Defaults in Settings dialogs

[Celeste Lyn Paul]

After some discussion on IRC, we came up with a solution we'd like to discuss 
here.

What do you all think of:

[Reset all defaults]   [Reset (Fonts) defaults] 

There was some discussion of putting the Defaults button in the context of the 
tab (in the interface and not on the bottom window bar). However many of 
dialogs are already pretty cluttered, and adding another button would just 
add to the clutter and may not clarify the context.  Putting them next to 
each other will allow the user to see both options and understand better the 
context of what each action does.

On Sunday 29 January 2006 09:17, Ellen Reitmayr wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Eike from the Kivio development team just pointed me to a problem in KDE's
> preferences dialogs: There is a 'Defaults' button which resets all options
> provided in this dialog.
>
> He pointed out that in a tabbed options dialog, the danger of hitting this
> button being convinced that it would reset the options displayed on the
> current tab only is quite high. The user may easily lose all his settings
> in the attempt of resetting the ones which are currently displayed
> (especially as there is no warning dialog).
>
> I wonder if we find a better solution?
>
> Possible options:
>
> - Provide a Defaults button on each tab (where useful) plus a general
> Defaults button in the footer with a warning message that all settings are
> reset.
>
> - Provide the Defaults button in the footer, but add Ellipses
> ('Defaults...') and provide the option 'Reset all settings' / 'Reset 'Font'
> settings'.

-- 
Celeste Lyn Paul
KDE Usability
usability.kde.org
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