Find & Replace: "Ready" and "No occurrences found"

[greenmorpher]

Could the above be made a bit more salient in the Find & Replace dialog? Parked down at the bottom left, just words that appear in the gray background, they kind of don't advertise themselves. Am I correct in recalling that the old NW had a pop up box that made the "No occurrences found" or "Found x ocurrences" statement very obvious? What about a return to same?

Do I actually need "Ready"? Given that the dialog is in front of me and I conjured it up to use, I think "Ready" is kind of unnecessary. But I do want to have it made clear that it has finished its work.

Also "Next" as the top button is not the word I am looking for in the first instance since that implies that I have already found one and I want to find another. I understand what the word is saying when I think about it, but I shouldn't have to think. "Find" is the word I want ... and when I have found the first one, I want that replaced by "Find next". And the "Previous" button at the top. It reinforces the notion that this is not the first search. Along with "Next", it assumes a search or searches undertaken already.

Then there is the "Replace & Find". And "Replace" only. How about these commands:

Direction of search Up/Down
Find (Find next)
Replace (Activated only after a find)
Find & Replace
Find All
Find & Replace All

With a good, robust dialog telling us what has happened.

In another thread, there was an appeal for a prettier interface. I’m not sure what that would mean -- except for a really slashing vertical ruler -- but for goodness sake, the gray and blue is so boring and drab. I have a monitor running millions of colours yet I am limited to three in NWP -- gray, black/white, blue. Why don't I go back to the old Fat Mac? It only gave me black and white, but at least what was on the screen was clearer to read that this insane gray on gray I get today! (And in those days, I actually had eyesight!)

With v.1.2 you made a change(s) which allowed FontCard to work properly with NWP -- thank you for that -- which results in a far superior presentation of the fonts. It uses some colour, it makes a difference -- it makes the font menu much easier to use. How about looking at that and making a few appropriate changes to the NWP interface?

The find and replace buttons could be different colours, for example. Find and Replace could be one colour, Find & Replace another, Find All a third (a variation on the Find colour) and Find and Replace All a fourth (a variation on the Find & Replace colour). That would help us identify the buttons and their functions at a glance. At present, we have to read them -- black on gray -- a lousy reading environment. And the logic of them escapes me anyway. It just transforms simple things into hard work.

I've just lived through the hottest day, 46.4 celsius, Melbourne has experienced since records began in 1855 (or something). Days like that give you an appreciation of your mortality -- they are broadcasting message on the radio to keep a sympathetic and helpful eye on the young and the old. I’m nearly old. (By the way, Mr Ferguson, how are you today?) Days like that also shorten your temper. I was writing in NWP as my little one room airconditioner struggled to keep the one room's temperature down -- I stopped work when the room temperature hit 36 celsius -- and I just thought: "Stuff it! Why do I have to put up with stuff like this, a gray interface on a millions of colours monitor -- life is too short. Why can't they use the colours to make it easier for my eyes to grab stuff, to make it ergonomic?"

The FontCard font menu is a case in point. I cannot imagine in my wildest nightmares returning to the drab, hard to read, but most importantly, hard to quickly pick and click a choice, NWP menu. It would be like pulling my own eyes out. The illustration shows how FontCard uses colour with restraint. Compare that menu (and its functionality) with the NWP font menu and the drab little palettes in the incredibly useful palette drawer. I wo0uld help enormously if those palettes came in different colours or I could assign colours to them so I could click on my choice of them -- zap -- based on colour. Instead of having to read each time. Or distinguish gray shapes on a gray field. Good grief.

Is it even remotely possible to get some action on this?

And while you are adding the colourful vertical ruler you can add some colour to the horizontal ruler too.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout" -- how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print; "Success in Store" -- go retail, enjoy it and make money. Real business smarts @ just $29.95. See these books and more at http://www.worsleypress.com

[martin]

Hi Geoff,

I can appreciate that the Find & Replace window could use some changes to better organize its features; there are quite a lot of options. Thanks for your suggestions.

As to adding color to palettes and other interface points, it's unlikely. We want to keep the interface as "Mac like" as possible, which generally precludes colorization of standard controls like buttons and such.

Thanks again, and don't let that heat get you too riled up!

~Martin

[greenmorpher]

Hiya Martin

Thanks for your response. A pity about the interface -- the Mac interface is actually flawed in concept.

It tries to be minimalist, but in the process, throws out the baby with the bathwater. It demands that you pick out your menu commands by reading -- then introduces a poor reading environment with the gray background behind black type (which is really dark gray)

The type size is generally small, further damaging readability.

Then it uses only one colour -- a grayish blue, a quiet colour which blends with gray and as a background colour damages readability of black type even more than gray does -- as a stand-out colour (e.g. in NWP's Tooldrawer, where blue background shows which collection of palettes is selected). This use of a quiet colour is further damaging -- it means I have to actually look at the top bar of the drawer and differentiate between two low actinic colours -- grayish blue and gray -- almost at a conscious level. I’m wanting to focus on my work -- give me a brighter, better differentiated colour so I don't have to think about it, I can spot it at a glance!

Look at the palettes in the Tooldrawer. The whole tooldrawer is gray. Sure there are shapes to distinguish when a new palette is starting, but the contrast is very low. No use is made of conventional hierachical indicators -- size, darkness, change of colour or shade.

Would something along the lines of the revised tooldrawer shown here be quikcker and easier to use? Yes it would! It takes advantage of colour which is hardwired into our heads, and the conventions of shade and size to establish a hierarchy. In addition, the action areas, the yellow menu buttons, are differentiated.

The yellow is not necessarily the best bet, and as the Character palette shows, it could be taken too far and become "folkloric" (as my painter wife says) if taken too far. But certainly those key menu buttons need to be differentiated.

Regards

Geoffrey Heard, Publisher
The Worsley Press

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- the secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. "How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter" -- real publishing smarts. Both now just $29.95. See the books at http://www.worsleypress.com

[greenmorpher]

The US flag designed by Apple.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout" -- how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print; "Success in Store" -- go retail, enjoy it and make money. Real business smarts @ just $29.95. See these books and more at http://www.worsleypress.com