Popping up stacks

[Richard Gaskin]

Chipp Walters wrote:

>> In Office 12, the new Galleries could probably have been modals as well,
>> as similar features were in earlier versions.
> 
> I'm not as all crazy about 'Ribbons' as the rest. The take up a lot of
> screen real estate, and in many cases require significant processing
> resources (WYSIWYG font settings for instance). While they are
> certainly great for some things, I'm not all that stoked about them
> for all interface needs. And, they aren't as easy to figure out as one
> might think. I believe we've already argued the plus/minus of them in
> past threads.

It'll be interesting to see how things evolve.  GUIs have pretty much 
done without significant revision for more than a decade, so it seems 
we're about due for something to shake things up, if not Ribbons then 
something else.

And both MS and I hear you about real-estate:  the smart toolbar can be 
shown or hidden with a single keystroke.


>> But there's something very immediate-feeling about having a gallery pop
>> up from the toolbar.  And while a modal requires an explicit gesture to
>> dismiss it, menus are dismissed by doing anything outside of it,
>> allowing the busy user to move on to do something else if the mood
>> strikes them, and the menu politely gets out of their way and lets them
>> do it.
> 
> Of course there's always the issue of how to dismiss them (cancel
> them). If you click outside the window, but on a different button or
> ribbon, does it instantly popup? Or is the click  captured only as a
> dismissal? And what about accidental clicking outside the window, or
> switching to another app?

Ideally all popup menus would work identically, whether they're 
text-only or use graphical elements.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
  ___________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com