[kde-guidelines] Styleguide: Toolbar

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

On Wednesday 02 October 2013 12:05:02 Heiko Tietze wrote:
> Viewing and Navigation > Access functions
> * Provide a toolbar for frequently used functions.
> http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Usability/HIG/Toolbar
> 
> == Purpose ==
> A ''tool bar'' is a graphical presentation of commands optimized for fast
> access. Typically, a toolbar contains buttons that correspond to items in
> an application's menu, providing direct access to application's most
> frequently used functions.
> 
> A good menu bar is a comprehensive catalog of all the available top-level
> commands, whereas a good tool bar gives quick, convenient access to
> frequently used commands. == Examples ==
> 
> == Guidelines ==
> === Is this the right control ===
> * For standard applications, apply a tool bar by default.
> * Provide a tool bar in addition to the menu bar, but do not replace the
> menu bar. ===  Behavior ===
> * A tool bar should contain only a few, frequently used operations. If the
> number of operations is above 5 they have to be grouped with separators.
> Not more than 3 of those sections should be implemented. * Do not abuse the
> tool bar to expose application's features. Only the most frequently
> functions should be add to the tool bar. * Execute operations immediately;
> do not require additional input from user. 
> * Avoid using menu-, split-, and toggle [[Projects/Usability/HIG/Buttons|
buttons]] in tool bars. They do not fit well the concept of fast access. * Do 
not hide tool bars by default. 

We've discussed this before, and I disagree regarding split and toggle 
buttons.
Yes, a menu button does not make sense for a toolbar, because it would be no 
faster than going to the main menu. A split button, however, doesn't sound 
that unreasonable to me. The button part allows for fast access, whereas the 
menu part allows - two-click - access to related buttons. Besides, where else 
would split buttons be used if not in toolbars? This could still be discussed, 
though.

What clearly does not belong in this list, though, are toggle buttons. 
Actually, the main HIG page says "Use a toogle button to indicate a state, 
preferably in toolbars only". Moreover, they do work perfectly well for fast 
access: A single click changes something, you cannot go faster than that ;)