DonationCoder.com Software > Clipboard Help+Spell

Teaser screenshot

<< < (3/4) > >>

mouser:
well let me explain a little about how the windows clipboard works.
it's actually designed to let you copy between apps that may or may not support advanced formatting.

so when you copy some text from a web page to the clipboard, it actually creates several different clip items.
one is plaintext, another is richtext, etc.

then when you paste it into an app, that app grabs the best format it can.

so you really dont have to know if the target app can handle richtext or plaintext, you create both, and let the receiver decide.

as far as writing a wsiwyg program - this is where software reuse comes in; there are nice wsiwyg editor components that i can just drop into the program and connect with a little bit of effort.  just like CHS already has with a very nice spelling component.
this is probably a good time to point out that it is donations from users like you, plus thankfully the generosity of some companies which give me big discounts and sometimes free copies, that lets me use these commercial components.  without the donations from you guys and gals i simply wouldnt be able to build these things.

REDONDOS:
Finally, a free alternative. Thank you for your dedication, mouser. This thing will rock!

kfitting:
Concerning the GUI.  There are two main things that confused me about the GUI in the screenshot:

1. Couldn't you combine the TreeView and the Form view (Upper right view)?  in other words, couldn't the treeview have all the clips in it as the lowest level?  I think the second view (more database like) is excellent for searching or filtering, but it makes everyday usage kind of clunky; you have to choose the clip catagory on the left, move and find the clip up top, then do whatever action on the bottom.  If you simplify the main view down to the treeview and the editor view you can choose clips and edit them immediately.  If you need an advanced search based on criteria, open up a seperate window and get the "raw data" from the "database" view.  Just an idea to reduce the amount of stuff on the screen

2. The misaligned toolbars.  I realize that each toolbar is above the section that they control... but it would be nicer if they were at least on the same level.  This may be alleviated if you get rid of the one view from the main window.

Obviously, GUI layout is crucial (something most open-source projects don't seem to understand, but fortunately, people on this site seem to!).  I think you're close.  You have a lot of functionality to squeeze into a small space.  Once people can get their hands on it and use it in actual working conditions I think you'll get a better idea of where things need to go.

Kevin

mouser:
i have been struggling with the issues you've raised over and over and over again in the last week.
i agree with you 100% about everything you've said.

i would like to find a way to let user switch between the view you see in the screenshots and a view which has only tree + memo, with as you say the clip titles as the leaves of the tree.  i *think* i should be able to pull this off.  that is actually what i am most used to using.

but firth i am going to get this view working first since it is the one capable of showing all information.

regarding the toolbars - they will be dockable so you will be able to combine them all on one dock at the very top of the window if you like, or move them wherever you want.

to summarize, i agree that gui layout is crucial, especially in an app for taking notes.
and i've been struggling with it for this app for a while; hopefully you can help me to perfect it once i have a protoype to play with.

this grid-based view is 100x more functional than a pure tree based view in terms of sorting/filtering/search/viewing all info.
but in terms of maximum convenience for quick note taking, a two panel tree+memo can't be beat.. so let's try to support both.

what i would like is some quick buttons to change between views to make it really easy to switch between them.
i have a feeling we are going to have a lot of fun perfecting this app.

Carol Haynes:
Looks good to me (haven't had time to look too closely).

I like the idea of a "simpleton" mode and a "nerdie" mode - to simplify or add bells and whistles.

A couple of questions:

1) What is the count column for on the left (they all seem to be 0)? I presume it is a word count???

2) As someone else said why not integrate all the clips into the tree hierarchy? It would make it all look a little less cluttered.

You are a bit of a star ....

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page