33641 - Make dependency between fonts and charsets clear in UI

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Preferences, defect, P3)

Description

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Most font settings depend on a charset, e.g I change the font for a font family
/and/ charset. This is not clear in the UI. E.g. currently, I can't tell from
the UI, if "Default font" applies to all charsets or only the current one.

The logic should be visible by the UI organization. If possible, you could use 
a group with the charset selecting widget as title.


While fixing this, please also vertically center the variable width font size
widget between serif and sans-serif font selectors to make clear, that it
applies to both.

Comment 1

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

erik

Comment 2

[Ben Goodger (use ben at mozilla dot org for email)]

I have redone the infrastructure behind this preferences panel, however the 
layout of the content is still open to change. Currently it takes up slightly 
too much vertical space. Suggestions for layout improvements are welcome!

Comment 3

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

> If possible, you could use
> a group with the charset selecting widget as title.

This could look like this (please excuse the ascii-art):

  +-------------------------+-+
+-| Western                 |V|-------------------------+
| +-------------------------+-+                         |
|                                                       |
|                   +---------------------+-+           |
| Sans-Serif Font:  | Helvetica           |V|           |
|                   +---------------------+-+           |
[...]
+-------------------------------------------------------+

Comment 4

[Erik van der Poel]

Thanks to Ben, the layout of the font prefs UI is already much improved. I did
at one point try to put the language menu into the title of the titledbox, but
the menu itself came up in a strange place (too low). Ben, what do you think?

Comment 5

[Ben Goodger (use ben at mozilla dot org for email)]

seems like a good extra idea if it would actually work. I think the distinction 
is now clear however. closing the bug. 

Comment 6

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

looks better, yes. verif using 2000.05.18.08 [opt comm] on linux, mac and winnt.

Comment 7

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

No, this is not at all fixed. In fact, it got worse. REOPENing.

You should be able to infer the semantics just from looking at the dialog. 

Currently, if you do that, you will come to wrong results.
E.g. Fixed and variable width fonts depend on the charset. The serif/sans-serif
preference is located in the middle of them, but does *not* depend on the
charset. To know for sure, you have to
- Remember the charset and serif/sans-serif setting
- Change the charset
- Change the serif/sans-serif preference
- Change back to the old charset and see, if the serif/sans-serif setting
  changed
Bad.

If you can't use the drop-down as title of the group, then move it directly
above the title. Exactly those prefs (i.e. none else) depending on the charset
should be in the group.

An alternative would be to use a list (a grip in XUL terms, I think), but I
don't know, if that is a good idea.

Comment 8

[don]

Move to M20 target milestone.

Comment 9

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Bad UI. nsbeta3.

Comment 10

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

See <http://critique.net.nz/project/mozilla/prefs/tardis/#std-display-fonts>, and 
also bug 28899 (where German approved that spec).

The spec replaces the serif/sans-serif radio buttons with a separate `Normal' 
setting, like IE 5/Mac, in case your favorite font (for cases where the font 
family isn't specified) isn't the same as your favorite font for a particular 
font family (for example if it doesn't really fit into any of the categories). If 
you can't implement this in time, give the popup menu items `Serif', `Sans 
serif', `Monospace', etc.

The spec also includes a `Use default choices for this encoding' checkbox, which 
(a) helps prevent you being confused by the encodings if all you want to do is 
change the fonts, and (b) saves you from having to change the fonts for every 
single encoding if you decide you like Verdana better than Times.

If it's not possible to have a popup menu (or a checkbox, or a radio button) as 
the title for a titledbox, file a separate XPToolkit bug for that, and for now 
put the menu above the group.

Comment 11

[johng]

nav triage team:
seems to work as well or better then 4.x, so marking nsbeta3- (trying to ship 
on time).  However, it would be nice to improve, so adding keyword helpwanted to 
encourage people on the net to offer a fix.  M Future.

Comment 12

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

I would say the new fonts prefs panel makes this as clear as it's going to get.
BenB, it's your bug - is it OK to close this one?

Gerv

Comment 13

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

The reporter of this bug wrote in bug 28899 comment 48: `The new layout looks 
so much cleaner and is more correct, that I wonder why it hasn't always been 
this way'. Marking fixed.

Comment 14

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

v