29 Jan
2010
29 Jan
'10
3:36 p.m.
Hi devs,
On 01/16/2010 09:14 PM, Anca Luca wrote:
[snip]
* adding an annotation could be done by pushing the
"add button" then going in
the content& selecting text and when the mouse is up, the create window
appears. In other words, pushing the add button would have the same behaviour as
holding the CTRL key down. Speaking of which, it seems that CTRL + select is
reserved in firefox for selecting a table or smth, and I also think it's
reserved to selecting full words in IEs. Could you investigate on that and try
to figure out what other modifier could do the job? (if a modifier is required)
I had a look at this and I have the following results:
* CTRL + select text:
- CTRL + mouse down is a shortcut for 'select full paragraph' in IE browsers
which means it will select the entire paragraph and will be hard to get the
selection working normally on the text you want to add annotation on (it's
possible to get to a normal select mode but with some pain). I haven't found a
way to prevent that behaviour
- CTRL + mouse down is a shortcut for selecting entire table cells in Firefox:
cannot select only the text in a cell, by any means. I haven't found a way to
prevent that behaviour
* ALT + select text:
- seems to be fine on all browsers, doesn't interfere with any other reserved
keys (tested on firefox, chrome, IE) under windows, some mac BUT
- on Ubuntu, the ALT+drag combination is a system function for moving windows
around on the screen. There is no way I can 'override' that from the browser.
* SHIFT + select text:
- It's weird on ff and chrome since it's an accessibility shortcut for selecting
text (for those who cannot drag). Namely if you hold shift while mouse down, it
will select all the content from the last click you made.)
Because of all these, I think it would be hard to rely on some modifier key, so
we need a more accessible alternative.
By also looking at some other annotations in other applications, I see the
following options:
1/ the alternative described at:
http://incubator.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Improvements/AnnotationsProposa… (but
which has dissappeared from the last proposal at
http://incubator.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/download/Improvements/AnnotationsPro…
), except that it should be more accessible since it would now be the default
way of adding annotations. (making it visible on scroll for example)
2/ while annotations are 'activated' (all or partially displayed on the
document) simply selecting (no modifier) will trigger the annotation dialog
3/ simply selecting always displays a little icon which can be clicked to open
the create dialog (for example, the way the accelerators icon is added to
selected text on IE8). It would less annoy regular selection, and also enable
annotations on it, but it's an extraclick to add an annotation
4/ provide a checkbox "annotations mode", which when activated (regardless of
whether other annotations are displayed or not), will trigger annotation add
dialog on simple select. This solution is similar to 1/
WDYT? How would you see it?
Thanks a lot,
Anca
