On the "File" menu existence, Alan Cooper in About Face goes on on a
long rant against the mere existence of this menu. I think he's wrong
when applications do deal with files (e.g. a Word processor or any file
editing application) but in applications where there's no files being
created (e.g. e-mail client or, indeed Chandler), "File" tends to become
a catch all place for actions or various kind performed on items
wholesale (print, sync, new, whatever). It's OK for import/export though...
+1 on using adequate menus (Item, Collection) when they exist.
I logged a bug on this:
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4752
Cheers,
- Philippe
Mimi Yin wrote:
+1 for moving the create: new collection menu item to under the
Collection menu
We should move the create: new item menu item to under the Item menu
as well
Create:new has generally been under the File menu, but I believe that
tradition started when there was usually a clear distinction between
whether you were working with something like a Finder/Windows Explorer
or a specific App...
In a Finder, the only thing Create New could mean is Create a New
Folder. Traditionally in an application the only thing Create New can
mean is Create a New item...sort of...
In general, the File/Edit/View etc...menu structure works best when
the user's environment (Finder or App) is clearly centered around
either groupings of items (Folders) or individual items (files). When
it deals with both, it becomes really hard to decide whether you
should organize the menus around verbs and user actions (Edit, View,
Format, Insert, etc...) or around nouns and UI elements (Items,
Collections)....
I think I would vote for the latter. The user is more likely to know
"what it is" they want to manipulate than they are to know exactly
"how" they want to manipulate it. The pre-eminence of "what" over
"how" is also the fundamental framework for GUIs. You select your
folder...then you drag it.
However, parts of the file menu system is left over from pre-GUI days
and has stayed in the old paradigm of "action first" "then select
object of action". File>>Create new>>Create new item or Create new
collection?
Really in Chandler, the "File" is the Chandler window, the user's
account. Items and Collections are sub-items.
It's the recurring problem of clashing hierarchies. Parts of the menu
system are organized around actions (ie. Edit, View, Test) and other
parts are organized around nouns (File, Items, Collections).
It makes okay sense if you only have 1 kind of element in the app (ie.
documents). It starts to get really confusing when you have 2.
Mimi
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Open Source Applications Foundation "Design" mailing list
http://lists.osafoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/design
