip Oster -- "The goal of Computer Science is to Arpa: oster@lapis.berkeley.edu -- build something that will last at Uucp: ucbvax!ucblapis!oster -- least until we've finished building it."
mazlack@ucbvax (04/28/86)
> >Yes and no. If more developers read the bible: the chapter on user >interface guidlines in Inside Mac then they would know that all commands >should have either menu items or labelled places to click on the screen. >Sure, expert users want the command keys, But please, developers, include >a glossary and in so far as is possible, put the commands in the menu >bar! The nice thing about using the option stuff is that you can do things a lot quicker. The stuff that I use most in Word is font changes, underlining, bolds, italics, etc. If you change these a lot, going to the menu a lot is pretty time consuming - for example to make a single term bold italic and then back to normal takes two menu accesses to do it and two to undo - and if you change fonts, even longer. However, I will agree that everything doable by option sequences should also be doable by menu - and Word does sin in this respect. Larry Mazlack mazlack@ernie.berkeley.edu
ralphw@ius2 (04/30/86)
In article <13461@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> mazlack@ernie.berkeley.edu.UUCP (Lawrence J. Mazlack) writes: >> >>... If more developers read the bible: the chapter on user interface >> guidlines in Inside Mac then they would know that all commands >>should have either menu items or labelled places to click on the screen. >>Sure, expert users want the command keys, But please, developers, include >>a glossary and in so far as is possible, put the commands in the menu >>bar! > >The nice thing about using the option stuff is that you can do things a lot >quicker. The stuff that I use most in Word is font changes, underlining, bolds, >italics, etc. If you change these a lot, going to the menu a lot is pretty >time consuming... The idea is that all command shortcuts should be indicated next the the corresponding menu item, so that there are two ways to accomplish a task. This makes a glossary unneccesary. For example: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @ File Font Style ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open %O Geneva %G Italic %I Close %C Roman %R Bold %B Flip-all-bits-and-stand-on-your-head %F etc. It would be nice for the command equivalents were on the left hand side, (eg %O Open ...) to make formatting menu entries easier. It's inexcusable to provide functionality in an applications and not make it accessible by menu items as well as command keys. >However, I will agree that everything doable by option sequences should also >be doable by menu - and Word does sin in this respect. MicroSoft should know better, they were one of the earliest Mac developers. -- - Ralph W. Hyre, Jr. Internet: ralphw@c.cs.cmu.edu (cmu-cs-c.arpa) Usenet: ralphw@mit-eddie.uucp Fido: Ralph Hyre at Net 129, Node 0 (Pitt-Bull) Phone: (412)CMU-BUGS