1803533 - To add multiple tags should be easier

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Nicolas Mandil (:NicolasWeb)]

Attachment: TB Add multiples Tags.jpeg

Steps to reproduce:

To add multiple tags should be easier (mouse & keyboard) than clicking on a sub sub menu of a dropdown button

Actual results:

For each tag, click on the sub sub menu of a dropdown button

Expected results:

Ease the UX whith an adapted UI.
a-Maybe add a (default or not) Tag button, with a dropdown menu that close only when you click away
b-Maybe show Tags line in the headers with disabled & clickable tags (scrollable ?)
c-Maybe combine it : add a (default or not) Tag button, with a dropdown menu that close normally but activate the Tags line in the headers with disabled & clickable tags

It would be nice too be able to add Tags with keyboard shortcuts

Comment 1

[Nicolas Mandil (:NicolasWeb)]

Attachment: TB Tags Quick filters.jpeg

b-Maybe show Tags line in the headers with disabled & clickable tags (scrollable ?)

TB have something similar for Quick Filters

Comment 2

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Thanks for the suggestions.

a-Maybe add a (default or not) Tag button, with a dropdown menu that close only when you click away

We already have this.
Right click > Customize... the unified toolbar and add the Tag button to the Mail toolbar. That's a 1 click away to add tags when you select a message.

b-Maybe show Tags line in the headers with disabled & clickable tags (scrollable ?)

I don't think this is a good idea. That would make the header area fairly busy for something that not all users use.

It would be nice too be able to add Tags with keyboard shortcuts

The numbers you see alongside the tab name are the shortcuts.

I'm okay with exploring ways to better expose tags in the message header, but this is currently a very low priority and not a blocker.

Comment 3

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Add [Supernova] to whiteboard, 202303010038

Comment 4

[Nicolas Mandil (:NicolasWeb)]

Attachment: TB Tags a&b proposal mockup.jpeg

Thanks for your answer, Alex. Reading it, it seems I should expose more clearly my proposals. So here it is ! ;)

(In reply to Alessandro Castellani [:aleca] from comment #2)

Thanks for the suggestions.

a-Maybe add a (default or not) Tag button, with a dropdown menu that close only when you click away

We already have this.
Right click > Customize... the unified toolbar and add the Tag button to the Mail toolbar. That's a 1 click away to add tags when you select a message.

What is possible is to add now is a Tag button, but next to the Search field. My proposal was to have such button in the Message Reader header (next to buttons reply, forward, ...).
Actually, the button close as soon as you click on the item. My proposal was it kept open, to ease continuous tag adding, and close when the user click outside of it.

b-Maybe show Tags line in the headers with disabled & clickable tags (scrollable ?)

I don't think this is a good idea. That would make the header area fairly busy for something that not all users use.

Actually, in the Message reader header, tags are just shown, when at least one is set. My proposal is just to make the Tags' labels there clickable. To not make the header area fairly busy, Tags that are not set yet could be at the end of the line under a '...' or 'More' tag label button. That button could show all tags, even the unset in the header (or show a menu with all of then)
What I'm looking for here, is to get easy multi tag modification in content, to get actionable shown tags.

It would be nice too be able to add Tags with keyboard shortcuts

The numbers you see alongside the tab name are the shortcuts.

Thanks ! It wasn't natural to me that I need to open the menu and then press the keys shortcuts. I already tried to use it in the past, but thought it was like any keyboard shortcut ActionKey+TagShortcut (like Ctrl+1), and didn't manage to get it working, so after many tries I left aside the idea.

I'm okay with exploring ways to better expose tags in the message header, but this is currently a very low priority and not a blocker.

Yep, sure ! :)
I'm sure as an UI/UX designer, you will have nice ideas. :)
What do you think Alex, now with the mockups ? (NI you, but not urgent at all)

Comment 5

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Thanks for the proposals, we will explore this later during the cycle.

Comment 6

[Thilo [:ThiloteE]]

Posting this here because I am not sure where else to post.
Currently, there are three main tag alternatives that make tags more accessible to users.
All of them make tags more visible and provide more features than is currently the case in TB 102.

1. Thunderbird 115 Beta (2023-06-12)

Tags are located on the left side of the UI, similar to the location of folders, accounts and feeds.

Pro:

• Shows globally tagged messages. Similar to "global search" → it is "global tag search".
• Is scaleable with ever more folders / accounts / tags → there is a scrollbar
• lacks a searchbar for tags

Contra:

• only searches tagged messages and does not offer users to tag / untagg messages.
• Competes with folders, accounts and feeds for screenspace → easy to have tags pushed off screen
• There is no searchbar for tags
• When users scroll through their folders and select a , they have to scroll back to tags, if they want to select tags → not time efficient!

2. Betterbird

Tags are located in the Quick Filters toolbar

Pro:

• Shows only tagged messages for selected folders / messages.
• allows to select any or all (boolean)
• does not compete with folders / accounts / feeds for screenspace
• Users can scroll through folders, accounts and feeds without having to scroll back to tags.
• Text of tags can be read easily. Good contrast. Highlighting of marked tags vs non-marked tags is great too.

Contra:

• This implementation only searches for tagged messages. It does offer users to tag / untag messages.
• Is not scaleable with ever more tags
  → there is no scrollbar, and even if there were any, it would be quite awkward to use, as it is a single row.
  → There is no search bar for tags
• "Hidden" location
• Not accessible via keyboard

3. The Tag Popup Addon

Tags are located at
1) the top right side of the Mail toolbar and
2) the message header

Pro:

• Scales with ever more tags: Has scrollbar and searchbar for tags
• Has "categories" for tags, which are great!!!
  → useful when there are too many tags.
  → useful for hiding tags that are only needed temporarily for filters
• Has configuration options for background colour and text colour of tags
• Does not compete with folders, accounts and feeds for screen space
• Users can scroll through folders, accounts and feeds without having to scroll back to tags.

Contra:

• This addon only allows you to tag or untag a message, not to "find" the message within the TB instance.
• Not accessible via keyboard
• Main config menu very hidden in the extensions menu
• Background colour in message header is always white. There, the background and text colour contrast is awful. (e.g. try to set tag colour to white and you will see). Here, Betterbirds way of doing things would be strongly preferable.

To summarize:

I really want the tags feature to be a mixture of all three implementations. Currently to use all features, I have to install all three of them. They all have something good to contribue.

1. Use the locations of the tag popup addon → 1) in message header and 2) somewhere on the top or top right side.
2. Implement the features of the tag popup implementation. (Fix the "contra")
3. Allow to search for tagged messages everywhere like TB Beta does
4. Allow to search for tagged messages within a single folder / feed like Betterbird does.

Comment 7

[Thilo [:ThiloteE]]

Attachment: Betterbird tags.png

Comment 8

[Thilo [:ThiloteE]]

Attachment: Tag Popup.png