114803 - "Languages and Web Content" in View menu should be shortened

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Core :: Internationalization, defect)

Description

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

currently the "Languages and Web Content" item is the widest [longest] item in
the View menu. i know it is niggling, but could it be shortened up a bit? how
about "Languages & Web Content"? or, are there shorter alternatives for this?

at the very least an ampersand should be used, since other menu items with that
conjunction use ampersand --to appear consistent. examples: Privacy & Security,
Mail & Newsgroups...

Comment 1

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

blocks the menu reorg bug 108099 (however minor :).

Comment 2

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

This menu is for choosing the UI language. This should be separated from the
language the web sites see anyway. Fix bug 55366, problem solved.

Comment 3

[Roy Yokoyama]

assigning to tao to get his input.
-> tao

Comment 4

[tao]

new owner -> dbragg

Comment 5

[dbragg]

Actually the "Web Content" referred to in this case is not the same as that
referred to by bug 55366 (at least not as far as I was able to discern from
reading 55366 before my eyes closed and I started drooling on the keyboard). 
This "content" refers to the content packs that the user can download.  These
packs contain serch engine stuff, sidebar stuff, home page and certain
bookmarks.  Perhaps "Languages & Content"?  That's even shorter but is it
complete enough?

Comment 6

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

dbragg, I'd think (and I guess users do, too) that "Content" refers to web sites
I visit with the browser, e.g. <http://www.yahoo.com>, and email I read, not the
search panel.

Actually, I would completely remove that menu and move the functionality to
choose the application language into the Prefs dialog under the "Content Packs"
panel (which I would rename into "Application Language" or similar).

Comment 7

[Jimmy Uen]

Update QA to [e-mail]

Comment 8

[Blake Ross]

We now have a preference panel for this functionality, which seems correct to
me.  In switching from a submenu to a preference panel, we seem to have
acknowledged that users won't be switching language and web content packs that
frequently. So I am confused as to why we still have a menuitem that goes
straight to that preference panel.  Either it's used a lot, or it's not. From
what I understand of these features, they don't need to be switched frequently,
so I think we should just remove this menuitem.

Comment 9

[Peter Trudelle]

I think this may be a case where naive users need access to the panel, so having
a menu item may be required for discoverability. It is still a net reduction in
menu items of 1-2 orders of magnitude. 

Comment 10

[tao]

Peter is right on this. We are not taking access points away; we are consolidating 
the UI, making them consistent, and reducing the number of steps to access them.

Comment 11

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

> I think this may be a case where naive users need access to the panel

How did that user get his copy of (e.g.) Netscape 6?
- From the local ISP?
  Same as local Netscape site below.
- Downloaded from the U.S. Netscape site?
  Then they know English.
  They most likely also know what the Preferences are. Maybe they even have to
  configure their proxies.
- Downloaded from a local Netscape site?
  Then the site can link directly to the installer which defaults to the same
  language as the website, as the users are known to understand that.
  If the site is in a multi-language environment (e.g. 3 languages spoken in one
  country), the installation page can describe how to (optionally) select the
  preferred language.

There are a ton of other options in the prefs paneö that "naive users" want or need.

> having a menu item may be required for discoverability

With this strategy, you will end up adding all of the prefs panel to the menus,
completely destroying the discoverability of *anything*.

If you want to make it discoverable, force the New Profile setup on users. There
is the option to select the lang pack right in the dialog.


These are "commands" that you usually execute exactly once. They have IMO no
place in the menu.

Comment 12

[Peter Trudelle]

Ben, typical end users are extremely unlikely to go ever into preferences.
Configuring in the installer won't do, since this needs to be set per profile.
Some type of wizard at first launch might be an alternate solution, if we had
the time and resources.  Nobody is advocating adding menu items for everything
in prefs.  This is really off-topic here, if you want to discuss it, let's do so
in the appropriate newsgroup.

Comment 13

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

> Configuring in the installer won't do, since this needs to be set per profile.

I thought that Netscape 6 had German builds, or did I misunderstand someting? I
never used them, but I presume they have a German lang pack instead of the
English one, so the language is right from the start for all profiles.

Comment 14

[tao]

Hi, Ben: 

The concept of language packs and regional packs is to separate UI & regional from
the rest of the browser files so that users with different (or multiple)
cultural background can share the same browser installation without downloading
and installing a full browser package. Additionalk language / content packs are all
they need to have the same browser installation to support additional languages.

As you pointed out, users can select their lang/content preference during profile 
creation. However, the need of additional lang/content packs might surface after
the profile is created. At that time, users would start to navigate through the
first level UI (menus) to change the settings. "View | Languages and Web Content"
is obviously more discoverable than "Edit| Pref| Appearance".

Without exposing this feature in "View" menu, users might just give up on the
first search and go full length to download another browser (> 25 MB).

Comment 15

[tao]

don- please change "and" to "&" as suggested, thx!

Comment 16

[dbragg]

This whole submenu was removed from navigatorOverlay.xul in rev. 1.255 per bug
108099.  Due to the menu item not even being there anymore I'm marking this
invalid. 

Comment 17

[Jimmy Uen]

Mark verified