Question mark for popup links

Pat64 · 2014-03-20 07:59:38

I have no time to look into other language translations but if others use question marks at the end of their phrases, may be it worth to change the question mark into help links with other sign. In some case we have final double signs which can introduce a confusion. The new Textpattern CMS 4.x dev version uses some SVG icons and perhaps this one could be more relevant:

https://www.iconfinder.com/icons/147731/about_basic_button_info_information_pictogram_simple_icon#size=128

Bloke · 2014-03-20 08:54:42

Pat64 wrote #279839:

change the question mark into help links with other sign

I have no problem with this in principle. Presumably the ‘i’ you propose is internationally recognised as information, informazioni, información, etc — at least in European / Latin-derived languages. But what about Eastern languages? How does the ‘i’ translate there? Is it any better or worse than a question mark?

I wonder if there’s any mileage in using a glyph here that could be set in Textpacks. This particular symbol could default to a hard-coded fallback character (like an ‘i’ glyph or some other known symbol) if the string was not defined in a selected language? That would avoid the messy help_symbol word being displayed all across the interface if the string was not defined.

Thoughts anyone? Suggestions on possible glyphs that could be used for various languages?

Gocom · 2014-03-20 09:46:51

Most of the world uses similar symbols and signs and due to UN, that has regulations about road and warning signs.

But there are still some differences. For instance in US the official road sign for information is a question mark as far as I’m aware. Not that it matters, its just a road sign.

Bloke wrote #279841:

This particular symbol could default to a hard-coded fallback character (like an ‘i’ glyph or some other known symbol) if the string was not defined in a selected language?

Lets keep stuff simple and just keep the Textpacks up-to-date. Fallbacks sound like unnecessary pollution.

philwareham · 2014-03-20 09:48:02

That symbol is an ISO standard, so it’s globally recognised.

I could certainly add it to the themes. I’ll open an issue for it.

Gocom · 2014-03-20 09:49:26

The best solution in my option is just to style the link more appropriately so it stands out from normal typography. E.g. green/blue ballot with white, or dark green/blue symbol and possibly some shadowing or highlight.

philwareham · 2014-03-20 10:11:05

Can do, doesn’t make any difference to me whether it’s SVG or just pure CSS – the jQuery UI icon set we use already has it available so I’ll probably just use that.

Pat64 · 2014-03-20 15:15:47

It seems that Jukka & Phil are both right and found a solution ;)

phiw13 · 2014-03-21 08:34:55

philwareham wrote #279845:

Can do, doesn’t make any difference to me whether it’s SVG or just pure CSS – the jQuery UI icon set we use already has it available so I’ll probably just use that.

Hmm… That would give a white glyph on a dark background. Won’t that turn out to be very heavy on the page – particularly on the write pane? [**] Would it eventually make sense to have a dark glyph on white background with a narrow border around, sort of like the copyright mark (©)?

Or does that deviates too much from the standard icon? Iirc that is what the local airport uses on some of the boards.

Not objecting to using that particular symbol, fwiw. It is universally used (and understood, eventually).

[**] Like this screenshot (quickly hacked into the Sandspace-dev stylesheet).

Last edited by phiw13 (2014-03-21 08:47:00)

philwareham · 2014-03-21 09:24:05

I have a few different colours of icon sprite in the system, I’ll try a few combinations and see what looks best. If all of them look horrible then I’ll make a new one specifically for this task.

planeth · 2014-03-21 10:39:57

phiw13 wrote #279862:

[**] Like this screenshot (quickly hacked into the Sandspace-dev stylesheet).

Nice, but look quite heavy for the eyes.
Your proposed solution with dark typo oon light background circled would look lighter afaik.
my 2 cents !

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#1 2014-03-20 07:59:38