"Defaults" button in every settings screen
Harald Judt
h.judt at gmx.at
Fri Dec 9 18:31:00 CET 2011
Hi,
Am 09.12.2011 16:17, schrieb Michael Orlitzky:
> On 12/08/2011 12:29 PM, Jannis Pohlmann wrote:
>> On Fri, 09 Dec 2011 02:23:10 +0900
>> Andrzej<ndrwrdck at googlemail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 12/08/2011 07:48 AM, Robby Workman wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I think one small but very useful feature that I would hope
>>>>> XFCE would inherit from KDE is "Defaults" button in desktop
>>>>> settings dialogs.
>>>>
>>>> I tend to agree that this would be useful. Since nobody replied,
>>>> and since this list is primarily for user issues (as opposed to
>>>> development issues), please file a feature/enhancement request
>>>> on the bugzilla.
>>>
>>> I agree, this has bit me several times already. It's way too easy,
>>> for example, to wipe out the whole list of plugins in the panel.
>>
>> And it is also easy to add them again. Personally, I'd say reverting to
>> default settings is almost useless because as a user you just don't
>> know what will happen if you press such a button. The current settings
>> may be much closer to what you really want than the default settings.
>
> It's not useful to you, because you know what the settings do.
>
> One of the first things people do with their DE is play around with the
> theme settings. If a new user somehow screws up his fonts or WM
> behaviour, it's nice for him to have a "fix it" button that puts them
> back the way they should be -- he probably doesn't even know what he
> "really wants."
>
> True story: let's say someone gives you a laptop with a BIOS you've
> never seen before. He says he's been playing around in the BIOS, but he
> doesn't remember what he changed, and now his computer is "acting
> funny." How long does it take you to fix it?
>
> Assuming the options really are foreign to you (let's say they're in
> Klingon), it will take hours. With a "revert to defaults" button
> (conveniently, this button is in English) it will take seconds.
Some thoughts on this:
* Many settings in xfce are applied in real-time, and quite a lot of
times, the effects are often visible immediately too.
Example: Font size.
* The default value could be shown in the tooltip, along with the
description of the control. When the user reads the tooltip, he knows
what that control is for and what the default value is. If that is
not the case, the tooltip should be rewritten to make it easier to
understand.
This way, you tell the user how to fix it, but he has to fix it for
himself. Without wanting to be pedantic, this teaches him
- to consider what he wants,
- what he can do,
- how he can do it,
- that he is responsible for fixing things himself when he breaks them
- and that he has to be more careful when he's going to change things.
Besides, most people who don't know what they changed will need help
from other users anyway; such a button won't help them very much.
Just my 2¢,
Harald
--
`Experience is the best teacher.'
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