11-28-2004, 09:59 AM -
Hello.
In Suggestions, I posted this proposal for an MS Office Shortcut Bar mode enhancement to True Launch Bar, but then I saw some guidance directing suggestions over to a Forum, in order to receive comments on it. Therefore, I am posting a slightly edited version of my MS Office Shortcut Bar thoughts to this forum, and retitling it "MS Office Shortcut Bar Plugin".
I'm sure everyone reading this is familiar with the MS Office Shortcut Bar, which was dropped by Microsoft in Windows XP. However, some readers may not have used Office Shortcut Bar in a non-docking mode, in which the whole collection of individual toolbar names appears as vertical text inside a rectangle which presents each toolbar's shortcut icons in a resizable 2-D screen grid. The underlying metaphor is a "shelf of books."
I found it _very_ productive to work with Office Shortcut Bar undocked, because I could group related icons together in a specific region of its screen rectangle. I quickly learned to click on exactly the icon I wanted without having to read anything. In other words, my brain associated a particular 2-D icon position with the function of its underlying shortcut. This meant identical icons were easily recognized to perform different functions because they were grouped with other icons in _different_ positions on the 2-D grid. This was, I thought, part of the essence of a good visual user interface -- i.e., no text need be read to identify the correct button to click.
I believe TrueSoft would have a winning plugin by implementing a MS Office Shortcut Bar option which also incorporates the newer features of True Launch Bar. Packing so much visual information into a multi-toolbar screen rectangle produces maximum user productivity. It would be reasonable, at least to me, to charge a few dollars extra for an Office Shortcut Bar emulator plugin, because exploiting the benefis of its undocked 2-D grid display will be a long, difficult programming task.
I hope TrueSoft will consider offering an MS Office Shortcut Bar plugin for a future release.
In Suggestions, I posted this proposal for an MS Office Shortcut Bar mode enhancement to True Launch Bar, but then I saw some guidance directing suggestions over to a Forum, in order to receive comments on it. Therefore, I am posting a slightly edited version of my MS Office Shortcut Bar thoughts to this forum, and retitling it "MS Office Shortcut Bar Plugin".
I'm sure everyone reading this is familiar with the MS Office Shortcut Bar, which was dropped by Microsoft in Windows XP. However, some readers may not have used Office Shortcut Bar in a non-docking mode, in which the whole collection of individual toolbar names appears as vertical text inside a rectangle which presents each toolbar's shortcut icons in a resizable 2-D screen grid. The underlying metaphor is a "shelf of books."
I found it _very_ productive to work with Office Shortcut Bar undocked, because I could group related icons together in a specific region of its screen rectangle. I quickly learned to click on exactly the icon I wanted without having to read anything. In other words, my brain associated a particular 2-D icon position with the function of its underlying shortcut. This meant identical icons were easily recognized to perform different functions because they were grouped with other icons in _different_ positions on the 2-D grid. This was, I thought, part of the essence of a good visual user interface -- i.e., no text need be read to identify the correct button to click.
I believe TrueSoft would have a winning plugin by implementing a MS Office Shortcut Bar option which also incorporates the newer features of True Launch Bar. Packing so much visual information into a multi-toolbar screen rectangle produces maximum user productivity. It would be reasonable, at least to me, to charge a few dollars extra for an Office Shortcut Bar emulator plugin, because exploiting the benefis of its undocked 2-D grid display will be a long, difficult programming task.
I hope TrueSoft will consider offering an MS Office Shortcut Bar plugin for a future release.