Textpattern CMS

#1 2009-01-09 16:27:27

saccade

Plugin Author

From: Neubeuern, Germany

Registered: 2004-11-05

Posts: 521

content panels in edit mode

Working on translation I noticed some points where a small straightening and perhaps an addition could be helpful:

In the content section, for articles there are two panels, thus clearly indicating when you are in a creating/editing mode (“Write”-panel) and when you are in reviewing (that is: not editing but viewing) or list mode (“Articles”-panel).

In contrast: for images, files, links and comments there is only one panel which is used for both modes: reviewing and editing. That is quite ok, but I’m missing an indicator which of the two modes is active at the moment. The navigation tab bar doesn’t change, so it’s the question, what happened now, when the mode changes.
Of course you can see it from its content, if you know. But it’s difficult to describe and understand for someone who’s new to it.

Then I looked at the pages title’s (see here) which could give a minimal hint, like on the images panel.
But this title isn’t used/provided consistently, as outlined in the forum.

So my first proposal: 1) Is it possible (and I hope with a minimal effort) to straighten those titles? e.g. have the titles

• Edit image (= current)
• Edit file
• Edit link
• Edit comment (only capitalize “edit”)

But in my opinion the title isn’t enough. I don’t and I presume a lot of users won’t be used to look in the Windows top bar too.

So my second proposal:
2)
I think it would be much better from the view of usability, if there is an explicit indicator visible that tells at least you changed something on the panel and now are (in) editing (mode).

Some thoughts about possible solutions:

• The most simple form could be a simple label on the left side (the place where in comparison “Textile Help” resides on the Write-tab) indicating “Edit mode”, “Editing” or something like that.
• One step further could be a label which says “Editing” and shows the name of the content element edited now. (This should be simple because this name is in the edit fields anyway.)
• Another step further could be a second link below “Back to list mode without saving”. Of course this just does the same as another click on the panels tab or (sometimes) the back-button, but it will make the change in a panels content much easier to understand.
• An alternative could be a (very decent!) Symbol in the tab, e.g. a small pencil next to “Images”/“Links”…, showing you (can) edit something. But that of course would be a change in Textpatterns overall design strategy (- on the other hand: not quite, there are arrows in the columns tiles).
• Or maybe a very decent combination of both: Show a pencil symbol top left of the editing fields/panel (the place where in comparison “Textile Help” resides on the Write-tab).

At the moment the last seems attractive to me. The second plus third seem to me most informative yet possibly simple to code.

Last edited by saccade (2009-01-09 16:34:11)