MenusRevisited

Revision 26 as of 2005-11-09 22:02:46

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Summary

The menu system has been completely reviewed for Dapper. This spec talks about general policy that has been followed and specific actions that are going to be taken to match the policy.

Rationale

General Policy

The following general policy guidelines are followed in each decision

  • If an item is primarily launched by a specific MIME type and works with one file at a time, it can be hidden

  • The separation between Applications > System Tools and the System menu must be removed. This will be achieved by removing the items in Applications > System Tools

    • With above, items that are mostly system administration tasks and/or use gksudo should be moved to System > Administration

    • Items which affect only the current user are to be moved to System > Preferences

    • Anything else that is not going to be hidden/removed is moved to Applications > Accessories

  • Tools which are likely to simply confuse users are to be hidden or removed
  • Tools which have their functionality replaced with another simpler tool are being hidden or removed
  • There should be a single point to access each function of the system

Implementation

Specific Menu Item Actions

  • Each of the following items has been reviewed and a decision has been made on it. Any item not listed will be kept.

Purging "System Tools"

  • Applications Menu Editor

    • - replace with Alt+dragging and D&D from gnome-app-install? - move to "System" > "Preferences"? - Known issue - already has a "Menus & Toolbars" item!

  • Avahi Zeroconf Browser
    • - hide if installed by default in Dapper
  • Bluetooth file sharing
    • - make appear as gnome-session service, if new gnome-session comes in Dapper/Gnome 2.14 - hide if new gnome-session doesn't appear
  • Bluetooth manager
    • - hide due to being crap
  • Bug Report Tool
  • Configuration Editor
    • - Hide, useful only for powerusers
  • Floppy Formatter
  • Gparted

    • - move to "System" > "Administration"

  • Network Tools

    • - move to "System" > "Administration"

  • New Login
    • - replace with button in gnome-screensaver
  • New login nested window
    • - remove entirely
  • Run as different user
    • - remove, not hide
  • System Log

    • - move to "System" > "Administration"

  • System Monitor

    • - move to "System" > "Administration"

  • Ubuntu Device Database
    • - hide (may be available during install and/or in About Ubuntu)

Accessories

  • Archive Manager
  • File Browser
    • - remove, because it duplicates with the Places menu

Graphics

  • Image Viewer
    • - Hide, as it is best accessed by launching a file - post-dapper - Slideshow item in Nautilus? (the Finder has it...)
  • XSane Image scanning program
    • - Scanners now accessible via GIMP, so hide.

"Internet" and "Office"

  • GNOME BitTorrent

    • - hide, as it is best accessed by launching a file

  • "Internet" > "Evolution Mail" vs. "Office" > "Evolution"

    • - upstream is working on seperate icons for each item ("Calendar", "Tasks", etc.) - if the above doesn't come for dapper, fix the menu item in Office to say Groupware and to use a better icon

  • OpenOffice from Template

    • - hide, can be accessed from within OO

Sound and video

  • CD Player - nuke, replaced by Sound Juicer
  • Recording Level Monitor
    • - hide/nuke for Dapper - should be incorporated into Sound preferences
  • Rhythmbox Music Player
    • - keep
  • Serpentine Audio-CD Creator
    • - keep for dapper - post-dapper, integrate into Nautilus/Rhythmbox in an obvious way
  • Sound Juicer CD Ripper
    • - keep for Dapper, - post dapper, integrate into Nautilus/Rhythmbox in an obvious way
  • Sound Recorder
    • - keep
  • Totem
    • - hide, as it is best accessed by launching a file
  • Volume Control
    • - hide for dapper, available on panel - should be incorporated into Sound preferences
  • Volume Monitor
    • - hide for dapper - should be incorporated into Sound preferences

Shortening "System" > "Preferences"

See also [http://live.gnome.org/PreferencesRevisited PreferencesRevisited]

  • File Management

    - remove (redundant with "Edit" > "Preferences" in Nautilus)

  • Login Photo - remove (redundant with "About Me")
  • Multimedia Systems Selector
    • - hide, due to confusion for users and likelyhood of users messing their system up
  • PalmOS devices
  • Windows
    • - hide, power users only

Other tasks

  • Generate list of applications that install a menu item in Applications > System Tools

  • Make certain hiding application on menu does not hide it on Open With...
  • Develop way to right-click on menu item and select "Hide"

Coordination with Gnome

  • Pass ideas and rationale to upstream
  • Encourage upstream to do the following integration work:

    • "About Me" + "Users & Groups" + "Sessions"

    • "Font" + "Theme"
    • "Keyboard" + "Keyboard Shortcuts"

Outstanding issues

We should probably coordinate with upstream (Gnome) during their 2.14 cycle.

Reviewers Comments

MarkShuttleworth: very nicely written up. Clean and crisp. Very clear what the plan is. Thank you! Please let's get this in asap so we can deal with feedback.

Discussion

AlexanderDomanski: Nice idea to remove stuff that is usually opened through Nautilus. I am doing so for a long time to keep menus clutter free. But I do not like the idea to remove the system tool menu. It must be a clear seperation if I administer (read change) my system or if I do something with my System which does not affect the system itself but has something to do with it. For me these are for example the log viewer and the network tools. By the way: I do not like the idea of moving new login to the screensaver. That is not a typical use of it, is it? It is crap to wait ten minutes for the screensaver to than click on new login. New login in nested window should be hidden only, and not entirely removed.

AlanTam: I cannot find a revalent spec about replacing things like "Firefox Web Browser" with "Web Browser". This makes sense since we should have specified a preferred browser in "Preferences -> Preferred Applications", and this link should point to that preferred application. The same should also apply to many other things, e.g. mail client, cd burner. Should we invent new /etc/alternatives/* for them?

AlanTam: "Preferences -> Removable Drives and Media Preferences" is mostly about "which application to launch" when an event occurs. So why not merge it into "Preferred Applications"?

ChristophNoack: First, keep up the good work. I have some comments to your specification, because things should presented to the user in a common and complete way.

  • General Policy: For common operations there should never be only one point to access each function. People are lazy (sorry) - they don't want to search functions. On the other hand: People don't seem to understand "where" the programs come from if they are just linked with MIME.
  • System Tools, Floppy Formatter: First, why use a "File"-Menu for that entry? Second, how to format USB-Sticks and stuff like that? There should be a common way to "erase" removable disks in the system. Maybe there is a way to extend the tool "disks"...
  • System Tools, Gparted: It own's a really confusing name. Why not name it "Gparted Partition Editor" if we want to keep it?
  • System Tools, New Login: Is it really necessary to enable the screensaver first? This is a key feature of multi-user systems - why not use "Fast User Switch Applet"? This encourages users to use it and does not create more "mess" on the "default" user desktop if it is used by a group of people (like a family).
  • System Tools, Ubuntu Device Database: Why not hide after using it? And it seems more than a information collector - name it "Device Database Collector"?
  • System Tools, Archive Manager: Is "Make compressed file..." an equivalent to "new archive"? We should not forbid the workflow: make archive -- drop Files from different places?
  • System Tools, File browser: This is not really redundant. It opens another view of the user's data. Therefore it is not a representaton for one place, it is a file "browser". Maybe the Computer view can be opened in this view by default?
  • Graphics, XSane: I think people do not want to start Gimp just to scan. Additionally, XSane owns functions for copying, emailing, batch-scanning etc. It should not be hidden (but it needs some interface love)

  • Office, OpenOffice from Template: Why not name it "Create from Template"? Your proposed workflow: Create any document -- Access File menu to create from Template -- Close unused document. It should be better integrated - why not use it from the Nautilus "Create Document" menu? Certainly, "OO from Template" is not used, because there doesn't exist good templates yet.

  • Sound and Video, Sound Joicer: What is a ripper? We should name it "Extractor" or something like that.
  • Sound and Video, Totem: We should name it "Totem Media Player" and keep it. It has playlist functionality and plays already inserted DVDs.
  • Preferences, File Management: I don't know if it is a good idea to hide it. It also contains preferences for desktop or trash. This is hard to discover if the user is used to "spatial browsing". Please refer to "System Tools, file browser".
  • Coordinaten with Gnome, Font and Theme: The installation of new fonts should be simplified. It is hard to discover.

Just an idea: In contrast to over-slim the menu - create an applet to automatically shows the 5 most used applications in the Panel? First, the user learns what applicatons he owns - later there is only need for an one-click-start-program behaviour.

Random Quote

"We must be proactive, eternally vigilant, forever fighting, overwhelmingly clever and handsome." - Robert Love