Improvements? New Features? post sigil 2.7.6

[KevinH]

Keyboard accelerators are only a Windows thing and some Linux. So we instead need something fully cross platform.

Also I am not sure how the accelerator letters from a translated string attached to a button even works. How would the software know which QKey value in their event handler to look for and react to under different translations?

Because this Dialog has no normal text input fields, literally any keys can be used. There is no need to prefix them with Alt or Ctrl.

I am going to simply hard code the specific keys (which would not change under translation) and put the key used in that Button's QToolTip so that it would be discoverable cross platform and not change with different translations.

I will give that a try.

[BetterRed]

I think Accelerator keys might be an IBM SAA CUA 'thing'.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Also I am not sure how the accelerator letters from a translated string attached to a button even works. How would the software know which QKey value in their event handler to look for and react to under different translations?

Don't know - here's an example of a Qt app that has buttons with translated accelerator keys.





BR

[KevinH]

Yes but then the OS must be implementing those accelerator shortcuts and not Qt. As these accelerator keys only work on Windows and some Linux. They are not cross platform.

So basically, the translation person must be aware enough for all buttons used to pick a unique letter to put the & before. Qt must then autogenerate the proper shortcut key on the fly based on the current translation.

I will give that a try on my Mac to see how that works.

[BetterRed]

Try the 'calibre - rich text editor - insert link' feature in Spanish on your Mac.

The rich text editor is used to edit the Comments (dc:description) field in the Metadata Editor - which most calibre users would regard as a 'core' feature.

BR

[KevinH]

Okay, I just tested accelerators on my Linux box (KDE). See the screenshot.

If I use Alt+F it will move to first. If I use Alt+L it will move to last and similarly for up and down. But there is no visual indication that there are any accelerator keys anywhere on the buttons. Since the translator will convert the button text and assign their own initial letter, there is no way to say what that accelerator key is, no way to add it to the tooltip in the code, nor any visual way of indicating what letter to use.

So basically Accelerators based on a translated string are not really discoverable for Linux and Mac.

So this is a no go for me. I will go back to hard coding the shortcut for each and letting people see that shortcut in the button tooltip.

[KevinH]

Okay, based on earlier suggestions/comments, I have been thinking about how we could do a drag and drop to basically do the same thing as AddExisting ...

Since I do not want to add the entire MainWindow as a drop target (given how unreliable Drag and Drop is), I want to restrict it to a small QLabel field that files can be dropped on.

So as a pilot project I created a FileDropZone (inheriting from QLabel). See the extra addition to the bottom status bar on the right of the attached image.

My questions:

1. Is the ability to use drag and drop to add existing files to an epub important if we can do it safely - which I think we can given a QLabel really is a simplest drop target.

2. What do you think of the Drop Zone QLabel idea as shown in the status bar in the MainWindow? It will give visual feedback when you hover with dragged files over it.

3. Given things change position in the status bar, is there a better place to put this File Drop Zone? Would adding it instead be better as the very first thing inside BookBrowser (it would not take up much space) make more sense? But it could get scrolled off the screen as BookBrowser is a scrollable QDockWidget. Maybe the statusbar is the right place?

Any feedback on the general idea and how to best implement it is welcome. But please remember I do not want to give full QDockWidgets or the MainWindow to drag and drop rights and definitely want to limit file io via drag and drop to a small dedicated zone.

All feedback welcome.

[KevinH]

For those who want to play around with the new Change Reading Order dialog or try the Drag and Drop way to do AddExisting, I have pushed these changes to master.

So if you build your own, please play around and let me know what you think.

FYI, the Drag and Drip interface was implemented in a quick and dirty manner just for feedback. Its interface uses stylesheets with hard coded colours that may not work well in dark mode. If this idea/prototype is accepted, I will work in replacing those visual hints with something that works in both dark and light themes.

Also interested in how to feedback exactly what book paths (files) were added other than by visual inspection of the BookBrowser folders. All that is provided now is a "Dropped Files Added" status bar message.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by KevinH

2. What do you think of the Drop Zone QLabel idea as shown in the status bar in the MainWindow? It will give visual feedback when you hover with dragged files over it.

Too small, and because it's a fixture it would be too easy to drop files there inadvertently, I for one would want to turn it off.

I suggest an additional item — Drop zone — in the File->Add flyout menu, with an equivalent button and shortcut that would pop a small window:



The window would go away once files were dropped, Esc would dismiss it.

BR

[KevinH]

But that takes extra mouse clicks on menus and buttons.

FWIW, I have no trouble dragging and dropping into that label as it is much bigger than a single menu entry and much bigger than any single button. Plus it gives visual feedback before any drop is done making it hard to use it by accident. And the drop area only become active when actually dragging files. It is disabled when dragging anything else.

So I am really not that sure that using a menu and buttons to first create a drop zone makes sense, at least to me.

Let's hear from who build their own to see what they think before making any further decisions.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by KevinH

FWIW, I have no trouble dragging and dropping into that label as it is much bigger than a single menu entry and gives visual feedback before any drop is done making it hard to use it by accident.

That's presumably because you are proficient with point and click devices - e.g. mouse, trackball, trackpads, etc.

Due to structural and neurological disability resulting from injuries to my hands I have lost my ability to use such devices effectively. Which is why I use shortcuts where ever possible and why I have trouble dropping items onto small targets - as do people with severe arthritis, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, and similar conditions**.

BR

Added ** How do I know that, because I am a member of a reading group for people with physical and cognitive disabilities at my local library.

[KevinH]

Understood but that is a larger target than any single button or single menu item which are used all throughout Sigil. And more importantly there is already an AddExisting menu for people who want or prefer to access the menu with a keyboard. So no functionality is lost.

I sincerely doubt people with any hand motor disability would opt to use the drag and drop approach given they already have a way to AddExisting files in Sigil they can use. And luckily it fits into an unused area on the status bar so no screen real estate is lost. So I do not see a downside.

Please note, I am not forcing people to forgo their long established patterns of use, I am just trying to give people who prefer drag and drop an option with no or limited downsides. No one is forcing anyone to use drag and drop.

And your situation is why I just added the Change Reading Order dialog that can be used effectively without a mouse to augment BookBrowser's Drag and Drop interface for reordering the spine as it was mouse only. Having both methods can only help.

But let's hear what others think.

[DNSB]

I've tried the drop zone on my machine and haven't had any issues with dropping files on it. Not something that I will use that often since I seldom add files but nice to have it available.

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I've tried the drop zone on my machine and haven't had any issues with dropping files on it. Not something that I will use that often since I seldom add files but nice to have it available.

Thanks for building and testing it.

Did you by chance try it under a Dark theme? Is it at all legible under a dark theme on Windows?

If not, I can try to find something that works under both light and dark to provide better visual feedback.

[DNSB]

I’ll give a dark theme a try.