Version: 0.6.2 OS: Linux Q Purpose of keyboard shortcuts ? A facilitate quick access to frequently used functions, that may otherwise be accessed with help of a pointing device. Lets start by taking a look at 'configure shortcuts' dialog. Shortcuts are grouped into two groups 1 General 2 KIPI-Plugins It is a good approach. It would be more useful if dialog initially shows groups collapsed. There is not much sense to it, after all there are just two groups. There can be more groups, each bringing together related actions. - say one group for navigation between images - another one for shortcuts dealing with changing views say to albums, to tags ... - yet another one for shortcuts dealing with tagging/coloring/picking - and so on ... Now, lets take a brief (well not so brief) look at actions that are available here. 1. about digikam I do not see why a user would want to assign a shortcut for it? May be developer/testers would need it to quickly check version they are running. As such there is no harm in having it, but why to have a functionality which we don't actually require. Don't take it for this specifically but in general way. 2. About KDE Ditto as for 1. (Let me break sequence and club all the action that I find not so useful or so frequently used.) - Add Camera Manually - Add Folder - Add Images - Contribute - Components Information - Database Migration - Database Statistics - digikam.org - Donate - Include Album Sub-Tree - Include Tag Sub-Tree - Rebuild Thumbnails In Current Album - Report Bug - Reread Metadata From Image - Reread Metadata From Images - Supported RAW Cameras - Switch Application Language ... - Tip of the Day - What's This? - Write Metadata to Image - Write Metadata to Images 3. All This name does not tell any thing about the action itself. Two consequences. - User can not know what it does just by read its name - User can not find action by using the search field, most of the users would be looking for something else (read meaningful) This one happens to be about slide show. There are other variants of it, if they are grouped together under 'Slide show' there meaning would become apparent. As such renaming all would be equally helpful. Let me put here, all actions that are not very clear by their names - Back - Forward -- Perhaps it should be named 'Previous Image', word 'Back' suggest that it would move selection/focus to previous thumbnail user had accessed, which is not necessarily the thumbnail just previous to the current one. - Horizontally - Vertically - Flipped Horizontally - Flipped Vertically -- First two do not tell what they do, flip image or arrange thumbnails in row/column?? -- Second two sounds like searching for images that are flipped -- Not only these are named poorly, they separate one operation into two. -- There should be two actions, 'Flip Image Horizontally' and 'Flip Image Vertically' -- It also leads to confusion since a different shortcut is to be used to revert a flip operation. One can not remember which image he/she flipped. - Left - Right - New - New -- Icons of action helps a bit in telling what it does but still it would not hurt if they are named clearly, also it will help while searching. - Normal - Next Image - Previous Image -- Not that they are named poorly, I am wondering what these actually do and how are these different from 'Back' and 'Forward'!! - Previous Image -- Humm another one, now I am completely lost. - Properties - Properties -- same as for 'New', 'New' - Rotated Left - Rotated Right -- How are these different from 'Left' and 'Right? -- Other comment similar to ones in 'Horizontally', 'Vertically' ... - Rotated Right / Horiz. Flipped - Rotated Right / Vert. Flipped -- Ah these are complete vertigo, there should be extended tool tips for these, since either the action is too complex to name properly, unless these are just named poorly. - Rotated Upside Down -- Ditto as above. - Search - Search -- slight difference in icon, I just can not guess what would be the difference. - With All Sub-Albums -- Again I can not guess what it does. Now we come to KIPI-Plugins group, well most of the actions merely opens corresponding plugin dialog, which are not frequently used ones. Lets take a look at what is missing To start with there are no actions for assigning tags/colors/pick flags and not to mention ratings. While shortcuts to tag images can be assigned some where else, nevertheless such actions are not listed in this dialog. May be same is also valid for colors and pick flags. There are other operation for which possibility of assigning shortcuts make sense, but is not provided. Like editing caption, modifying active filter, say to hide/show images with particular color/pick flag/ratings. So to summarize - Further groups should be added, to club similar action in one place - Actions should be named with more descriptive text - Tool tips should be added for complex actions - Less frequently used actions may be dropped - More actions should be available, specially for more frequently used operation Reproducible: Didn't try Expected Results: Actions available for shortcuts are named intelligently. They constitute a comprehensive set, which is also crisp. OS: Linux (i686) release 3.1.0-1-686-pae Compiler: gcc
This entry is not a readable and comprehensive report, it's a collection of garbage... Gilles Caulier