GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 542347
tooltips for the menu entries are not very accurate
Last modified: 2010-09-29 14:32:05 UTC
tooltips for Preferred Applications Screen Resolution Keyboard Mouse Network Proxy Sound Windows for the Preferences menu are not very accurate.
Created attachment 114304 [details] [review] More accurate tooltips
-_Comment=Select your default applications +_Comment=Choose applications to open different types of document This is not very accurate, either. Disregarding the typo, it sounds like a description for a mime type configuration thing which this is not. It's more of a URI handler configuration thing, except that neither fits the media player, the shell, or the a11y applications. -_Comment=Set your keyboard preferences +_Comment=Set auto-repeat preferences and enforce typing breaks Do we really want to change the description string each time we decide to move a setting out of or into the capplet? I don't think so. -_Comment=Set your network proxy preferences +_Comment=Set up a network proxy for most desktop applications To me, the "most" looks rather likely to confuse users more than it helps. "Why not all? Which are the ones it does not affect?"
>This is not very accurate, either. Disregarding the typo, it sounds like a >description for a mime type configuration thing which this is not. It's more of >a URI handler configuration thing, except that neither fits the media player, >the shell, or the a11y applications. I agree it doesn't really make sense for the a11y applications, at least. (Although I doubt that most users will care whether it's really a mime configuration thing or a URI handler thing, provided it does what they expect it to do.) "Select your default applications" just sounds a bit like an incomplete sentence, though-- select your default applications for what? I know you can find out by opening the window, but that's an expensive operation from the user's point of view. Maybe something like "Select your default applications for common tasks"? Or anyone have any better ideas? > Do we really want to change the description string each time we decide to move > a setting out of or into the capplet? I don't think so. Well, I don't think that's a valid argument in itself-- most significant user interface changes require user documentation changes, and tooltips are very much user documentation. (And in many ways, they're more important documentation than the desktop user guide, because they will be encountered and used more frequently and by a larger number of users.) Of course I agree that, in general, we don't want every capplet's tooltip to describe every setting, either. However, a tooltip for the Keyboard Preferences menu item that just says "Set your keyboard preferences" clearly isn't adding any additional value, and that's a HIG violation. The HIG says that menu tooltips should: * describe the most important tasks users can accomplish with your application * not be verbose, but longer and more descriptive than the item's name The suggested change meets both of those criteria, but I'd be happy to hear other suggestions too. > To me, the "most" looks rather likely to confuse users more than it helps. "Why > not all? Which are the ones it does not affect?" AFAIK* it's still not easily possible to persuade vanilla Firefox (2.x) or Thunderbird to use the GNOME proxies, and unfortunately they're two very widely-used desktop apps-- many users won't know or care that they're not "GNOME apps". (Anything you run inside a terminal will ignore them as well, but I'm less concerned about that-- although there are times when it sure would be nice if it worked.) I know it's possible to patch FF and TB to use the GNOME proxies, but I'm not sure how many distros do that? Does FF3 on Linux/Unix have a 'use system proxies' option, and if so, is it the default? I'm not running it right now to check... * If I'm wrong about that, then great :)
(In reply to comment #3) > "Select your default applications" just sounds a bit like an incomplete > sentence, though-- select your default applications for what? I know you can > find out by opening the window, but that's an expensive operation from the > user's point of view. > > Maybe something like "Select your default applications for common tasks"? Or > anyone have any better ideas? I could live with that. My main point was that it doesn't have anything at all to do with documents. > The suggested change meets both of those criteria, but I'd be happy to hear > other suggestions too. Fine, I'll give in here. > > To me, the "most" looks rather likely to confuse users more than it helps. "Why > > not all? Which are the ones it does not affect?" > > AFAIK* it's still not easily possible to persuade vanilla Firefox (2.x) or > Thunderbird to use the GNOME proxies, and unfortunately they're two very > widely-used desktop apps-- many users won't know or care that they're not > "GNOME apps". (Anything you run inside a terminal will ignore them as well, > but I'm less concerned about that-- although there are times when it sure would > be nice if it worked.) Yes, but the "most" in there doesn't tell the user anything of value. She's just going to ask herself those questions. > I know it's possible to patch FF and TB to use the GNOME proxies, but I'm not > sure how many distros do that? Does FF3 on Linux/Unix have a 'use system > proxies' option, and if so, is it the default? I'm not running it right now to > check... I wouldn't know.
(In reply to comment #3) > > To me, the "most" looks rather likely to confuse users more than it helps. "Why > > not all? Which are the ones it does not affect?" > > AFAIK* it's still not easily possible to persuade vanilla Firefox (2.x) or > Thunderbird to use the GNOME proxies, and unfortunately they're two very > widely-used desktop apps-- many users won't know or care that they're not > "GNOME apps". (Anything you run inside a terminal will ignore them as well, > but I'm less concerned about that-- although there are times when it sure would > be nice if it worked.) > > I know it's possible to patch FF and TB to use the GNOME proxies, but I'm not > sure how many distros do that? Does FF3 on Linux/Unix have a 'use system > proxies' option, and if so, is it the default? I'm not running it right now to > check... > > * If I'm wrong about that, then great :) > What about "Set your network proxy preferences globally"?
Sounds ok to me although I must say I don't see a lot of added value in "globally", either.
Last call for 2.24 string changes. Freeze on Monday. Are we set here?
No response in 2 years, let's say the comments are fixed (even though the control-center shell for GNOME 3.0 won't show those).