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[resolved] Header changes on prefs panels
As I make my way through rewriting docs, I’m finding it hard to refer/link to the three preferences panels because of the inconsistent way they are titled.
The problem is one of grammar. All other panels are named as nouns, as they should be (except Write and Import, verbs, but we can overlook those), which makes it easy to refer/link to them in tech copy (docs, .com, etc — even here). But preference panel names are two adjectives (Basic, Advanced) and one verb command (Update languages). So not only inconsistent against the other panels, but among themselves too.
Where it’s easy to refer/link to other panels by their panel header/name alone (e.g., Write panel), we have to invent some awkward — and inevitably inconsistent — pattern for pref panels because of their dependency on the parent name, Preferences (secondary level), which is where the noun is. That’s awkward if we’re trying to follow style guide rules about formatting UI titles/headers. We can’t just say “Basic” panel, because… Basic what? Advanced what? We need to involve the name of a different location (hierarchically speaking) to make sense of it, and that gets messy with links, file names, etc.
I propose renaming the three preference sub-panels (what one sees at top of panels) to:
- Basic preferences
- Advanced preferences
- Language preferences
Sure, those are two words, but so what. They’re grammatically correct and stand on their own now as location names. There’s no other way to do it, anyway, because you need the adjectives to make the distinction, but you can’t rely on the adjectives alone as names. The languages panel is different logic, but in that case we’re normalizing it against the other two.
Now it’s easy to use in copy consistently all the time:
- Go to Basic preferences and do this.
- Go to Advanced preferences and do that.
- Go to Language preferences and update, yo.
Bonus: the three button labels (the adjectives) under each panel heading are fine as written because now they’re consistent, and even needed at this tertiary level of panel organization.
For the sake of an editor’s sanity, I’m going to adopt that labeling convention in docs. I’d hope Txp’s UI might follow for harmony.
Last edited by Destry (2015-09-16 09:22:14)
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Re: [resolved] Header changes on prefs panels
Unbeknownst to me earlier, the direction for 4.6 will be a Languages panel under the Admin area, and “Basic” and “Advanced” will combine into a single Preferences panel. That’s awesome. Issues resolved.
Docs will be edited that direction, as feasible as possible. Probably gradually.
And yes, I’m installing a local dev branch to better witness the future direction. ;)
Last edited by Destry (2015-09-16 09:36:11)
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