Show icon and notes buttons in the tag browser

[chaley]

Originally Posted by chaley

I am considering adding icons to the tag browser item lines indicating whether that item has notes or links.

Like this:

[un_pogaz]

Oh, that a good addition. Thanks.

But, I'm not convinced about putting the icons to the right of the numbers.
A "right of number/left of number/right of name/left of name" comparison would be nice.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by un_pogaz

But, I'm not convinced about putting the icons to the right of the numbers.
A "right of number/left of number/right of name/left of name" comparison would be nice.

There lies madness. Going down that path you would need to somehow specify the position for each possible component on the line: text, count, average rating icon, link icon, and note icon. Not somewhere I want to go.

[un_pogaz]

Oula, I don't want go that far. I suspected it out.
Just create 4 examples images, so that we can see and discuss them to choose a final static configuration and push them to the final code.

Personally, I'd much rather see the icons "right to the name" like others 'icon indicator'. But to see.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by un_pogaz

Oula, I don't want go that far. I suspected it out.
Just create 4 examples images, so that we can see and discuss them to choose a final static configuration and push them to the final code.

Personally, I'd much rather see the icons "right to the name" like others 'icon indicator'. But to see.

Is this what you mean by your "much rather"?


There are some issues. Putting the icons to the left of the text is significantly harder than putting them to the right, and to me it would be wrong to put them there. The count field is variable width so some 'normal' width is required to make the icons line up. In the above example that 'normal' is 3 digits. More than that and the icons won't line up for that line. If the count is single digits then space is wasted. If the icons are to the right of the count then the variable width doesn't matter, which is why I put them there to begin with.

[kovidgoyal]

Might be better to just overlay them on the category icon. Easier implementation, will probably look less disruptive as well and no alignment issues. And I would want it to default to not shown.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Might be better to just overlay them on the category icon. Easier implementation, will probably look less disruptive as well and no alignment issues.

Do you mean a composed 3-wide icon? I will look at that. It will make that icon quite wide, very empty if an item has no links or notes, and must work with the ratings shading.

And I would want it to default to not shown.

I set it to default "True" for discoverability. If it is False then people won't know it is there. If someone doesn't like it then they have an incentive to find the control checkboxes in preferences.

Nothing shows (no empty space) if a category has no notes or links, so space isn't wasted for people who don't use notes/links.

[kovidgoyal]

No I meant more like a dot/mark in the corner of the icon. Left corner for notes and right corner for link.

I dont really see the utility of this, hence I would want it off by default. When would one want to eyeball a list of categories to see which ones have notes? And if you make them separate icons people are going to expect to be able to click the icons to edit the notes/links directly as happens in the book details panel.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

No I meant more like a dot/mark in the corner of the icon. Left corner for notes and right corner for link.

I tried this. It is very hard for me to see them. They don't play well with the average rating gradient and will require some kind of color picker because the underlying icon is user specified with who-knows-what coloring.

And if you make them separate icons people are going to expect to be able to click the icons to edit the notes/links directly as happens in the book details panel.

They are clickable in the tag browser, doing the same thing they do in book details.

After using it a while I put the count (the number) to the left of the icons. IMO it makes more sense there. It looks like this:

I dont really see the utility of this, hence I would want it off by default. When would one want to eyeball a list of categories to see which ones have notes?

When browsing a category to see if any are left out because I forgot to add them? Or to know if I had managed to add the notes I wanted to add? Or because I am curious about what the note is but don't want to open Browse Notes? With the context menu actions one can easily maintain them.


I am OK with making the default "Off" although TBH I think that discoverability make "On" a better choice.

All the above said, I am not going to push hard to get this into base calibre. If you don't want it, that's OK.

[kovidgoyal]

I am fine with having them but defaulted to off.

[un_pogaz]

Originally Posted by chaley

Is this what you mean by your "much rather"?
Attachment 205252

Good, ""but"" that the 'left to the number' configuration.

I was thinking more like this.

Originally Posted by chaley

After using it a while I put the count (the number) to the left of the icons. IMO it makes more sense there. It looks like this:
Attachment 205280

Um, avoiding the shift of the number of elements was what I would have liked to avoid (it can make a gap which I find ugly), but since the others don't seem to fit or be problematic, I'll go with it.
Thanks

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I dont really see the utility of this, hence I would want it off by default.

There are realy handy if they are clickable like the icons in the "Book detail". Mutch better than browse the huge tables "Manage authors/tags" (even with filters).
After that, I agree with deactivating them by default, but rather because this would overload the Tag Browser, which is already dense, so this choice should be left as much as possible to the user.
An example: If the user has assigned a lot of links or notes, if the icons are activated by default, the change in the Tag Browser rendering would be brutal and unsolicited. Deactivate by default, we keep the previous look during the update, and the icon appear only if the user want it.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by un_pogaz

I was thinking more like this.
Attachment 205306

That abandons vertically aligning the icons, which works if one isn't too compulsive. It also avoids wasting space for empty icons.

For fun I will look at whether it works with clicking the "buttons" (knowing what part of the line is an icon), and how it works when the text is too long to display it all. If it works, and assuming Kovid accepts the changes, the crowd can decide which version to use.

[BetterRed]

Suggestions:

1. provide a keyboard shortcut to show/hide Note and Link icons… then perhaps there would be no need for the L&F->Tag browser settings;
2. if they are shown, put the icons after the book count… otherwise you'll get complaints about rivers of icons
3. because Notes will be probably used more than Links put the Note icon first;
4. recognising it might be a bridge too far, if there's no Note but there is a Link, force alignment of the Link icon with a non-clickable transparent icon in place of the Note icon;

BR

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Suggestions:

1. provide a keyboard shortcut to show/hide Note and Link icons… then perhaps there would be no need for the L&F->Tag browser settings;
2. if they are shown, put the icons after the book count… otherwise you'll get complaints about rivers of icons
3. because Notes will be probably used more than Links put the Note icon first;
4. recognising it might be a bridge too far, if there's no Note but there is a Link, force alignment of the Link icon with a non-clickable transparent icon in place of the Note icon;

BR

Other than the keyboard shortcut and the order of the buttons, aren't you asking for what I showed in post 16, repeated here? The count is before the buttons and the icons are aligned using an empty icon if a note/link isn't on the item.


EDIT: A keyboard shortcut isn't a bad idea, but it can't replace the config settings. If they aren't there then there is no hope that someone would find the settings.

EDIT 2: here is an example with the buttons swapped so the note icon is first.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

Other than the keyboard shortcut and the order of the buttons, aren't you asking for what I showed in post 16…

It would seem so. The primary intent of my suggestions were to bolster what you wrote post #19.

As well as the shortcut to toggle the icons, you should probably put a corresponding option in the Tag Browser Configure menu:



…or the Tag Browser context menu:



BR