[imp] Another UI question for IMP development

[Rick Romero]

On 3 Oct 2001 at 8:10, Kevin M. Myer wrote:

> On Mon, 1 Oct 2001, Jon Parise wrote:
> 
> > > after N characters?  Or at the very least, only allow one address per 
> > > line?  I've had users complaining that this is clumsy and confusing and in 
> > > my opinion, it is.
> > 
> > No, that would require us to use a textarea instead of an input
> > line.  If we do that, you'll have users complaining that the
> > headers are taking up too much screen real estate, forcing them
> > to scroll down to start their message text.
> 
> I'd rather have users complain about having to scroll down the page, past
> a few headers, using the window's scrollbars to get to the message text,
> than have users complain that they don't know where to add an address 
> because their list of To: addresses has scrolled off the right side of the 
> screen.  This is most obvious when using the Expand Names function.
> 

I took a couple screenshots of Pegasus Mail 4.0's handling of this.  
Yes, it's a Win32 app, but the way it handles multiple addresses 
might be a good addition to IMP.

Pmail also uses a single-line for the To:, and Cc: fields. But at the 
end of the line is a 'addressbook' icon.  When you click the icon,
If comes up with a more 'manageable' way of dealing with multiple 
addresses.   It could be a popup window, like Compose, and if you 
click 'Ok', it would refresh the Compose Window with the new 
addresses, if you click 'Cancel' it would just close.  

Though I don't know how you'd get the data from one to the other, 
without having the addressbook window storing the email to that 
point..(like the spellcheck)

In any-case I put the screenshots up at 
http://www.havokmon.com/stuff/pm4/pmail-reply*.jpg

> For example:
> 
> Open the compose window.  Enter a name, expand the name.  Enter a second 
> name, expand the name.  Depending on your address length, your addresses 
> may be off the screen AND instead of the text box being scrolled all the 
> way to the right so you can see your last address entered, its reset all 
> the way to the left so you see the first address entered.
> 
<snip>
> Now with two addresses, maybe its intuitive for the user to use their
> arrow keys to scroll in that window.  But what if there's twenty
> addresses?  And the user wants to view them all?  And how are they going
> to know where to add additional recipients?  Scroll twenty addresses
> right?  Thats extremely cumbersome.  

Just hit the 'End' key in that field.  You'd click the field, and type like 
so:
<endkey>,address@here.com,address@there.com

>Where is someone who doesn't
> understand address syntax going to put the comma (if they know to use a 
> comma) in the last above To: address?  Answer:  anywhere they want and 
> they'll be baffled why an email addressed like:
> 
> To: Kevin Myer <kevin_myer@iu13.k12.pa.us>, Kevin Myer2 <kevin_my, 
> Another_user@somedomain.com
> 
> fails and can't be delivered.

That part is a training issue, right there with "Don't open attachments 
you're not expecting."

> 
> As a compromise, why not do this:  just like when an ambiguous name is 
> found when expanding names, create a second text field for entering new 
> addresses. For example:
> 
> To: Kevin
> <expand names>
> 
> this becomes:
> 
> To: <Popup menu with all available addresses>  Kevin
>     |And this is a new text entry field             |
> 
> If no ambigious names are found, this becomes:
> 
> To: kevin_myer@iu13.k12.pa.us, <lotsa addresses that have scrolled far to 
> the right of the screen>
>     |And an empty field to add new addresses to     |
> CC:
> BCC:
> 
> Why not have the To: line be a two field entry area after the first 
> address is entered.  New addresses can be entered in either one but the 
> top one contains all the addresses.  Addresses entered in the second line 
> are concatenated with the list on the first line each time names are 
> expanded.  But there's always either a blank field to enter new names or 
> you're at the end of the list of names, if you're typing in a long list.
> 
> Add to that a mouseover for the To: field that lists all the addresses in 
> that field and this UI problem is solved.  And I only label it as a 
> problem because in training five department directors recently, the 
> majority of them had trouble with this area.

If you want to view your addresses, just ctrl-Arrow between them.  
Just like the 'End' key, this is a standard IBM PC shortcut key that's 
been around forever.  Anyone that uses any text editor (i.e. Word) 
should be aware of these shortcuts.

I personally don't have a problem with the way it's setup, but it just 
happens that I think the new Pmail Address window is nifty. :)

 
> Thanks,
> Kevin
> -- 
> Kevin M. Myer 
> Systems Administrator
> Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13
> (717)-560-6140
> 

-- 
Rick Romero
IT Manager	Valeo, Inc.
ph 262.695-4841  fax 262-695-4850
rick@valeoinc.com