I understand but here it’s very important to clearly separate what’s Gramps application level from the rest (Database/Family Tree).
I wouldn’t say that if there was a “Global settings” entry showing only the contents of this tab in the menu bar.
The menu bar should also be reorganized a bit and it could simplify the management of “Preferences …”.
The menu bar starts right away with “Family trees” and therefore at the database level : putting a “Global settings” here would be confusing.
But that’s another discussion and I think the goal here is to propose something that could be applied without too much effort (a simple reorganization of what already exists).
Although I think Aunt Martha hopes for much more.
The use of “Gramps” here seems to me justified (even if it is abused elsewhere).
The addition of word to a label is only useful if it adds clarity, definition. It might make sense if these related to the application in a more fundamental way. (Although ‘Application’ might better imply the these are OS interaction settings.)
For instance, if the tab had updating options for the application, selection of an alternate app icon, the installation location, or setting it to run in safe, console, or diagnostic mode.
Even then, the word adds no clarity.
Look at the main screen. We have the confusion of the logo icon being used for the titlebar, the Toolbar (for Tree selection), the Navigator (for Charts). And The Titlebar is clearly appended with " - Gramps".
Then, when the Preferences is opened, you have a clearly logo’d & labeled Titlebar. The section title in General & ID Formats both redundantly include ‘Gramps’. More precisely, the the General sections are application settings & ID Formats are Object settings.
And every object editor has a logo & " - Gramps". Every detached add-on has the logo, “Gramplet” & " - Gramps" in the titlebar.
For a product that we aren’t trying to ‘sell,’ the heavy-handedness of logo & branding is rather plaintive. Which screams ‘underdog!’
The is no NEED to keep reminding people. Once it is installed, they know what they are using. The power of Gramps speaks for itself. But we do need clarity, brevity & anything that makes it more intuitive.
I did give Imports its own Tab. The functionality is unique enough and not really related to other functions. By giving it its own Tab it elevates its prominence. Ideally, I would build the functionality directly into the actual Import activity instead of having to see it the import tag is the one you want at the time of an import.
I renamed the Dates tab Limits.
I can still be easily convinced of another option if someone has one.
Of importance — What is the best order of the tabs. As I see it, the first 5 tabs will be seen it the window’s smallest size. Which oder?
That would make it better, when I first importer my tree I didn’t know those settings existed. If they was visible when I just pressed to import then I would have.
Delete “settings” in the title. This is a preferences pane. Settings is just a synonym for preferences and so redundant. I also don’t understand the point of the title. If this pane is for startup prefs, then just call the whole pane “Start-up” instead of “General”.
Enable spell checker (not “spelling”), though I would use “Check spelling”
Remember last view (displayed is unnecessary, though if you insist, but it before “view”, not after)
Limits doesn’t say anything to me. I didn’t understand what was wrong with Dates.
I chose Limits as in the numbers entered in the tab Limit what about, before and after mean. The Limit of when someone is considered alive. The generational Limits for evaluation of tree and the Limit for calculating the relationship to the home person.
Normally, a ‘General’ would be first because a user expects the features they use ‘in general’ will be the most commonly accessed and re-tuned.
But the Add-ons should either be first (or stay third but be the default landing tab) because of the following reasons:
In the Toolbar icon expansion for the toolbar, you chose the jigsaw puzzle piece. This implies add-ons.
Users should be strongly encouraged to use add-ons from day-one. Most were created because an adept user found something either overly complicated or impossible using the core
Actively checking for new or updated add-ons is in the user’s best interest
Beyond this, the easiest to access tabs should be those that have the most frequently adjusted Preferences. That isn’t really viable for me since I find myself tweaking the add-on Themes Preferences tab a lot. (My eyes are weak when tired, so I flip between wanting to see more at the same time in the morning and… well… anything at all at night.)
Also, in Dates/Limits, the the fuzziness controls are still without units. The Before/After/About could be in days, months, years, decades, centuries. Without units, the user only determines that by experience or the Wiki. (And which word of the label is the ‘key term’, by contrast.) Not good.
As an aside, I have found the recent accessibility improvement in fuzziness control to FindAGrave’s search to be very powerful. The pop-up selection of Exact, Before, After, ±1, ±3, ±5, ±10, ±25 fuzziness to the date selector is very empowering. When searching for a person based on Census or Marriage age data, my first pass search is now normally ±1 year on Birth year. I find Gramps having low dynamic access (and low visibility) on fuzziness scopes has a side effect. It greatly reduces the quality of Filter results. The unanticipated interaction of ‘abouts’ in a filter value & the recorded date gives FAR too many hits. In general, my ‘about’ scope expectation is different when searching, as opposed to when applied to a calculated, estimated, or generationally implied birth date.
I left it as is. Unless absolutely necessary to enhance understanding, I did not alter what has always been a part of the Preferences window. The main goal was to better group the various parameter settings. This is why I have been reluctant to change the General tab name.
Adding years to the label. Again, I wish these boxes had help text options to add more information.
That would need to be added to filter options.
Maybe I need to look at the webpack entry. Was not aware of the new soundex options.
I put the Display tab first thinking the Name and Place display settings would be the most accessed configuration settings.
Maybe I should tweak the new Welcome gramplet to encourage setting preferences even before the new user imports their tree. I seem to remember that you and Sam tweaking the first Tip of the Day a new user would see.
Unless and until Themes is more fully integrated into the core code, as an addon Preferences will need to consider it as the last tab. Note: If you have Themes installed, its list of ordering the Preference tabs overrules the order set in the configure.py code.
Maybe if the code creating the Themes option could be added to the core code while the actual Theme options could be the Addons.
Is that an option in the Webpack? I didn’t see other characteristics we could test.
'Cause if you follow genealogy standards and have just the Maiden name for female surnames (and maybe the married surname as an Alternative Name), it probably ought to use the advanced search’s Include: Maiden name switch. But for women only.
Little bit related to some things said here but not the main thing of this topic:
How you install new addons now is to select “New addons only” in dropdown and then click “Check for updates”, something that is confusing as when you look for new addons, you do not check for “updates”. So I think that system should be reworked in some way at some point to make it more intuitive. For example have two buttons, one for “check for updates” for already installed addons, and one called “Get new addon” and remove the “what to check” dropdown, is one way to to make it more intuitive for the average user, in my opinion.
Also, I dont understand what the “Plugin manager” is really? Also, maybe the button for that should be in the settings rather than “Help” tab, and possibly also merged with addon things?
There is also missing a way to remove addons from Gramps Via GUI.
Add-ons that have a status of ‘Available’ can be installed.
3rd party add-ons with a status of ‘*Installed’ can be removed. (This deletes the associated Plugin folder in the User Directory)
add-ons with a status of ‘Built-in’ can only be Hidden
The Plugin Manager Enhanced is a point of friction. It was intended as a replacement for the original but the architect doesn’t care for it. He wants to rewrite it but hasn’t had the bandwidth to spare. The features for Add-ons under Preferences should be consolidated (& removed) to the Plug-in Manager. There should be an option to look at the Help page for an add-on before installing and another explicit opportunity just after install/updating.
It would be nice if Updates to installed Add-ons could show you the Diffs information in GitHub. Nice to know what you should explore or when you can stop using a workaround.
