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Re: Rich text editing

Reply #15 –

This is personal opinion, but I know few people who like the ribbon interface.  Buttons and menus changing on you all the time is quite annoying.  In MS products I always find myself having to click back and forth to find the right ribbon which is much more annoying than the old fixed menu system.  Maybe I'm in the minority so I'll ask.  Does the user base really want to see a ribbon interface on the editor?  There's not that many buttons anyway.  Why hide a lot of them most of the time?

Re: Rich text editing

Reply #16 –

AFAIK the ribbon interface is one of the most hated UI around. LOL
Though it's used (even only because it's the only one available, and MS is pushing it anywhere).

I did convert the old SMF editor to a "tabbed" version:
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2782
the images are of the "stable" version, while in the development one I moved everything to it's own tab (that is not different from ribbons TBH, just a different name and maybe better organization), I may have posted some image in the support topic, I don't remember... :-\
Bugs creator.
Features destroyer.
Template killer.

Re: Rich text editing

Reply #17 –

Quote from: scripple – Maybe I'm in the minority so I'll ask.  Does the user base really want to see a ribbon interface on the editor?  There's not that many buttons anyway.  Why hide a lot of them most of the time?

I kind of like both ways. With ribbons we have to be sure not to annoy users with them! I think I would like to test an editor with ribbons for tasks. There could be one ribbon for all text formation, another one for smileys, a third one for all media stuff and maybe a fourth for working with tables and so. The first ribbon with the text formatting icons should be active by default.

Yes, the editor should always show what is needed often. I don't like the idea to have to switch between the ribbons all the time when I want to write a post.

Can an intelligent editor be programmed?

Re: Rich text editing

Reply #18 –

Quote from: Jorin – Yes, the editor should always show what is needed often. I don't like the idea to have to switch between the ribbons all the time when I want to write a post.
The problem with that is nobody uses the same things at the same frequency.
For example I think I click on one of the buttons of the editor once in a... month? And usually just to see what it gives, if it the same I type myself.

Quote from: Jorin – Can an intelligent editor be programmed?
Please provide an accurate definition of "intelligent". LOL (Sorry, I couldn't help it :P)
Bugs creator.
Features destroyer.
Template killer.

Re: Rich text editing

Reply #19 –

Can the editor show only the formatting possibilities that make sense? And the other ones make invisible, or visible but not clickable (perhaps light grey in color so a difference is visible)?

Example: When a part of a text is marked, we can format it or insert a link. We can't insert an image then (this would erase the marked text), so this icon should not be clickable.

This kind of intelligence...  ;)

Edit: Can we have an "undo" and "redo" button in the editor?  O:-)

Re: Rich text editing

Reply #20 –

It could. I'm not sure that the editor knows what tags are open at each position though. In other words, I'm not sure if it has a tag stack. If it did, that would be pretty easy to implement and would be an awesome feature.

As for ribbons: they are just what Microsoft wanted to call tabs. Look at the Gmail screenshot. You are using tabs and finding the icons. That's the same thing you do in Word. Maybe I should call them tabs so we remove the connotation.

Re: Rich text editing

Reply #21 –

Should be able to add the undo / redo, I think there is a plugin for that ... I need to update the editor to the latest for the beta anyway.

Re: Rich text editing

Reply #22 –

Not a general fan of ribbons or tabs or the need to fit everything in the world under one hamburger button that is all the rage these days.  If the info fits easily on screen at once put it there so you don't have to guess or enforce how people use things.

To me the special annoyance of ribbons over tabs is the "intelligence" being discussed.  They try to guess what I'm doing and activate that ribbon.  So I select the ribbon I want say planning to do the same thing lots of times.  In the middle I go do something quick and unrelated to that ribbon like resize an image which annoyingly selects a different ribbon even though I never use anything from the new ribbon.  I then go back to what I'm mostly doing but the previously selected ribbon and the the button I want is now gone.  Then I have to go find the right ribbon again.

I recall Microsoft once admitting the dumbest UI thing they ever did was the "smart menus" which would hide things you didn't use often with a "show me everything" option or something like that.  I thought the admission was a good sign until shortly thereafter they did that on steroids with the even worse ribbon interface.  At least the "smart menus" could be turned off.

Undo/redo would be great though.
 

Re: Rich text editing

Reply #23 –

I made a PR to the 1.1 branch which updated the editor to the "latest" version (1.4.7+)

Also added the undo and redo buttons to the toolbar (as well as ctrl z and ctrl y events, so now those should work mo-better).