953997 - Merge "Content" and "Themes"-panes

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Instantbird Graveyard :: Preferences, enhancement)

Description

[Benedikt Pfeifer]

*** Original post on bio 561 at 2010-10-25 21:23:00 UTC ***

Content is an ambiguous term. Maybe we should merge the "Content" and the "Themes" pane and make it "Conversation" options with Content one of the tabs on this pane.

Problem: you can't move things there that would have been possible if we still had "Themes", like selection of "Sound themes" that affect all parts of the application (buddy list events and so on).

Other names suggested on IRC:
  Appearance
  Look & Feel

Comment 1

[Benedikt Pfeifer]

Attachment: Functional mockup with reworked content options as in bug 542

*** Original post on bio 561 as attmnt 392 at 2010-10-27 09:44:00 UTC ***

A quick copy & paste mockup + changed icon.
Some parts could be integrated more tightly or maybe renamed internally for consistency. Beside that it is an easy and quick change if we decide to do that.

Comment 2

[Benedikt Pfeifer]

*** Original post on bio 561 at 2010-10-27 09:52:39 UTC ***

Two things:

* on the mockup: moving the pane to the place where the content pane was looks better in my eyes.

* What if we still use a separate pane for sounds to have one for visual and one for audio customizations? We could use 'Appearance' or 'Look & Feel' without problems then.

Comment 3

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

*** Original post on bio 561 at 2010-10-31 22:39:41 UTC ***

First thoughts when looking at attachment 8352135 [details] (bio-attmnt 392):
- "Fonts & Formattings" looks like you are trying to put 2 different things in the same tab. What about "Text" instead?
- The "Conversations" groupbox is useless is it's the only one in the tab.
- Should these settings apply to the buddy list too?

Comment 4

[Benedikt Pfeifer]

*** Original post on bio 561 at 2010-11-01 12:15:18 UTC ***

(In reply to comment #3)
> First thoughts when looking at attachment 8352135 [details] (bio-attmnt 392) [details]:
> - "Fonts & Formattings" looks like you are trying to put 2 different things in
> the same tab. What about "Text" instead?

First I don't like "Text" as label, it's so unspecific. Second, we currently really have these two things on the same pane. You can both change the look of the font you use yourself (though not other formattings) and decide if you like to display formattings received from remote.

> - The "Conversations" groupbox is useless is it's the only one in the tab.

I know that you shouldn't, theoretically, but I don't like how things change if you leave them away.
If you have grouped options, you need to look at the group label to get the context. If they are the only options you need to look at the tab, the options pane label or where else it is  and this 'look at ... OR ... OR where else' is exactly what I don't like. The group label in contrary is a defined place and you know where to find it.

In my opinion the 'Tabs'-pane of the options dialog is a good 'bad example' for this.

> - Should these settings apply to the buddy list too?

If you ask me, then no. The conversation window is pure content so styling it is fine in my opinion. The buddy list is a normal part of the user interface and therefore should keep the native look of the system in my opinion (maybe you remember that I don't like themes on normal user interfaces).

Comment 5

[Benedikt Pfeifer]

*** Original post on bio 561 at 2010-11-01 12:19:51 UTC ***

> > - The "Conversations" groupbox is useless is it's the only one in the tab.
> 
> I know that you shouldn't, theoretically, but I don't like how things change if
> you leave them away.
> If you have grouped options, you need to look at the group label to get the
> context. If they are the only options you need to look at the tab, the options
> pane label or where else it is  and this 'look at ... OR ... OR where else' is
> exactly what I don't like. The group label in contrary is a defined place and
> you know where to find it.
> 
> In my opinion the 'Tabs'-pane of the options dialog is a good 'bad example' for
> this.

Sorry, once again. In proper language this time:


I know that you shouldn't, theoretically, but I don't like how things change if
you leave them away.

You need to look at either
* the group label if the options are grouped,
* the tab label, if they're on a tab,
* or the options-pane label if they are completely ungrouped
to get the context of the options.

This 'look at ... OR ... OR where else' is exactly what I don't like. The group label in contrary is a defined place and you know where to find it.

The 'Tabs'-pane of the options dialog is a good 'bad example' for this problem in my opinion.

Comment 6

[Benedikt Pfeifer]

Attachment: WIP 1

*** Original post on bio 561 as attmnt 2908 at 2013-09-27 08:47:00 UTC ***

Here's a WIP for this. Some files could be merged, the layout needs some tweaking but it's a start.

Comment 7

[Benedikt Pfeifer]

Attachment: Screenshot of WIP1

*** Original post on bio 561 as attmnt 2909 at 2013-09-27 08:48:00 UTC ***

Here's a screenshot with WIP 1 applied.

Comment 8

[aleth [:aleth]]

Comment on attachment 8354678 [details] [diff] [review]
WIP 1

*** Original change on bio 561 attmnt 2908 at 2013-09-27 17:13:52 UTC ***

This looks like an improvement.

What is hidden under the "Advanced" button in IB is not labelled "Advanced" in the Contents pane in FX, it's labelled "Colors". The FX version of that dialog has some extra options compared to the current IB one. I think it would be better to still try to follow FX in this fairly closely, as that will reassure to the user that it will do familiar things. Also I don't think it's bad to make the Color options comparatively hidden (note in FX there would be enough space in the Contents pane to merge the Color options with Contents as well, but they didn't do it).

So I think I'd prefer to keep the extra dialog but to call it Colors as in FX (i.e. make the "Text" subpane look a lot like the Content pane in FX). Hopefully you can just copypaste the XUL.

Did you choose "Look & Feel" over "Appearance" because you think there might be sound options there one day? I'm a bit worried "Look & feel" is too jargony, maybe we should just continue to call it "Themes"?

Comment 9

[Benedikt Pfeifer]

*** Original post on bio 561 at 2013-09-29 13:02:36 UTC ***

(In reply to comment #8)
> Comment on attachment 8354678 [details] [diff] [review] (bio-attmnt 2908) [details]
> WIP 1
>
> What is hidden under the "Advanced" button in IB is not labelled "Advanced" in
> the Contents pane in FX, it's labelled "Colors". The FX version of that dialog
> has some extra options compared to the current IB one. I think it would be
> better to still try to follow FX in this fairly closely, as that will reassure
> to the user that it will do familiar things. Also I don't think it's bad to
> make the Color options comparatively hidden (note in FX there would be enough
> space in the Contents pane to merge the Color options with Contents as well,
> but they didn't do it).
> So I think I'd prefer to keep the extra dialog but to call it Colors as in FX
> (i.e. make the "Text" subpane look a lot like the Content pane in FX).

That's also OK. The WIP included the colors in the pane directly because someone asked for it at one point.

> Did you choose "Look & Feel" over "Appearance" because you think there might be
> sound options there one day?

Yes, I did.

> I'm a bit worried "Look & feel" is too jargony,
> maybe we should just continue to call it "Themes"?

"Themes" seemed wrong after adding the pane with the text options. If you think that's fine then I'll leave it unchanged.

Comment 11

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

On the behalf of Florian:
Closing bugs related to the Instantbird UI as WONTFIX, as the development of the standalone chat client Instantbird has stopped. Instantbird users are encouraged to migrate to Thunderbird. The user interface of instant messaging in Thunderbird will feel familiar, as the Thunderbird IM support started as a fork of Instantbird.