Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!wuarchive!emory!gatech!mephisto.gatech.edu!ashwin
From: ashwin@gatech.edu (Ashwin Ram)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Standards for Balloon Help?
Message-ID: <1539@mephisto.gatech.edu>
Date: 14 Jun 91 19:00:42 GMT
References: <1CE00001.h2b15n@avalon.caladan.wa.com>
Sender: news@gatech.edu
Reply-To: ashwin@cc.gatech.edu (Ashwin Ram)
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Computing
Lines: 24
In-reply-to: stui@avalon.caladan.wa.com's message of 14 Jun 91 12:41:20 GMT

In article <1CE00001.h2b15n@avalon.caladan.wa.com> stui@avalon.caladan.wa.com (Stuart Burden) writes:
>                                                    An obvious user interface
>   flaw is the "Help" key on the Extended Keyboards.. doesn't turn on
>   or off balloon help.. nor does Command-Help.. what the world really
>   needs is a keyboard shortcut to turn the item on or off, and if that
>   be the case, why not trash the icon?  Why not a key to turn on or
>   off the display of the menu item?

I agree this is a good idea.  The recently posted HelpMeister does this -- it
allows you to turn Balloon Help on and off using control-Help.  It would be
nice to have the option of turning off the Balloon Help icon if a keyboard
shortcut is turned on, although personally the icon doesn't bother me (in
fact, it's kind of cute).  Another nice addition to HelpMeister would be to
modify the Balloon Help menu to display the appropriate keyboard shortcut
next to the Hide/Show Balloons menu item.

Also, it would make more sense to use Help or Command-Help instead of
control-Help -- maybe future versions of HelpMeister can be made
configurable?  (As an aside, I wish there was some set of guidelines for the
use of shift, control, option and command keys -- everyone seems to use them
differently.  The user ought to be able to guess which key is the appropriate
modifier for a given type of function modification.)

-- Ashwin (ashwin@cc.gatech.edu)