Beta testers for calibre 3.0 needed

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by jony08

I like the idea of moving everything together.

Some of options related to the Layout could be moved to the Layout button drop down menu in a Tag browser sub-menu, that way they would be in the same place. Many of the settings in the Alter Tag browser could be moved there, for example Sort by, Search type when selecting multiple items and Change sub-categorization scheme. The ones that are not related to the Layout could be moved to the Preferences->Look & feel->Tag browser and the Alter Tag browser button could be removed from the Tag browser.

There could be different sub-menus in the Layout drop down menu for the different part of the main window as well, the Toolbar, the Search bar and the Book details.

Just a comment: Not everybody wants a so minimalistic, organized and ... needed a lot of mouch movements to reach the options gui.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by jony08

I like the idea of moving everything together.

Some of options related to the Layout could be moved to the Layout button drop down menu in a Tag browser sub-menu, that way they would be in the same place. Many of the settings in the Alter Tag browser could be moved there, for example Sort by, Search type when selecting multiple items and Change sub-categorization scheme. The ones that are not related to the Layout could be moved to the Preferences->Look & feel->Tag browser and the Alter Tag browser button could be removed from the Tag browser.

There could be different sub-menus in the Layout drop down menu for the different part of the main window as well, the Toolbar, the Search bar and the Book details.

Many users, such as me, only show the Tag browser as and when needed. It makes much more sense to have everything related to the Tag Browser accessible from the Tag Browser.

The Layout icon has a well defined purpose - to control the appearance of the main window, I suggest we leave it at that. I note that the 2.99.12 Layout menu has Show whatever when whatever is hidden, and Hide whatever when whatever is showing

@Kovid - IMO the Layout button should have a better icon, I suggest something resembling attached screen shot.

And....... we could have a Preferences button next to it. Then Preferences wouldn't consume space in toolbars and menus, and it would always be available - even if one had no tool or menu bars.

BR

[jony08]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Many users, such as me, only show the Tag browser as and when needed. It makes much more sense to have everything related to the Tag Browser accessible from the Tag Browser.

The Layout icon has a well defined purpose - to control the appearance of the main window, I suggest we leave it at that. I note that the 2.99.12 Layout menu has Show whatever when whatever is hidden, and Hide whatever when whatever is showing

@Kovid - IMO the Layout button should have a better icon, I suggest something resembling attached screen shot.

And....... we could have a Preferences button next to it. Then Preferences wouldn't consume space in toolbars and menus, and it would always be available - even if one had no tool or menu bars.
BR

I don't understand why it was better to have the Layout button then

[kovidgoyal]

@NicolasF: Good point about non-English languages, see https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibr...1b3aa7190a4679

[aCIDsLAM]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@acidslam: Yes, Qt links against opengl on windows. So while it is not actually using opengl, the dll needs to be present.

Well, yes. Maybe you were using another QT Library in 2.56. Hower, i can live with this solution. Maybe u find a workarround for this some day. Except always having a timeout on the webinterface, the first time the server started, it is working wonderfull. Great Job!!!

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by jony08

I don't understand why it was better to have a Layout button then

Less clutter, and some people have difficulty interpreting icons. I'm pretty hopeless at it, which is why I use book list context menus, rather than tool bars.

Adding a new hide and show element as a discrete icon would be more clutter, and create the need to find yet another informative icon, whereas adding it to a drop down list is tidier, and the icon used is almost irrelevant. And the user gets to see the keyboard shortcuts.

I have no idea how many threads there are with - "how come the Tag browser/Book details panel disappeared", to which I and others have had to respond with "click the luggage tag/brown book icon at bottom right". But it's a lot. It happens when someone inadvertently hits Shift+Alt+T/D etc.

Calibre has about 3 million active users, on 3 baseline operating systems. Changes to the User Interface must take those factors into a account. Kovid applies the principles of Kaizen.

BR

[jony08]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Less clutter, and some people have difficulty interpreting icons. I'm pretty hopeless at it, which is why I use book list context menus, rather than tool bars.

Adding a new hide and show element as a discrete icon would be more clutter, and create the need to find yet another informative icon, whereas adding it to a drop down list is tidier, and the icon used is almost irrelevant. And the user gets to see the keyboard shortcuts.

I have no idea how many threads there are with - "how come the Tag browser/Book details panel disappeared", to which I and others have had to respond with "click the luggage tag/brown book icon at bottom right". But it's a lot. It happens when someone inadvertently hits Shift+Alt+T/D etc.

Calibre has about 3 million active users, on 3 baseline operating systems. Changes to the User Interface must take those factors into a account. Kovid applies the principles of Kaizen.

BR

I had no idea that it was so hard for people understand the icons and for me it just added one more step. Thank you for the explanation.

I wonder if 'Interface' or 'Show/hide' would be a better name for the button to make it easier to understand?

[kovidgoyal]

Released version 2.99.13 with the following changes:

1. Allow clicking on the calibre version in the status bar to see what's new in the current calibre release
2. Fix Page flips options box in viewer preferences not being laid out properly
3. Fix get saved search expression not working if there is a leading =
   
4. Add a sort button that shows up only when the Cover grid is displayed
5. Fix initial down arrow in search box jumping two places
6. Tighten up spacing in the main window and remove the unnecessary border between the tool bar and the rest of the window

@acidslam: This release also has Qt compiled to load opengl dynamically. That *might* allow it to work without the opengl dll, since calibre itself does not use opengl -- it depends on what Qt does about delay loading that dll.

[jony08]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Released version 2.99.13 with the following changes:

1. Allow clicking on the calibre version in the status bar to see what's new in the current calibre release
2. Fix Page flips options box in viewer preferences not being laid out properly
3. Fix get saved search expression not working if there is a leading =
   
4. Add a sort button that shows up only when the Cover grid is displayed
5. Fix initial down arrow in search box jumping two places
6. Tighten up spacing in the main window and remove the unnecessary border between the tool bar and the rest of the window

@acidslam: This release also has Qt compiled to load opengl dynamically. That *might* allow it to work without the opengl dll, since calibre itself does not use opengl -- it depends on what Qt does about delay loading that dll.

1. Can you add some space on the sides of the text in the calibre version button and move it a little bit away from to the screen edge.

4. Can you move the Sort button that is shown when the Cover grid is enabled next to the Search box and remove the separator.

6. It is better without the border. You can remove the separator between the search box and the VL button because it is now clear that they are separate.

When clicking on Find in the Tag browser the text Find appears, which makes the box become too small.

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Released version 2.99.13 with the following changes:
...
@acidslam: This release also has Qt compiled to load opengl dynamically. That *might* allow it to work without the opengl dll, since calibre itself does not use opengl -- it depends on what Qt does about delay loading that dll.

After installing this version, it said it wanted a reboot. Presumably for the dll change.

Is it really needed? And will it be needed for future versions?

Thanks.

[kovidgoyal]

@JimmXinu: Wanting a reboot has nothing to do witht he dll change (calibre installs no dlls in system directories). Why windows decides it wants to reboot after some installs and not others, is very hard to determine and depends on what programs/services were running at the time of the install.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by jony08

4. Can you move the Sort button that is shown when the Cover grid is enabled next to the Search box and remove the separator.

6. It is better without the border. You can remove the separator between the search box and the VL button because it is now clear that they are separate.

I disagree about removing the separators. It's clear for you, but not if you haven't been following the redesign (I don't like it, BTW, too many different thing (button, link, label) look the same)

[JSWolf]

I too do not like the new UI changes.

[BetterRed]

Not too keen about borderless buttons, the following looks odd



The following may have been so in earlier releases.

Up/down arrow keys don't work in Tag Browser Find box, I end up traversing the book list search box history.

The keyboard shortcut names 'Find Button' and 'Find Item' don't make sense, to me at least. 'Find Item' clicks the find button or takes you into the find box if it's already open, and 'Find Button' selects next match. I suggest they be relabelled to 'Select Next Match' and 'Tag Browser Find' respectively.

And I would relabel the 'Alter Tag Browser' kb short to 'Change Tag Browser', so that it matches the tooltip. Alter is something you do to clothes

BR

[theducks]

I just discovered:
I like the new location for Alter Tag Browser

I agree with BR. The buttons are now to subtle for our new users. They do become more visible when you hover over them, but you need to know to hover