[Maniphest] [Commented On] T665: Show default (empty) document on startup in document-based Calligra apps

Tue Jan 19 09:49:04 GMT 2016

staniek added a comment.

In https://phabricator.kde.org/T665#15282, @kossebau wrote:

> Would it be a good idea to have UI/UX experts look at this as well?

Yes, though it would be unfortunate to repeat this -- "they" apparently did: 
 for StarOffice, OO.org, LO , and MS Office at least :)

> Because I personally prefer the current UI if I just start the application binary itself, without any parameters. So if we agree on changing the default start UI, I would like to keep the current one as option at least, so I can stay happy.

Sure, as always I am OK with options that change the "worldwide" default.

> Now, the "frequent" in "frequent scenario" is measured how? :)

> 

> Please rethink the 1 step in the scenario you gave, "Run a word processor, without delay": How do users start the word processor? By selecting some item in the UI of their workspace? If so, what do they actually mean and expect when the chose that item? What about having that item having a more specific meaning than "start app into whatever state"?

> 

> Looking at myself,

Look, without a persona it's to easy to express just own preferences.
What I explained is a "Jane User" persona who start typing on a plain white paper. No templates, no customization. This concept is 30+ years old. if we want to break into the  mainstream...

> I found I have certain set of different subtypes of richtext documents  I create (when talking about page-centric text documents), and most are not started from just plain empty sheets, but have a dedicated predefined structure and predefined content: generic formal letters, reports of several kinds, documentations.

>  So most of the time I use a richtextdocument editor for a new document it seems I do not need a blank sheet or another single type of template to start from. But instead first need to decide on the subtype of richtext document I am creating.

>  So the proposed new UX here would be a regression for me and people who also work like me (e.g. in most offices, the real world work places I mean here, template-based document creation surely is widespread for improved processes). Thus the proposal should be an optional start variant IMHO, at most.

> 

> While talking about it, I personally dream of a workspace which is not just an app starter, but integrated in my workflows. So for Plasma I have some draft plasmoid and runner which allows me to start creating & editing new documents by typing "new letter" or "new $other-doc-template" in krunner or selecting a template from a plasmoid drop-down, which then results in the matching app being shown with a new document created from the selected template, so I can type away. Hello document-centric UI :)

I am afraid this drags Calligra again to the Plasma universe, too closely.
I believe integration into workflows shall be a separate code installed optionally (maybe by default for Plasma users). This alone makes the integration not worth developing - it's just hell to maintain and do well.

> It is currently stuck in making this a general-purpose thing, so it can be used to create all kind of new documents with all kind of apps. Making things generic is not easy, especially in a wild world :)

>  It also needs a patch to Calligra, I should brush that over and hand it in for review finally in any case, so expect a review request soon.

As a secondary feature I believe this is not worth the effort but your opinion can be different.

TASK DETAIL
  https://phabricator.kde.org/T665

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To: staniek
Cc: kossebau, boemann, Calligra-Devel-list, staniek