Christopher Tate <CXT105@psuvm.psu.edu> (05/28/91)
I've been talking to some non-programmer co-workers of mine about System 7,
and have also been following the threads on balloon help on the Mac
newsgroups. It's true that having balloon help on gets real annoying
real fast, but it's also a great way to wander around on the screen and
get basic info on everything you can see.
Now, one of the major complaints about the balloon help interface is that
you have to actually go into the menu to turn it off. This seems to a lot
of people like a wasted action -- there's no command key for it or some such.
So, here's a proposal for a "standardized" change to the user interface,
similar to the "standard" command keys for things like print, open,
save, and such: use the "help" key, if present, to toggle balloon help
off and on.
My motivation here is that the help key should provide immediate, context-
sensitive help, something like what balloon help provides (point at something
to see what it does). If the user wants *explanatory* help, he or she can
pull down a menu -- it offers less obstruction to the "flow" of intended
action. Someone who wants the on-line tutorial or whatever is prepared to
wait a bit for it to get going, and is prepared for the context change
associated with it. In contrast, someone who wants to turn balloon help
on wants that help *in his current context*, so the move to the menu bar
is an interruption.
This is in come ways similar to the way Microsoft Word handles the help
key -- you press help, and the cursor changes to a question mark. The
next thing you click on or select in the menus is a topic that comes up
in the online help, rather than being executed. This behavior is modal,
and so controversial; balloon help is non-modal, and so less intrusive
in the user's flow of actions.
Of course, the idea can be extended -- perhaps using command-help to get
the "real" online help instead of balloon help, or whatever. The key
idea is to make the help key a toggle for turning balloon help on and
off. Anyone know how to do this? Is there an AppleEvent for it (the
best (IMHO) method)? As more and more applications start supporting
balloon help, I see this sort of streamlining of the interface becoming
important.
Comments, everyone? (-:
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Christopher Tate | "I danced on a Friday and the sky turned black;
| It's hard to dance with the Devil at your back!
cxt105@psuvm.psu.edu | They cut me down and they thought I'd gone,
cxt105@psuvm.bitnet | But I am the Dance and I still go on!"c89andma@odalix.ida.liu.se (Andreas Magnusson) (05/29/91)
Just one thing, make sure that you think about those that doesn't have a help key - like myself. Otherwise it might be a good idea. /Andreas -- _____________________________________ ____________________________________ | Andreas Magnusson ||SnailMail: Andreas Magnusson | | Linkoping Institute of Technology || Rydsv. 260 A:32 | | || S-58251 Linkoping | | c89andma@odalix.ida.liu.se || SWEDEN | | zune@nanny.lysator.liu.se || | `-------------------------------------'`------- New SnailMail Address ------'
chuck@brain.UUCP (Chuck Shotton) (05/30/91)
In article <1991May28.223645.10849@ida.liu.se>, c89andma@odalix.ida.liu.se (Andreas Magnusson) writes: > Just one thing, make sure that you think about those that doesn't have a help > key - like myself. Otherwise it might be a good idea. > /Andreas > Whatever happened to command-? as a "standard" way to bring up help info? That would be a fine alternative to the help key, but it seems that Apple doesn't emphasize that method in the Human Interface guidelines anymore. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Chuck Shotton Internet: cshotton@girch1.med.uth.tmc.edu
Lawson.English@p88.f15.n300.z1.fidonet.org (Lawson English) (05/30/91)
Andreas Magnusson writes in a message to All
AM> Just one thing, make sure that you think about those that doesn't
AM> have a help key - like myself. Otherwise it might be a good idea.
AM> /Andreas
From the Finder, why not <cmd>-h for ballon help as a substitute or alternative
for the Help key?
Lawson
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Uucp: ...{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!asuvax!stjhmc!300!15.88!Lawson.English
Internet: Lawson.English@p88.f15.n300.z1.fidonet.orgomh@cs.brown.edu (Owen M. Hartnett) (06/04/91)
Actually, I think that balloon help should not just have on/off states. I propose the following: 1) Balloon help on/off in menu 2) Balloon help on/off with keyboard control and 3) (special balloon help menu setting:) Balloon help on only when shift key (or other key which acts like the shift key) is down. This way you could leave balloon help semi-on all the time, and when you wanted to check something out, just hold down the trigger key. --just my 2 cents -Own Owen Hartnett omh@cs.brown.edu "FAITH, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." -Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary
Lawson.English@p88.f15.n300.z1.fidonet.org (Lawson English) (06/05/91)
Owen M. Hartnett writes in a message to All
OMH> 3) (special balloon help menu setting:) Balloon help on only
OMH> when shift key (or other key which acts like the shift key) is
OMH> down. This way you could leave balloon help semi-on all the time,
OMH> and when you wanted to check something out, just hold down the
OMH> trigger key.
That last would have an intuitive feature: select show ballons with an arbitrary
trigger key and that is what you get: a trigger-keyed ballon. It would work,
no matter which key you used as the trigger: just hold the original key down.
Lawson
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Uucp: ...{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!asuvax!stjhmc!300!15.88!Lawson.English
Internet: Lawson.English@p88.f15.n300.z1.fidonet.orggrobbins@Apple.COM (Grobbins) (06/12/91)
In article <676362388.10@egsgate.FidoNet.Org> Owen.M..Hartnett@f98.n250.z1.FidoNet.Org (Owen M. Hartnett) writes: >Actually, I think that balloon help should not just have on/off states. >I propose the following: >... >3) (special balloon help menu setting:) Balloon help on only when >shift key (or other key which acts like the shift key) is down. This way >you could leave balloon help semi-on all the time, and when you wanted to >check something out, just hold down the trigger key. I have a background task which does this (with the control key.) Send mail if you'd like a copy (it's beta; I'll probably send it off to the archives shortly.) Grobbins grobbins@apple.com
Juha.Hyvonen@hut.fi (Juha Hyv|nen) (06/14/91)
In article <0D010010.mkzmfh@brain.UUCP> chuck@brain.UUCP (Chuck Shotton) writes: +------------------------ ! Whatever happened to command-? as a "standard" way to bring up help info? ! That would be a fine alternative to the help key, but it seems that Apple ! doesn't emphasize that method in the Human Interface guidelines anymore. !........................ That would be command-shift- + (plus) on my Finnish keyboard. / (.__o /_/ __/ .. ! / ! Juha.Hyvonen@hut.fi (juh@sauna.cs.hut.fi) !/ ) ! ------
russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto) (06/18/91)
In article <JUHA.HYVONEN.91Jun14120324@sauna.hut.fi> Juha.Hyvonen@hut.fi (Juha Hyv|nen) writes: >In article <0D010010.mkzmfh@brain.UUCP> chuck@brain.UUCP (Chuck >Shotton) writes: >+------------------------ >! Whatever happened to command-? as a "standard" way to bring up help info? >! That would be a fine alternative to the help key, but it seems that Apple >! doesn't emphasize that method in the Human Interface guidelines anymore. >!........................ > >That would be command-shift- + (plus) on my Finnish keyboard. So what? It's command-shift- / (slash) on a US keyboard. -- Matthew T. Russotto russotto@eng.umd.edu russotto@wam.umd.edu .sig under construction, like the rest of this campus.
Juha.Hyvonen@hut.fi (Juha Hyv|nen) (06/18/91)
In article <1991Jun17.183013.10154@eng.umd.edu> russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto) writes: +------------------------ ! In article <JUHA.HYVONEN.91Jun14120324@sauna.hut.fi> ! Juha.Hyvonen@hut.fi (Juha Hyv|nen) writes: ! >In article <0D010010.mkzmfh@brain.UUCP> chuck@brain.UUCP (Chuck ! >Shotton) writes: ! >+------------------------ ! >! Whatever happened to command-? as a "standard" way to bring up help info? ! >! That would be a fine alternative to the help key, but it seems that Apple ! >! doesn't emphasize that method in the Human Interface guidelines anymore. ! >!........................ ! > ! >That would be command-shift- + (plus) on my Finnish keyboard. ! ! So what? It's command-shift- / (slash) on a US keyboard. !........................ The "what" is it does not work on my keyboard because applications must be assuming command-? is command-/ with the shift key held down. Disinfectant and MSWord both fail to recognize command-? (command-shift- +) on my keyboard. What other applications (try to) use command-? (Command-shift-/ might work, but there is no / key on my keyboard. The / is shift-7.) / (.__o /_/ __/ .. ! / ! Juha.Hyvonen@hut.fi (juh@sauna.cs.hut.fi) !/ ) ! ------