Calum Benson wrote: > So, in updating the UI spec for 2008.11[1], one of the more > troublesome details (I have a Columbo-esque dislike for those) is what > the tooltip should be for the "Input Methods" item on the Preferences > menu. > > Right now, it's "Configure Input Methods", and I think everyone agrees > that's not very useful :) > > My original suggestion was "Configure the entry of characters that are > not on your keyboard", but as the IIIM team pointed out, that only > describes one of the things you can do in the capplet. And it's quite > hard to summarise what input methods are for, and how we allow you to > configure them. > > Other suggestions we've thought about are: > > "Customize input method (IIIM) configuration" > "Manage switching of the keyboard input language" > > But I'm not sure they quite hit the nail on the head either. > > So, does anyone else have any inspiration? The GNOME HIG definition of > a "good" tooltip is one that: > * Describes the most important tasks users can accomplish with your > application. > > * While not verbose, should be longer and more descriptive than the > menu item's name. > > All suggestions welcome...
"Input Methods" is a fairly technical term, so I'd argue it's bad enough for the user to have it in the name of the item. Also using it in the tooltip/definition doesn't seem at all helpful. You're not necessarily changing the language used, but "Configure multilingual [keyboard] input preferences" would be my proposal for a tooltip for the current menu entry. Ideally, I would switch it around. The menu entry would be "Multilingual input" and the tooltip might be one of the ones you suggest above. Side note: "Customizing" the "configuration" is redundant and inconsistent. If you are going to be customizing, configuring, or setting something, it shouldn't be the noun form of one of the three. It should either be something specific to the capplet, or "preferences" as is used in other tooltips and is consistent with the title of the submenu. Dave
