Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!ames!elan!tom
From: tom@elan.Elan.COM (Thomas Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.open-look
Subject: Re: Searching a scrolling list
Message-ID: <994@elan.Elan.COM>
Date: 17 May 91 22:21:45 GMT
References: <qcmtluz@openlook.Unify.Com>
Organization: Elan Computer Group, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 77

Regarding possible designs for an enhanced scrolling list, that
provided an alternate type-in interface to accelerate finding
a list element...

Earlier, kk@shasta.tivoli.com (Kerry Kimbrough) said:
>>> The question is this: according to OPEN LOOK style, what is the best way to
>>> present both access methods --- type-in and list selection --- so that users
>>> can use either one or both, as suits them?
>>
>> I suggest implementing a scrolling list next to a text field.

> Agreed, this seems like the required combination of controls. My question then
> concerns the preferred style for presenting these controls. How is the text
> field positioned w.r.t. to the list? How is the text field aligned w.r.t the
> list? If the text field/list represent a single property value, then which
> control is aligned with the label --- text or list?

> The central style problem is how best to make clear that the two controls are
> bound together and represent a single thing, not two things.

Then fgreco@govt.shearson.com (Frank Greco) responds:
> You might put the textitem and the list in *one* "panel" (aka "control")
> with the borders turned on or a separate color (or shade) to indicate
> visually that the two are connected.  I have had good success with
> this regardless of whether the textitem is below the list or to its
> side.

The problem with using color changes, font changes, or even "outlined"
grouping in situations like this is that it calls undue attention to
the control.  The user will see your grouping as an exception - something
different from the other controls - and give it more importance.

For instance, suppose you had a dialog box to change fonts.  You might
use a scrolling list to select the typeface, a choice item (set of radio
buttons) to choose the style, and another choice item to choose the size.
By making the typeface control a different font or color from the rest
of the controls, you are saying "this control is different from the rest,"
which is not really true.

Open Look does in fact have a mechanism for associating parts of
a single control: proximity.  In a toggle item (non-exclusive choice),
for instance, there is no question that all of the boxes are associated
with each other and the label.  A toggle item looks like this:

              --------- ---------- ---------
  Choose one: | First | | Second | | Third |
              --------- ---------- ---------

The toggle boxes for "First", "Second", and "Third" are as close
to each other as they are to the label (about 3 pixels).  When controls
are separate from each other, they are about 10 pixels apart.

The point of all this?  In order to associate your text item more closely
with the scrolling list, it should be sufficient simply to put them
closer together.

              -----------
  Choose one: | First  ||
              | Second ||
              | Third  ||
	      -----------
	      ^----------

By the way, did you know that in XView, you can type a letter into the
list (which has to be the "current" item), and it will scroll to the
next entry that begins with that letter?  I bet your users don't
know it - an explicit entry is much better feedback.

One of the early versions of XView (1.0.1?) had an option to put a type-in
field just like the one you described onto the list, but that option
disappeared.  I wonder why?

Hope I've answered more questions than I've raised.
    Thomas Smith
    Elan Computer Group, Inc.
    (415) 964-2200
    tom@elan.com, ...!{ames, uunet, hplabs}!elan!tom