GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 743968
Signature input/preview area too small for HTML signatures
Last modified: 2018-12-27 01:11:08 UTC
Created attachment 296077 [details] Screenshot of small input/preview area While I don't like HTML signatures, I'm forced to use them at work. It was the one thing preventing me from using Geary at work. Many thanks for implementing it! The input field is, however, too small for HTML input and preview if you ask me. With HTML it is more likely to get scrollbars and more content (multiple lines, images, etc.) then you would normally have. It's current size makes it near impossible to do any editing or actually have a complete image of the resulting signature. Attached you'll find an image illustrating the issue.
The Accounts dialog is already getting to be kind of large, but I do see your point.
It's worth noting that the accounts dialog is resizable, and when you resize it, all the extra space goes into the signature input/preview. Given that the accounts dialog is already too big in some circumstances (bug 714104), I'd be hesitant to make it even larger. We may need to use expanders or revealers to show sections one at a time.
*** Bug 744026 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
As reporter on bug #744026 has suggested, if we go to moving out the signature editor to a separate pane, it might make sense to simply offer a WYSIWYG editor with full toolbar. Note that this doesn't fix all situations. In Age's case, it looks like the HTML requirements go beyond what our simple WYSIWYG editor could allow. We may not go this route, however. Expanders or revealers might be the solution here.
An idea that I mooted in the original bug was to allow the user to select text in the composer and use the context menu to set that as the signature. This give the user WYSIWYG editing without requiring a whole other widget.
Thanks for the top about resizing the dialog. I don't have lot of extra space available to resize though ;-) With or without the signature input area, the dialog has to be decreased in size anyway. Either by removing options or introducing separate panes. It's also slightly off to come back to a massive account selection dialog once you applied the account changes even though you only have one account listed. About creating more signature space and introducing a WYSIWYG editor... The way I see it: 1. Adding/altering signatures will not be done on a daily base 2. Some people don't want signatures 3. Some people will be happy with a simple text signature 4. Some people want a fancy HTML signature 5. There will remain a need for direct HTML input for more complex signatures (e.g. due to strict company branding requirements) 6. An easy way to see the end result (preview) is important to not make it a cumbersome task to create a signature Number 1 is something that should be kept in the back of our minds. Of course it has to be perfect but how much effort is worth putting in something that's not being used on a regular base? Number 5 should preferably be by raw input through the UI to prevent having to locate and edit some config file. Setting a signature based on text selection is interesting. Quite tricky to get right though I think, like in case of an HTML signature again. And the signature has to come from somewhere to be able to select it in the first place. Personally I'd already be happy when only the preview gets fixed. I might be cursing in church here, but what about just opening some form of pop-up/image/dialog to get a bigger preview? Has an external editor been considered as well? The small area isn't appropriate to do extensive editing, but becoming a proper HTML editor is not Geary's goal in the first place. I.e. let the user open some (default) editor/application from the Geary account settings and have the file changes made in that application be applied in Geary. Or let the user do the editing in a more appropriate place and just paste the code in Geary like it is now.
(In reply to comment #6) > Setting a signature based on text selection is interesting. Quite tricky to get > right though I think, like in case of an HTML signature again. And the > signature has to come from somewhere to be able to select it in the first > place. The idea is that you could create the signature using the WYSIWYG tools in the composer. Once you're happy with it, you'd select it, right click, and "Save as signature". It's possible that you we might not get the right HTML out of it, but we're pretty good about doing this when selecting quotes, so I don't think it'd be a big problem. > Has an external editor been considered as well? The small area isn't > appropriate to do extensive editing, but becoming a proper HTML editor is not > Geary's goal in the first place. I.e. let the user open some (default) > editor/application from the Geary account settings and have the file changes > made in that application be applied in Geary. You can do that with your .signature file today. I guess we could a button that would open that in an editor. But I'm afraid that could give the suggestion that the .signature file is part of Geary, when in fact many mail clients may use it.
Fixed on master by https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/geary/merge_requests/71