[UI] Modification date in search list

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Thomas Lohrum
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[UI] Modification date in search list

Postby Thomas Lohrum » Fri Jan 13, 2012 3:18 pm

When sorting after modification timestamp, i would like to see the modification timestamp in the list, rather than the creation date. If however, the note has no modification timestamp, the creation date should be shown.
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Re: Modification date in search list

Postby CintaNotes Developer » Sat Jan 14, 2012 5:21 am

Thomas Lohrum wrote:When sorting after modification timestamp, i would like to see the modification timestamp in the list, rather than the creation date. If however, the note has no modification timestamp, the creation date should be shown.

Hi Thomas,

but some visual differentiation needs to be in place, so that user immediately recignizes that the modification date is displayed and not the creation date. Here there are a couple of options:

1) Display the date prepended with an "M" like "M 14.01.2012"
2) Display an extra icon
3) Make date display independent from the sorting mode, but make it configurable in the 'View' menu which date is displayed.

What do you think, which option makes the most sense? Thanks
Alex
Thomas Lohrum
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Re: Modification date in search list

Postby Thomas Lohrum » Sat Jan 14, 2012 10:49 am

Hi Alex,

personally i like solutions that are suitable for most users, as it keeps the application simple. However, as other users have requested to optionally don't show a date information at all, a solution could be:

A. Make date display configurable in search list
  • show creation date
  • show modification date
  • show most recent date
  • show date according to sort option
  • don't show any date information

This is what might make sense. It is not a perfect suggestion as how to implement a GUI dialog for configuration. Most recent date means: show modify date when available, else show creation date.

B. Make date display style configurable
  • always use same colour as list
  • show modification date in special color
  • show creation date in special colour
  • show most recent date in special colour

Using "M" to mark the modification date looks ugly to me and i actually don't differantiate.

Personally i would configure A. Show most recent date and B. Use list colour.

Kind regards,

Thomas
Thomas Lohrum
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Re: Modification date in search list

Postby Thomas Lohrum » Sat Jan 14, 2012 3:34 pm

Actually you can define the "most recent date" as a third quality. That is a computed/virtual column for the search list. Hence name it "list date". It might even make sence to call the sort element "list date" instead of modification date. That would make the introduction of the modification date a unique feature. A special display style might be obsolete when considering this point of view. Configuration could be made inside the ini file rather than a gui dialog. Default should be "list date".

Thomas
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Re: Modification date in search list

Postby CintaNotes Developer » Mon Jan 16, 2012 5:20 am

Hi Thomas,

first off, I don't think it makes sense to introduce a special "list date" just to mean the union of last modification date
and creation date. Come to think of it, creation date IS the last modification date if the note has not been modified after
creation. So I see no reason to complicate matters, we will postulate that last modification date is either equal to creation
date, or is greater than the creation date.

So I suggest the following:
Add the "Date > " submenu to the View menu with the following options:
() No date ------ no date is displayed
() Creation date ------ creation date is displayed, unless "prefer sort mode date" is set and current sort mode is "modified"
() Last modification date --- last mod. date is displayed, unless "prefer sort mode date" is set and current sort is "created"
------------------------
[] Prefer sort mode date --- option for the displayed date to follow sorting mode

In this case, we are going to cover all bases, don't you think?
I like the idea with the colors, but I don't think CintaNotes is quite ready for this - without the color schemes support, it will be somewhat orphaned.
Alex
Thomas Lohrum
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Re: Modification date in search list

Postby Thomas Lohrum » Mon Jan 16, 2012 2:30 pm

Hi Alex,

your suggestion sounds reasonable to me :) As for displaying date mode, e.g. "M" for modification date, i suggest not to display such information. To me it looks ugly. I can look up the configuration dialog, when i need to know, what date information is shown.

As for my other FR "show modification/creation date in note editor": What do you think of this?

Thomas
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Re: Modification date in search list

Postby CintaNotes Developer » Mon Jan 16, 2012 3:33 pm

Thomas Lohrum wrote:your suggestion sounds reasonable to me :) As for displaying date mode, e.g. "M" for modification date, i suggest not to display such information. To me it looks ugly. I can look up the configuration dialog, when i need to know, what date information is shown.

Well I definitely prefer for it to be evident from the glance. I think the best option would be to create a really small grey semitransparent pencil-like icon to display alongside of the modification date. Would you mind to that?

Thomas Lohrum wrote:As for my other FR "show modification/creation date in note editor": What do you think of this?

I think this would make the editor UI busy. I was planning to introduce the "Note Properties" dialog which would allow you to view
and edit the note's creation date, modification date and, in the future, some other properties like unique ID.
Alex
Thomas Lohrum
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Re: Modification date in search list

Postby Thomas Lohrum » Mon Jan 16, 2012 4:45 pm

CintaNotes Developer wrote:Well I definitely prefer for it to be evident from the glance. I think the best option would be to create a really small grey semitransparent pencil-like icon to display alongside of the modification date. Would you mind to that?
No.

CintaNotes Developer wrote:I think this would make the editor UI busy.
I like to see the two dates right away. Switching to a dialog just to see the creation date would bother me. Make it optional to display the dates inside the edit window. As said, the hint for Ctrl+Enter could be dropped, as it is useful for newbies only.
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Re: Modification date in search list

Postby CintaNotes Developer » Tue Jan 17, 2012 4:09 pm

Thomas Lohrum wrote:No.

Great, than I think this would be the way to go.

Thomas Lohrum wrote:I like to see the two dates right away. Switching to a dialog just to see the creation date would bother me. Make it optional to display the dates inside the edit window. As said, the hint for Ctrl+Enter could be dropped, as it is useful for newbies only.

I agree that the hint could be dropped (or better to be made to appear only when you press Ctrl). I'll see what I can do about displaying the dates.
Alex
Thomas Lohrum
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Re: Modification date in search list

Postby Thomas Lohrum » Tue Jan 17, 2012 7:26 pm

Thanx :D

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