On May 14, 2009, at 2:26 PM, Guillaume Lerouge wrote:
Hi,
On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 1:12 PM, Vincent Massol <vincent(a)massol.net>
wrote:
On May 14, 2009, at 12:47 PM, Marius Dumitru Florea wrote:
Hi Vincent,
Vincent Massol wrote:
On May 14, 2009, at 11:01 AM, Marius Dumitru
Florea wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> Right now the new WYSIWYG editor allows us to create simple lists
> like
> the following:
>
> ----------8<----------
> * plants
> * animals
> ** invertebrates
> ** vertebrates
> ---------->8----------
>
> By pressing just Enter when the caret is inside a list item we
> create a
> new list item. This is the basic mechanism. It's simple and it
> should
> remain so.
>
> If I want to make the previous list a bit more complex:
>
> ----------8<----------
> * (((= Plants =
>
> Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae.)))
> * (((= Animals =
>
> Animals are a major group of mostly multicellular, eukaryotic
> organisms
> of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa.
>
> They are divided into:)))
> ** (((== Invertebrates ==
>
> An invertebrate is an animal lacking a vertebral column.)))
> ** (((== Vertebrates ==
>
> Vertebrates are members of the subphylum Vertebrata, chordates
> with
> backbones or spinal columns.)))
> ---------->8----------
>
> I have to be able to insert new lines inside a list item using the
> Enter
> key but without creating a new list item. Let's consider the
> following
> state:
>
> ----------8<----------
> * (((= Plants =)))
> ---------->8----------
>
> We have a level 1 heading inside a list item. The caret is inside
> the
> heading, at the end. Pressing Enter can have the following three
> outcomes:
>
> 1. Continue editing in the heading, but on a new line:
>
> ----------8<----------
> * (((= Title 1
> x =)))
> ---------->8----------
>
> 2. Continue editing in the same list item but after the heading,
> in a
> paragraph:
>
> ----------8<----------
> * (((= Title 1 =
>
> x)))
> ---------->8----------
>
> 3. Create a new list item:
>
> ----------8<----------
> * (((= Title 1 =)))
> * x
> ---------->8----------
>
> For the first outcome I think we all agree that the user has to
> press
> Shift+Enter. For the second and third outcomes I see two options:
>
> A) Enter for 2 and CTRL/META+Enter for 3
> B) Enter for 3 and CTRL/META+Enter for 2
> (if you see any other options please step up)
I don't think we need META.
I'd go with the simplest:
* when inside a group, use the normal enter behavior for the
underlying element. If you're in a header then enter create a new
paragraph, etc)
* you need to position the cursor after the group in the list item
and
press enter to get a new list item
The problem is that the list item wraps the group and there's no
(easy)
way to place the caret after the group but in the list item.
That's why I suggested a visual way to identify the group so it's
easy
to see if the caret is inside or outside the group (ie. before the </
div> or after).
In fact the
WYSIWYG editor is not aware of a group: it simply sees a list item
with
content inside. But since the caret is inside a heading the Enter
key is
treated accordingly, even if the heading is inside a list item.
That's
why I think we need a META+Enter to be able to get out of the list
item.
Note: another solution could allow to get out of the group by
pressing
tab but we said we wanted to keep the standard browser tab
behavior.
I don't see how we could use the Tab key.
It would have the same effect as your META+Enter and would go to the
next list item for example. But again since we don't want to us Tab
it's moot.
If we
really want to introduce a new META+Enter then I'd definitely
vote +1 for A).
BTW how are groups represented visually in the editor? Maybe this
is
the real problem?
Groups are not represented visually in a special way. As I said, the
editor is not aware of them right now. I don't see how drawing a
border
around the group would help (through CSS). Also, in this case the
XWiki
2.0 syntax user is forced to use the group notation in order to add
complex content inside a list item because there's no other means of
doing this so I don't think he would expect to see a border around
the
content in the WYSIWYG editor.
I don't agree. For your description above of the different uses case
you *do* want to differentiate where you're inside a group or not
since the behaviors are not the same. So it makes sense to me to have
some visual clue of a group so that the user knows what behavior
he'll
get.
Well, there is no representation of a group per se in the WYSIWYG
(you don't
have a visual clue as to whether the caret is **here|** or
**here**| ) and
since you don't know where you are you can't get the caret in / out
of the
group using the left / right arrow keys.
I'm not aware of any WYSIWYG editor that has such a way of
displaying where
exactly the caret is in relation to groups (either in desktop or web
WYSIWYG
editors).
I don't think they're doing it right. The WYMEditor is probably the
closest but I tried it and it doesn't work with tables inside lists
for ex.
http://files.wymeditor.org/wymeditor/trunk/src/examples/01-basic.html
I don't agree with it being confusing but I'm in the minory apparently
so I'll shut up.
Additionally, I'm not sure we want to go into this
direction since
it poses numerous UI & technical issues.
I've tested the behavior of OpenOffice Writer and it's the
following: when a
list item is also a heading, hitting enter when the caret is at the
end of
the line gets the caret out of the list and creates a new paragraph.
In
DekiWiki, hitting enter when the caret is at the end of the heading
item
creates a new list item.
It looks to me both are wrong... :)
As I pointed it out in the JIRA comment, the most
common behavior
will be
for users to expect a new list item to be created when they hit the
enter
key, whatever the content located in the list item.
After a header typing enter generates a new para so I'm not sure why
the most common behavior would be to get to a new list item. I don't
see the use case where the user will want to insert a header inside a
list item without wanting to type some text below it. Maybe a use case
would be to do that instead of using a larger Font but he'll get some
trouble anyway with style since headers have an underline for example.
However if we choose A) , as guillaume said the user won't know how to
create the next list item (if we're on the last list item already).
The only solution I can think of to have the best of both world is
again to have a highlight when you're in such a case... Otherwise it's
about displeasing a good percentage of users anyway (btw funnily we'll
only get complaints from users who don't like the behavior and those
who like it won't say anything so we'll end up listening to the
complainers to find later on that those who liked it have become
complainers after you change, etc ;)).
Conclusion:
* I prefer the highlight solution but it's quite more complex to
implement
* A) is my second choice
* B) is third choice
* I'll follow the majority and won't vote a -1
BTW if we have a table inside a list item I hope we get the table
behavior on Enters and not B) ... B) is really going to be a pain in
those cases.
Thanks
-Vincent
If we implement A) ,
users will have no clue about what they need to do to get out of the
list if
they put a heading in a list since they won't know about CTRL/META +
ENTER.
Choosing A) would result in making the most intuitive / most used
option
hard to reach. I really don't think that's what we want.
Thus I'm strongly in favor of B) Enter for 3 and CTRL/META+Enter for 2
Guillaume
> Thanks
> -Vincent
>
>> Thanks,
>> Marius
>>
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> -Vincent
>>>
>>>>
>>>> I'm +1 for A) for the following reason: if the user has inserted a
>>>> heading in a list item then he will surely want to add more
>>>> content
>>>> after that heading, thus pressing just Enter is the natural way of
>>>> doing
>>>> this. From a technical POV the caret is first inside a heading and
>>>> then
>>>> inside a list item so the heading should have the priority of
>>>> handling
>>>> the Enter key.
>>>>
>>>> NOTE: Choosing A) or B) doesn't affect the way simple lists are
>>>> created,
>>>> which is using just Enter.
>>>>
>>>> Please cast your votes and sorry for the long mail,
>>>> Marius