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Re: top bar, menu bar, panel or top panel

 

I believe our path to a resolution lies not in what >we< think is right, or what a majority of a group thinks is right, but what the end user thinks is right.

Let me explain.

There are several shades of blue (electric blue, navy blue, indigo blue...to name a few). But generally, these variations of blue are accepted as "blue" for (and because of) a variety of reasons. But then we have CYAN. Is it blue? Well, to a generalist, yes. To ME, yes. But to a lithographer, or a printer manufacturer, or a photographer, or a user replacing a printer cartridge, CYAN is a very specific color mix, so to them, and for their purposes, and in their opinion, CYAN is NOT blue. Printer manufacturers have labeled this color as CYAN, all the printer cartridge manufacturers call the color CYAN, therefore, the user searches for a replacement CYAN (not BLUE) printer cartridge.

My point.

We may say the "top bar" represents one thing while the "menu bar" represents another, and we can debate about the denotation and connotation of the identifiers, but we've not asked the (arguably) more question yet "what is generally accepted?" And by answering that question, we will know what the user will expect, and by knowing what the user expects, we'll all be speaking the same language. While the "Ubuntu Manual Project" is an excellent resource filling a specific niche market, it is not a "definitive guide to using Ubuntu". The UMP is a generalist publication for those wanting to get into Ubuntu but don't want to wade through a 500-page "official manual". We're more of a 150-page "quick start guide". This being the case, we should be in the mindset not to determine and define screen element names, but to support that which has already been defined for us.

A discussion amongst ourselves is good, and healthy, but if we determine that a "top bar" is "X" while other manuals, websites, tutorials, etc. identify it as "Y", are we best serving the overall community by presenting these contradictions in print?

My recommendation is that we define screen elements the same as the Official Ubuntu Manual defines them...right or wrong. We may even need to coordinate with them...or even contact Canonical directly for input in answering some of these questions. In the interest of serving the user base, it's best that all we are all 100% right or 100% wrong. Anything less adds confusion to the user, and, in the end, detracts from the overall impressiveness of the user supported documentation and--I would argue--the Ubuntu OS in general.

--Jim



On , Hannie Dumoleyn <lafeber-dumoleyn2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
With more reactions coming in, I think "menu bar" is the favorite now.

The explanation that this bar holds mainly menu's is a valid one. With the term "top bar" one refers to the location of the bar (at the top of the screen), while the term "menu bar" says more about the contents of the bar.

@manual team: if we agree on "menu bar", we can start using this term in Quantal.

Regards,

Hannie



Op 11-07-12 04:46, Jeremy Bicha schreef:


On 10 July 2012 04:49, Hannie Dumoleyn lafeber-dumoleyn2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


As a member of the ubuntu manual team I started a discussion on how we

should call this "thing" at the top of our screen.

As a translator of the official Ubuntu documentation (yelp) I noticed that

the word "panel" had been changed to "menu bar" in the Precise version.

I would like to discuss this with people from ubuntu-translators and

ubuntu-docs as well.

Let me know what you think.


The official Ubuntu term is "menu bar". Besides the official Ubuntu

documentation, this can be found in multiple places in System Settings

such as "Show battery status in the menu bar".



The GNOME documentation calls the similar space in GNOME Shell "top bar".



Personally, I like the "menu bar" name as the top of the screen

includes application menus, application status menus, and system

status menus. The only part that isn'ta menu is the window management

buttons (close, minimize, maximize) and the app title.



Thanks for asking as clear and consistent word choices are important!



Jeremy








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