Ver 3 Weaker graphic design distracts

[David Emme]

--- On 2005-01-07 12:12 PM (-0600), Curtis Clifton wrote:

>On Jan 7, 2005, at 10:26 AM, sophos at mailcan.com wrote:
>
>> I think at least some of the cognitive interference problems would
>> go away if the highlighting was used only for mouse selections and
>> not for the current text insertion point.  We are all familiar
>> with keeping track of the cursor. Removing the extra highlighting
>> (or making it optional) would lessen the visual distinction
>> between what I am typing now and what I might be reading for
>> reference while I am typing.
>
>I'm among those that prefer OO3 to OO2, but I would agree with
>sophos's suggestion.  

Just to be different, I like it (highlighting the current row) just
the way it is. Some feel it's distracting. To me it helps me focus on
where I am in the outline. Since I use OO for a to-do list for
software development, I'm "constantly" referring to the outline, then
doing something else. When I return to the outline, the highlighting
makes it easier for my eye to find "where I left off". Perhaps if I
were using the outliner to actually do "writing", rather than as a
check list, I might feel differently.

>Also, in a multi-row selection would it look better if contiguous
>rows at the same level were highlighted with a single rounded
>rectangle, instead of one rounded rectangle per row. 

OTOH, I can see (implementation aside) where the current behavior
makes sense. Suppose I have a topic with several subtopics

    A
        B
        C
        D
        
Selecting A draws a single rounded rectangle around the group A,B,C,D.
Now if I want to operate on A, B, and C only (change a font or text
color, perhaps), I click in the gutter of A and drag down to select B
and C. I still have the large rectangle around the group, and
independently have the selected topics (A, B, C but not D) separately
highlighted. I suppose the smaller (A, B, C) selection could be a
single rectangle instead of 3, but I actually think that might be
visually more confusing, since it would look much like the large
rectangle around the entire group.

On one point I will agree with some other posters, however. I do like
the smaller, less obtrusive checkboxes, but I wish it were a little
easier to visually distinguish between the checked and unchecked state
at a glance. I feel that I have to sort of "study" the lines to see
which are checked and which are not.

-Dave
-- 
We are all ignorant, only in different ways; and no one is as
ignorant as an educated man outside his own field.
    - Will Rogers