592292 - Persist tree state in preferences window

Status: NEW

(SeaMonkey :: Preferences, enhancement)

Description

[Daniel B.]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.11) Gecko/20100701 SeaMonkey/2.0.6
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.11) Gecko/20100701 SeaMonkey/2.0.6

The Preferences GUI makes it very inefficient to adjust font settings
because:
a) there is no function to apply or try the settings without closing 
   the Preferences window, and
b) the Preferences window does not preserve the previous selection
   and expansion state of the category tree on the left (so the user
   has the repeatedly navigate back to the font settings).

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. From a browser window ...
2. Invoke Preferences
3. Click on the Appearances category's "+" to expand it.
4. Click on the Font (sub)category.
5. Make some change to the font settings (e.g., change the size).
6. Note that you can't see the effect of that setting because you haven't
   closed the window yet.
7. Close the Preferences window.
8. Note that now you can first see the change.
9. Decide to try a different font size.
10. Invoke Preferences.
11. Again, click on the Appearances category's "+" to expand it.
12. Again, click on the Font (sub)category.
13. Make some other change to the font settings (e.g., try another size).
14. Close the Preferences window.

Actual Results:  
You have to repeat steps 7, 10, 11, and 12 to make the second change after
seeing the result of the first change.

Expected Results:  
In a reasonable (efficient/convenient) GUI, at step 7 you could invoke
"Apply" to apply and see the effect of the change, and then you could 
proceed directly to what is currently step 13.

If Preferences can't easily have an Apply button for everything, it should
at least have it for configuration items for which users typically need to
try several different settings (e.g., fonts, probably colors, etc.)

Comment 2

[Daniel B.]

> *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 592287 ***

Bug 592287 addresses only the Apply button.  It does not address that fact that 
the Preferences window does not preserve the category tree selection and 
expansion state (which actually applies to plenty of things beyond fonts). 

(Also, an Apply button is only one solution to the font inconvenience problem.  
Perhaps there are others.)

Should I re-submit the tree-state problem separately (or can it be deal with 
by re-opening this bug report)?  

(Also, is it likely enough that there are other solutions the font-setting 
inconvenience that I should re-submit this without assuming the solution
is an Apply button.)


Changing back to Unconfirmed just to flag these questions.

Comment 3

[Edmund Wong (:ewong)]

(In reply to comment #2)
> > *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 592287 ***
> 
> Bug 592287 addresses only the Apply button.  It does not address that fact that 
> the Preferences window does not preserve the category tree selection and 
> expansion state (which actually applies to plenty of things beyond fonts). 

Then this bug is worded incorrectly as it clearly states "... because
of lack of Apply button" which is what bug 592287 is also about. 

Perhaps re-wording the title of this bug would lessen the chance of
this being made a dupe of 592287.