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From: oleary@ux.acs.umn.edu (Doc O'Leary)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Standards for Balloon Help?
Message-ID: <4131@ux.acs.umn.edu>
Date: 14 Jun 91 23:31:45 GMT
References: <1CE00001.h2b15n@avalon.caladan.wa.com>
Organization: University of Minnesota, Academic Computing Services
Lines: 44

In article <1CE00001.h2b15n@avalon.caladan.wa.com> stui@avalon.caladan.wa.com (Stuart Burden) writes, among other things:

>In article <14057@goofy.Apple.COM>, carr@apple.com (Randy Carr) writes:
>  | Graying out the Show Balloons menu item just isn't appropriate.

>Why..?  Once you've seen it, you've seen it...!  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?

There are (at least) two utilities that allow turning Help on/off using
the keyboard.  The first is Helpmeister (a system extension, I think) that
allows the Help key on the extended keyboard to toggle balloons.  Second
is Helium (what I use) that brings up the balloons when you hold down a
combination of special keys (command, option, shift, and/or control).

>No-one has been able to say why this is not a good idea, other than
>"every man and his dog will one day write Balloon Help".. So..?

It can produce an inconsistent interface.  Let me ask you, how many time do
you use the Edit menu?  Probably not much, since the command key equivalents
are so much quicker (at least that's my reason for not using it much).  So
why not give the user the option to turn the Edit menu off (that alone would
give enough space in *every* program for SuperClock)?  This can be extended
to all menu items.  Unfortunately, in places like public labs, one user may
not need a menu item (knowing the command keys) while a newer user might have
to go through the hassle of putting the item back into the menu bar (and the
User #1 removes it again and the User #2 . . .).  Worse yet, User #2 tries
out a program he's never used before and may never realize that some of the
menu items (thus, some of the program options) are missing (User #1 uses
the program a lot :-)!

         ---------   Doc


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