Re: filmscanners: Need feedback on VueScan Idea

[EdHamrick@aol.com]

In a message dated 3/7/2001 12:05:50 PM EST, michaelk@photo-3d.com writes:

> Main reason for it is the same reason that many "toolbars" in programs are
>  at the top just below the menus.  The reason is mouse movement.  If one
>  exclusively uses one set or the other as alternatives, then it doesn't
>  matter -- but if one goes from one to the other during use, then mouse 
>  movement is minimized ("ease of use") by having them next to another.

I just did a version to put the buttons at the top (it's 4 lines
of code difference).  It looks a lot better with the buttons
at the bottom.  It looks really cluttered with the buttons at
the top, since there are then three rows of things at the top:
the menu bar, the buttons and then the tabs.

I've organized the tabs from left to right in the order that
they'll typically be used: Device, Crop, Process, Files,
Prefs, Preview (for image), Scan (for image).  I'm going
to try to order the options within each tab in a way that's
somewhat related to frequency of use.

I've also removed those things from the menus that can be
done with a button to simplify things a bit.

The typical mouse movement will be to select a tab (at
the top), change an option (on average in the middle
left of the window) and then press a button (at the
bottom of the window).  This left to right, top to bottom
mouse movement seems natural.

Also, when a button is pressed, the status will be updated
at the bottom, which is near where the eye will leave off
after clicking a button.

I quite like this new arrangement, and I'm going to release
it as the first 7.0 beta in a day or two.  I'd be happy to tweak
it some more at that time.

To top it off, the LS-40 is working as close to perfectly as
I can tell.  It was amazing how few the required changes
were.

Regards,
Ed Hamrick