Other View Editor and Main commands
Most commands in our application are grouped as tool bar buttons; this is a choice to ease the interaction assuring the shortest way to the user's execution. Icons are not always so fast, since they often need to be focused by the cursor to read their hint, thus requiring more attention (as a user, I cannot be always sure of the exact function of this or that icon into the various programs).
If the text labels are visible for each icon, this reduces the work space and doubles the functions; on the other side a cascade menu requires a subtle added work to select any recurrent command.
Hence, the text buttons seemed to represent the best compromise as for immediacy and practicality, behaving like explanatory icons.
They are all visible and accessible, their meaning is in sight.
On the other side, we have a List View and a Logs frame with advanced features that can be wholly exploited even when the V/Editor window is opened: enough to minimize the V/Editor interacting with the List View, e.g. for to directly load or scan new files; and with the Log reports as well, e.g. for jumping to special strings into autoloadable files in the Editor etc.. Once needed, our minimized window will be resized by the procedure.
This allows the utmost use of both functionalities, with no space (and time) loss.
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The Console Tool Bars
The Log handlers dialog
Your Style and Habit
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The commands positioning.
The only limit can arise reducing the window's width: in this case a cascade menu will replace all the View-Editor buttons until resizing (see image to the left).
The situation for the console is different: the header buttons are placed into separate resizable tool bars, that can be extended, reduced or overlapped, with a special great advantage for the combo box list and the text box for edit, that can be widened to the window extent by a click. Not all the buttons are necessary at the same time, but those bars can be even displaced to separate rows or levels so that the buttons that may be necessary to both sides, like Font and Color selectors and hyphenation settings, remain always clickable.
The most of the main window lower buttons are needed to the console level, not the editor, but the two windows are put so that the console functions remain normally visible and their commands accessible even in the background. If the View-Editor has been enlarged, it can be automatically resized as you can reach all buttons or reset to default position by one of the command added to the system menu of its Title Bar (Right-click; see top image). All was conceived in such way that, once the habit is taken, most tools can be manipulated as you prefer.
The general commands.
This paragraph concerns those commands or options that could be necessary both to the direct automatic hyphenation, from the console or even the startup command line, and any manual operation. They are, from left to right:
- [first] auto Backup of files that are being modified;
- Words Lower case, or Capitalized only, or All words Lower and full Upper case will be hyphenated;
- the selected Language, that may change for every document; dictionaries are downloadable and installable from within the program;
- the minimum size of the words to be hyphenated;
- the minimum word edges of the words to hyphenate, that is the minimum length that the first and the last syllable must have to split the word.
- the use of auto Parameters for the options above: these will be prioritized when already embedded into each document; otherwise the current setting will be recorded inside a <!-- --> comment tag for the next executions.
- the choice of the Background color and of the Font with the relative color nuance must be also available for various frames.
The commands to the bottom of the console are mostly dedicated to the main level, as direct actions on files not to be loaded into the Editor: for example one file could be loaded to try any option's effect inside, then a whole checked list can be hyphenated; they can be used however from any point of our job.
You may want to browse a file from the ViewList that is not loaded into the editor, or manage the LOG to save or print the results or a memo, or save /append any list of not found or compound words, planning to add them to the dictionary, or even set any page with personal annotations as the welcome startup page.
Finally the |? Context Help| command must be accessible from everywhere in the procedure.
 Besides the F1 key, active on most frames and dialogs, clicking this button will change the cursor's appearance whenever moved over a control or area for which information are provided; clicking there will open a help window described in the next page.
Customizing your environment.
Two special features will be mentioned here, allowing to personalize your application both from the aesthetic point of view and operative.
They are accessible through the system menu of the Main window, right clicking the Title Bar or opening the menu from the program icon.
- Although the visible space is mostly and strictly dedicated to the numerous program functions, the visual impact was not disregarded; the user can choose over a first set of 12 different wall papers, or skins, that on restart will adapt all the buttons colors as well as the dialogs' background colors.
- For every special job, or for every user of the same installation, a local version of the initialisation file can be saved apart, to be restored for different tasks and sessions.
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Feb. 23, 2007