RE: [Gramps-users] Re: progress report and a question

[Eric N. <en...@at...>]

I vote for (1). That makes the most sense to me. In the Windows world, it
seems like most apps are moving towards (1). I think (2) is more of an older
apps style, and it also makes sense to me. Maybe it even makes more sense
than (1) to newbies. When trading off multiple vs. one menu item, I usually
prefer the one menu item, though. Fewer menu items can also be less
confusing to newbies. Maybe the menu item could be "Save as / Export..." or
something. Now I'm just rambling.

-Eric

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alex Roitman [mailto:sh...@al...] 
> Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 10:10 AM
> To: gra...@li...
> Subject: [Gramps-users] Re: progress report and a question
> 
> Well, I have seen exactly three responses on gramps-users, 
> and they were all
> different, specifically, one vote for each option suggested:
> 
> 1. "Save as" which would take care of everything, by Roy
> 2. "Save as" for native file saving under different name,
>    and Export for saving into other formats, by Jim
> 3. "Save a copy" and Export, or just Export alone, for all
>    formats, by Jeff.
> 
> I personally was in favor of (1), and Don liked (2). I might 
> be leaning
> towards (2) now, but it would be nice to get more people voicing their
> preferences.
> 
> Speak now, or hold your peace forever! 
> (At least as far as this issue is concerned :-)
> 
> Alex
> 
> On Fri, Jul 02, 2004 at 07:28:25PM -0500, Alex Roitman wrote:
> > Now the question is what do we do with Save/Export functions. The 
> > File->Save item is gone, because saving the edited database is no
> > longer necessary: all the changes are committed immediately and the
> > database is always in the "saved" state. There might be a 
> need, however,
> > to (1) save present grdb database under another name and 
> (2) save present
> > data in another format (GEDCOM, GRAMPS XML, GRAMPS package, 
> Web Family
> > Tree, CD Burner, and maybe more in the future.
> > 
> > One way of supporting the above functions is to have "File->Save as"
> > item and File->Export item. The former will save the database under
> > another name and open it, so the database under the new name is
> > edited. The latter would save data in non-native format: export it.
> > 
> > Another possibility would be to use "Save as" for both cases, and
> > allow file chooser filter to select an output format. This would
> > be similar to File->Open way of doing things. 
> > 
> > Yet another possibility would be to have "Save a copy" and Export.
> > "Save a copy" would save grdb under another name, but not load it.
> > The copy would be "laid away" and not edited in the current session.
> > 
> > I would like to solicit user feedback as to what the 
> preferred arrangement
> > of menu items should be. Some programs (like GIMP) have both Save as
> > and Save a Copy (no export though :-), while other have 
> other combinations
> > of the above.
> > 
> > Please post your opinion and let's discuss it so that the meaningful
> > consensus can be reached. Maybe there're some other options that
> > I haven't listed above. The goal would be to have a simple, 
> intuitive,
> > and powerful interface: as few interface elmenets as possible to
> > inambuguously enable everything we can offer to the user.
> 
> -- 
> Alexander Roitman   http://ebner.neuroscience.umn.edu/people/alex.html
> Dept. of Neuroscience, Lions Research Building
> 2001 6th Street SE, Minneapolis, MN  55455
> Tel (612) 625-7566   FAX (612) 626-9201
>