General Preference page discussion.

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paddle
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General Preference page discussion.

Post by paddle »

Image

So I was looking at the main preference page and had several thoughts:
0 - The main page is cluttered and not intuitive enough.
A - 'Style sheet' : Everyone calls that 'Theme', why don't we?
B - The second setting is "Number format". This setting is not so important to be in second position.
C - The groupbox 'Main window' name is questionable considering its contents.
D - 'Enable tiled background' : Gadget and not spectacular. It's hard to justify keeping it on main setting page.
E - 'Enable cursor blinking' : This probably interest 0.1% of users.
F - The preference pack looks weird in the middle of groupboxes.
G - Units are not on the main page.

My suggestion :
Make only 3 group boxes :
'Main settings'
- Language
- System unit + decimal number on same line (fraction of inch hidden by default, or shows under if correct unit selected)
- Theme
- Tree view Mode

'Advanced settings'
- Tool bar icons size.
- Size of recent file
- Enable splashscreen
- Number format

'Preference pack'

Then :
- Enable Tiled background / enable cursor blinking : Goes to the 'Display' group / General
- Workbench selector position & Autoload module after startup : Move to the workbench group.
- Bonus: 'Remenber active workbench by tab : Move from Display (why is it in Display ?) to Workbench group.

What do you think?
Last edited by paddle on Tue Mar 28, 2023 7:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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adrianinsaval
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Re: General Preference page discussion.

Post by adrianinsaval »

paddle wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 12:29 pm A - 'Style sheet' : Everyone calls that 'Theme', why don't we?
That's what Qt calls them so we use that term, I don't think this is a real problem.
B - The second setting is "Number format". This setting is not so important to be in second position.
hard disagree, not setting this correctly is problematic for some language and keyboard combinations. I personally really benefited when this setting and the numpad substitution where introduced (and I'm not the only one). This setting must be near the language settings, which I think you'll agree is important to have there.

It would be nice to have units around here too.
D - 'Enable tiled background' : Really? Maybe we could call that 'give your software a 80's vibe' :D Besides how can that be on the main preference page.
E - 'Enable cursor blinking' : this probably interest 0.01% of users.
yeah both of these seem irrelevant.
F - The preference pack looks weird in the middle of groupboxes.
Agreed, recently chennes mentioned that this was put in the general tab because the user may want to go in and out of the preference page to test these so ti should not require many clicks to get to it. I think now within the same session the preference page reopens on the same page, so this is no longer a concern and the preference pack dialog could be put in a different tab.
Alternatively it could be collapsed and expanded only when required.

btw, the big "General" groupbox seems unnecessary, we are already in the General tab, we don't need another groupbox to tell us this.
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onekk
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Re: General Preference page discussion.

Post by onekk »

Language, units and number formats it is better to put them together.

for other things, probably and "Appearance" as it is called in some WM as OpenBox, this will group colors, stylesheets and preference packs and similar graphics things.

Probably treeview behaviour, 3d view related things, should be into the "display group".

I have only a doubt about that the whole Display thing could be tightly related to Coin3D, if the answer is yes above suggestion is wrong.

But probably a more broad vision is needed, not limiting to the General Tab (that probably has some need of a different name?)

Regards

Carlo D.
GitHub page: https://github.com/onekk/freecad-doc.
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