320040 - Delete/Detach Attachment needs usability overhaul

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[gaele]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla Thunderbird version 1.5 RC1 (20051025)

I really believe you should invite a usability expert to take a look at the Delete/Detach Attachment functionality and come up with a better UI. I just tried RC1 and this part of TB Just Doesn't Feel Right.

Some things I've noticed:

1. The right-click pop-up says:
   Open
   Save As...
   ----------
   Detach...
   Delete
   ----------
   Save All...
   Detach All...
   Delete All...
which is a strange way of grouping. (IMHO grouping should be based on function.)

2. Why show "Save/Detach/Delete All" if there is only one attachment?

3. If all attachments are already deleted the right-click pop-up still shows I can Save/Delete/Detach All.

4. Detaching an attachment will show the following pop-up text:
   "The following attachments have been successfully saved and 
    will now be permanently deleted from this message:
    <filename>
    This cannot be undone. Do you wish to continue?"
What cannot be undone? The wording suggests the whole operation. Better:
   "The following attachments have been successfully saved: 
    <filename>
    They will now be permanently deleted from this message:
    This cannot be undone. Do you wish to continue?"

5. Upon deleting (or detaching) an attachment a new message with the deleted attachment will appear in the message list (IMAP). Only after a refresh the old message will disappear.
This sucks. Technically speaking I may have a new message, but usability-wise it's just the same message. The old message entry should dissapear from the list the moment the new one appears.

6. Upon deleting (or detaching) an attachment Thunderbird tells me (by way of a tombstone) I've got 2 new messages. These messages don't show up bold in the message list. Besides, I don't *have* new messages (see 5).

7. A message with all attachments deleted still has an attachment/paperclip icon in its message list entry. Counter-intuitive.

8. "Detach"? From what? Again: from a technical perspective it may be detached, from a user perspective it's still attached to the message if you can open it with a double-click. Maybe use Remove and Move instead of Delete and Detach?

9. There is no visual indication that an attachment has been detached.

10. Silly UI inconsistencies happen if you both use TB/IMAP and webmail (Horde) (e.g. "invisible attachments").

Don't misunderstand me. I really like this new "Delete Attachment" functionality. It was the only part of Outlook I missed in TB, and now TB even improved on it (by showing the original attachment name). It's just that I think the user interface isn't quite there yet.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:

Comment 1

[zug_treno]

(In reply to comment #0)
> 5. Upon deleting (or detaching) an attachment a new message with the deleted
> attachment will appear in the message list (IMAP). Only after a refresh the 
> old message will disappear.

Duplicate of bug 310256 -> bug 286655?
 
> 7. A message with all attachments deleted still has an attachment/paperclip
> icon in its message list entry. Counter-intuitive.

Duplicate of/related to bug 305485?
 
> 8. "Detach"? From what? Again: from a technical perspective it may be 
> detached, from a user perspective it's still attached to the message if you 
> can open it with a double-click. Maybe use Remove and Move instead of Delete 
> and Detach?

Duplicate of bug 296781 (partial)?
 
> 9. There is no visual indication that an attachment has been detached.

Duplicate of bug 292385?

Comment 2

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #0)
Point 3 is bug 287939.

Point 5 is bug 286655 (see also bug 151440, bug 105238, and I don't know how many more similar bugs).

Point 10 apparently is unrelated to the attachment removal issue.

Bugs are supposed to have only a single issue.  Reporters are supposed to check for dupes before reporting bugs.    => Invalid

Reporter, if you feel that any of the unaddressed symptoms are actually worth addressing, spend some time searching for duplicates yourself, then open individual bugs for the specific items.