Editor Toolbar Button Reordering
Author: Ondrej Langr
$Revision: 1.6 $
$Date: 2007/12/03 14:11:47 $
Content
Problem Description
This specification proposes a reordering of editor toolbar buttons in NetBeans 6.0. The original order of buttons was inconsitent throughout the toolbar (see Figure 1. - e.g. the reverse order of next / previous bookmark with respect to order of "Find next / previous occurence", etc .. )
Figure 1. Current state (promo H L&F)
In figure 1. you can see the current typical appearance of editor toolbar for code based editing. However, for editing of special files, there can be aditional panels added into the toolbar (see Figure 5.).
Use Cases and Scenarios
Currently following use cases are covered by the buttons in the editor toolbar:
- back/forward navigation within editor tabs
- search
- bookmarking, bookmark navigation
- text formatting
- macro recording
- commenting and uncommenting blocks of text
The editor toolbar can also be extended with file-type related module dependent buttons.
Specification
Visual Description
Figure 2. Proposed order of buttons (in NB 6 brand) - TBD - Vertical arrows - Tomas' icons
For any file and mode where the editor toolbar actions are of some relevance (basically any mode where the user works with a code) the toolbar should be displayed as in Figure 2.
Behavioral Description
For toggle buttons, there should be visual signalization of the current state (pushed / released). These buttons are:
Toggle Highlight Search - pushed whenever highlight search is on
Toggle Bookmark - current line bookmarked. This button should appear as pushed whenever the cursor
is located on a line which is currently bookmarked.
Comparison of the Current and Proposed State
Figure 3. Before (NB 6 brand)
Figure 4. After (NB 6 brand)
Open Issues & Notes
View Toggle Buttons
There are more issues regarding the editor toolbar. E.g., there can be view toggle buttons within the toolbar if available for a particular file. It is fine as long as there are 1-3 views, but if there are more views, these buttons cause the editor toolbar to run out of the screen (see figure 5).
Figure 5. Current state for XML projects (in NetBeans 5.5)
Usefulness of the Editor Toolbar
There has been discussion on how much actually users do use the editor toolbar. We assume it is not used very intensively, however, we need more data from real users to decide whether to keep it or let it go completely.
