I like the idea, at least for the launcher. I'm not sure how this would work in a menu, unless you out a menu option that would create a new document, but this is an extra click or motion, for functionality that may or may not be used. Putting it in the launcher icon sounds like a good idea, though.
On Nov 16, 2007 1:44 PM, Carlos Moreno <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I recently came up with an idea of what could be a nice/useful detail > for a desktop, so I thought I'd throw the idea here (not sure if the > idea is original/unexplored, or even if it has been already done). > > Anyway, it's related to the Recent Documents, or rather, the Recently > Used Files in the applications. The idea is quite simple; instead of (or > in addition to) having just one Recent Documents in the "Places" menu, > each particular menu item for an application could/should have a sub- > menu with the recent documents. Also, and I think this is the nicer > part of my idea, *the launchers* should have a sub-menu as soon as > there are documents recently used for the corresponding application. > > If the user clicks on the launcher itself, then the application opens as > usual (e.g., with a blank document); if the user clicks on the little > arrow next to the launcher (the "drop-down" arrow), then the Recent > Documents list opens underneath the icon. > > I put two silly images to illustrate the idea. This is what the Panel, > with an OpenOffice Writer launcher, would look like when I have > not opened any Writer documents: > > http://www.mochima.com/tmp/gnome-launcher_no_recent_docs.png > > Then, as the user opens/saves Writer documents, the launcher would > now look like this: > > http://www.mochima.com/tmp/gnome-launcher_with_recent_docs.png > > (notice that this one is what it looks like *when the user clicks on the > little arrow* at the right bottom corner of the launcher icon). > > The launcher could have an effect like the toolbar buttons (what I'm > describing here is typically done with toolbar icons --- for instance, > the "New Document" icon in OpenOffice has a drop-down selection > of Writer / Calc / Presentation / etc.), where the button gets a "double > outline" to make it obvious that we want the drop-down list. > > Of course, for the menus I didn't create an image --- it is quite obvious > for the menus --- the menu item corresponding to the application gets > a sub-menu with its related recent documents; and it is obvious for > the user what it means and what to do about it. > > Does it sound like an interesting and implementable idea? > > Carlos > -- > > _______________________________________________ > Usability mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability >
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