Page 1 of 1

UI: Settings - Naming of first tabs

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2016 10:31 pm
by helmut
Current naming of first tabs
In the settings there is the tree on the left side. When clicking on an item in the tree then the settings for the appropriate item are displayed in tabs. The very first tab is always named like the item. So the label of the first tab repeats the section you are in which might give a bit of orientation to the user. But all in all I think this labelling doesn't help much and is rather confusing because in the section "Interface" you have a tab "Interface".
Image

Suggested naming of first tabs
Instead, I'd suggest to always name the first tab in a section "General". So instead of "Interface > Interface" there would be "Interface > General".
Image

I think this way it becomes clearer to the user that the first tab is just one of several tabs that contain settings for the selected section.

Re: UI: Settings - Naming of first tabs

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 7:34 am
by xnview
what other users think about this change?

Re: UI: Settings - Naming of first tabs

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 9:13 am
by cday
xnview wrote:what other users think about this change?
Certainly better for some tabs, as in the example, but should be considered individually for each heading...

Re: UI: Settings - Naming of first tabs

Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2016 11:22 pm
by helmut
cday wrote:
xnview wrote:what other users think about this change?
Certainly better for some tabs, as in the example, but should be considered individually for each heading...
Thanks for your feedback, cday. I think the name change of the first tab to "General" could be applied for the following sections of settings:

Inferface
View
Browser
Browser > File list
Browser > Thumbnail (currently it's "Misc")
Catalog
Integration

For those secions with only one tab I'm a bit hesitant but tend to also change it for consistency reasons:
Interface > Auto correct
View > Fullscreen

The section "Formats" is a very special case, because the section's name is very vague whereas the "Saving" tab is detailed. I think the section should be renamed to "Saving" and the tab should be named either "General" or "Formats for saving".

Agreed? Other suggestions?

Re: UI: Settings - Naming of first tabs

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 10:20 am
by cday
On one small detail without considering other possible points:

When a heading only has one tab, is it actually necessary to display those settings on a tab?

If the interface toolkit allows tabs to only be used when actually required, not using a tab with its associated title when one is not required would simplify the interface slightly...