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Re: [Ayatana] (In)sensitive menu itens for displaying information



Hi MPT,

On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 11:07, Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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fain182 wrote on 12/10/10 09:53:
>
>> They don't have the same effect. The Rhythmbox item focuses Rhythmbox.
>> The track data item copies the track data to the clipboard.
>
> This is undiscoverable..

The effect of the Rhythmbox item should be obvious -- but, as I said in
my reply to Ersin Akinci, may not be at the moment because of the
non-application icon.

artist: Tha Dogg Pound
title: Smooth
album: Dogg Food

oops.. i just pressed Paste, but i thought my clipboard was holding a URL that i searched for just now which i wanted to paste in here..
hmm...


I agree that the effect of the track data item is pretty undiscoverable.
I'd love to see suggestions for that.

i would have expected this hidden treasure to include the album art now..
 
> There is no way to tell the user the effect of his click? a
> notification bubble showed after the click? it would be annoying but
> maybe better than no feedback at all..

That's a separate issue, because feedback on what has happened is
necessarily too late to tell you what will happen. I think any feedback
that something has been copied to the clipboard should be universal: it
should work the same way for an image region in Gimp, or a Web link in
Ubuntu Software Center, as it does for the track data here.

A couple of examples that might be inspirational:
*   Microsoft Office 98 for Mac (and maybe later versions, I don't know)
   played a small sound effect whenever anything was copied.

yeah, that would be elegant ;)

To help with that a bit:
* keep System Sounds audible at a constant volume level, independent of the main volume slider in the Sound Menu
* keep System Sounds affected by the global Mute button in the Sound Menu
 
*   If there was a clipboard status menu, that could blink momentarily
   whenever something new was copied.

I would keep it lit, especially when something is being moved (cut & paste | CTRL+X).
To make it blink momentarily doesn't indicate state correctly, it indicates action.
I think the Edit menu should rather indicate state, it can still blink once while CTRL+C is pressed, but reflecting the state of its content gives the Edit menu sense imo.
 

I think this kind of feedback might be what frederik.nnaji was talking
about in the "clipboard information in context menu" thread, though I
didn't really understand it.

ooops yeah i mixed improvised prose with formal language.. clearly:
A momentarily highlighted Edit is a good way to make ALL clipboard operation more discoverable.
An Edit with a symbolic icon for copy next to it also could help.