512956 - No Display of the current Zoom Level of a Message-Window in the Statusbar of that window

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, enhancement, P5)

Description

[dfghjkjhg]

User-Agent:       
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; rv:1.9.1.1) Gecko/20090715 Thunderbird/3.0b3

Would be useful if the current Zoom Level of a mail-window would be displayed in the Statusbar of that window (e. g. "150 %").

Relevant whenever the zoom-level has been changed manually (e. g. via Ctrl- / Ctrl+).

Affects all windows (received mail, compose window...).

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

confirming RFE - couldn't find duplicates.

Comment 3

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

sounds like a good idea.  I would think a zoom icon with the percentage zoom applied (if different than 100%) could be displayed in the status bar.  Might be good to open a popup with the zoom options (more/less/reset) on click.

Comment 4

[:aceman]

From bug 738194:

Comment 20 Axel Grude [:realRaven] 2012-09-17 09:28:38 CEST

can we add a panel to. the status bar that indicates the current zoom level? this is something that the office suite also implements successfully. a slider for this might follow lateron.

Comment 21 :aceman 2012-09-17 10:01:23 CEST

Axel, if you file that bug, I can look at it. But it may not be easy as Firefox does not have it either so there may not be events of zoom level changes to hook into.

Comment 23 Thomas D. 2012-09-17 12:55:48 CEST

(In reply to :aceman from comment #21)
> (In reply to Axel Grude [:realRaven] from comment #20)
>> can we add a panel to. the status bar that indicates the current zoom level?
>> this is something that the office suite also implements successfully. a
>> slider for this might follow lateron.
> Axel, if you file that bug, I can look at it.

That's bug 512956 - we have bugs for everything, it's only they have never been fixed... But with dedicated people like Aceman, there's hope after all...

> But it may not be easy as
> Firefox does not have it either so there may not be events of zoom level
> changes to hook into.

Is it possible/easier to do it the other way round: Include a few lines at the end of zoom commands that directly change the value of the proposed zoom widget in status bar?

Comment 24 :aceman 2012-09-17 13:02:30 CEST

> Is it possible/easier to do it the other way round: Include a few lines at
> the end of zoom commands that directly change the value of the proposed zoom
> widget in status bar?

That is what I have in mind :) But it is a hack, as the zoom level can be changed via mouse Ctrl+scroll and I have no idea yet where that is defined and how to see the zoom changes there.

Comment 5

[:aceman]

I can try this, but I have not touched the status bar ever so may take a while until I learn that.

Comment 6

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Attachment: UI Variant1: Zoom widget in MSO & OOO (with slider; no dropdown)

Here's a screenshot of the zoom widget in MS Office 2010.
Per Bug 738194 Comment 20, this would be nice to have in TB's status bar, too.

Proposed behaviour:

1) single left click on "100%" zoom value will make the value editable (highlighted) in-place, so user can enter "150", press Enter, and zoom changes to 150%. That has worked like a charme in Word for ages (and unfortunately is now more difficult to reach after ribbon design)

2) right-click anywhere in zoom widget (including slider): show Zoom popup menu (same as View > Zoom in main window):
Zoom In
Zoom Out
----
Reset
----
Zoom Text Only

3) clicking or holding down left mouse button on (+), (-), or moving slider: change the zoom value accordingly as expected

4) double-clicking on the small slider button itself resets zoom to 100% (moves slider to middle position).

Comment 7

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Attachment: Screenshot1: Proposed UI (Zoom widget in status bar)

Blake, it has been agreed in various bugs that we need a visible indication of current zoom level, especially for composition where it's otherwise impossible to distinguish between real font size and zoom effects.

Current Office suites (MSO, OOO) have exactly this zoom widget in status bar (external ux-consistency), so the suggestion is we could just have the same.
(Another variant might be A_dobe Reader X zoom widget).

Your feedback welcome.

If you like it, it's ready for ui-review :) (general widget design).
Pls add feedback and/or ui-review for behaviour proposed in comment 6, too.

Comment 8

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Attachment: UI Variant 2: Zoom widget in A.dobe Reader X (no slider; with dropdown)

(In reply to Thomas D. from comment #7)
> Created attachment 661754 [details]
> Screenshot1: Proposed UI (Zoom widget in status bar)
>
> Current Office suites (MSO, OOO) have exactly this zoom widget in status bar
> (external ux-consistency), so the suggestion is we could just have the same.
> (Another variant might be A_dobe Reader X zoom widget).

As a possible variant of the proposed UI, here's the A.dobe Reader X zoom widget:
- less wide as it comes without slider
- exposing the zoom menu with a dropdown next to the Zoom display

(+)(-)[100%|v]

I don't have strong feelings about any of these variants.

Comment 9

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

Comment on attachment 661754 [details]
Screenshot1: Proposed UI (Zoom widget in status bar)

I would believe it could be useful in composition, but I don't think it's important enough to take up that much space in the main reading window.

(For composition, I propose putting it in the formatting toolbar, since there too, it would only be confusing if the user could change the font size, which they can't in plain-text mode.)

Oh, and for when it does get implemented, I like UI variant #1.  :)

Thanks,
Blake.

Comment 10

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Blake Winton (:bwinton - Thunderbird UX) from comment #9)
> Comment on attachment 661754 [details]
> Screenshot1: Proposed UI (Zoom widget in status bar)

Blake, thanks for speedy reply! :)

> I would believe it could be useful in composition, but I don't think it's
> important enough to take up that much space in the main reading window.

I can see the point about "taking up too much space". Maybe we could try for the reading window without slider, or even without (+) and (-) buttons. I *do* think that having any indication of current zoom would be a valuable addition for message reader. Zoom widget also provides the only visible primary UI way of mouse-changing zoom, which will be more important when we dump all the menus in favor of app menu button. It's very odd having to navigate 4 levels just to tweak zoom a little (of course, there's ctrl+mousewheel, but it's not exposed in our visible UI). We should be internally ux-consistent and add a zoom widget to all windows where it applies. Let's not forget we might also have single messages in a tab for reading. Zoom is for improving the on-screen size of things, and that applies to both message reader and composition imo without big difference in importance.

> (For composition, I propose putting it in the formatting toolbar, since
> there too, it would only be confusing if the user could change the font
> size, which they can't in plain-text mode.)

Can you rephrase this part? I'm not getting the idea, at all. Perhaps there's a *not* missing, so you really meant "I propose *not* putting it in the formatting toolbar"?

Why would you want zoom in the *formatting* toolbar, which can easily confuse users into thinking that changing zoom is changing font *format*?
If we put zoom in the formatting toolbar, it will not be available to zoom in plaintext mode. So I think the zoom widget needs to go into status bar, which looks like a good place as shown in all those office apps.

Comment 11

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

And by anecdotal evidence, I don't know how many times my parents couldn't find the zoom widget in Word's main toolbar, so exposing it separately in the status bar will go a long way to help people find it. It also helps to deliberately keep it away from all formatting options so it's obvious from the UI design that this a control which does something different. Since status bar is practically part of the frame around the window, that also underlines the idea of "tweak window layout here" (for the same reason, Word keeps all those different view modes in the status bar, too).

Comment 12

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

(In reply to Thomas D. from comment #10)
> (In reply to Blake Winton (:bwinton - Thunderbird UX) from comment #9)
> > Comment on attachment 661754 [details]
> > Screenshot1: Proposed UI (Zoom widget in status bar)
> Blake, thanks for speedy reply! :)

You're welcome.  :)

> > I would believe it could be useful in composition, but I don't think it's
> > important enough to take up that much space in the main reading window.
> I can see the point about "taking up too much space". Maybe we could try for
> the reading window without slider, or even without (+) and (-) buttons.

It's not just the physical space, it's the conceptual space of having yet another thing down there, making it harder to find the information you're looking for.

> I *do* think that having any indication of current zoom would be a valuable
> addition for message reader.

I do not.  And I think that's probably the biggest difference in our viewpoints.  I can't imagine a good reason to need to know what the current zoom level is, separate from just looking at the text in the window, and seeing whether it's too big or too small.  (Adobe and the Office suites are mainly page-layout programs, where knowing whether you're looking at the size of the documents as they will be printed or not makes sense.  Firefox, on the other hand, doesn't have such a control visible by default.  There are zoom controls, which I would be happy to add to Thunderbird, but nothing showing the current zoom level.  It would also be nice to be able to add buttons to Thunderbird's status bar, but that should happen in a different bug.)

The other point is that I don't see a lot of people changing their zoom level frequently.  It mostly gets set once, when they start, to a level they feel comfortable reading at, and are rarely touched again.  It feels like more of a preference setting than something that should be in the main UI.

> (of course, there's ctrl+mousewheel, but it's not exposed in our visible UI).

There are also the non-exposed keyboard shortcuts.

> Zoom is for improving the on-screen size of things, and that
> applies to both message reader and composition imo without big difference in
> importance.

The difference in importance is because in (html) composition, the zoom can interact with the font size, so you may be interested in what it is currently set to, so that you can tell how other people will see your message.

> > (For composition, I propose putting it in the formatting toolbar, since
> > there too, it would only be confusing if the user could change the font
> > size, which they can't in plain-text mode.)
> Can you rephrase this part? I'm not getting the idea, at all. Perhaps
> there's a *not* missing, so you really meant "I propose *not* putting it in
> the formatting toolbar"?

No, I meant what I said.  I hope the reasoning in my comment above explained my reasons a little better.

> Why would you want zoom in the *formatting* toolbar, which can easily
> confuse users into thinking that changing zoom is changing font *format*?
> If we put zoom in the formatting toolbar, it will not be available to zoom
> in plaintext mode.

Yes, that's exactly the point of putting it in the formatting toolbar.

> So I think the zoom widget needs to go into status bar,
> which looks like a good place as shown in all those office apps.

I disagree, for the reasons stated above.

To conclude, I would totally ui-r+ having zoom buttons, and maybe even an integrated zoom control (not shown by default) that the user could put wherever they wanted, but I don't think they should be part of the status bar, or part of the default set of buttons.

Thanks,
Blake.

Comment 13

[Axel Grude [:realRaven]]

(In reply to Blake Winton (:bwinton - Thunderbird UX) from comment #12)


> The difference in importance is because in (html) composition, the zoom can
> interact with the font size, so you may be interested in what it is currently 
> set to, so that you can tell how other people will see your message.

I do not understand this argument. There is a distinction between content formatting and view state, most users are aware of this. Also view state (font size) is something you ought to be able to control in plain text mode as well.


> To conclude, I would totally ui-r+ having zoom buttons, and maybe even an
> integrated zoom control (not shown by default) that the user could put
> wherever they wanted, but I don't think they should be part of the status
> bar, or part of the default set of buttons.

That's ok, but do not put it in the formatting toolbar. It simply doesn't belong there. 

Formatting is something you expect to show up in your composed mail, regardless of your current zoom level while you compose the message. The users would correctly expect a "zoom" on the formatting bar to show up in the resulting email. 

My initial idea was just to show the zoom percentage (no widgets to control it) on the bottom right, which would be just a non-intrusive as a row, column indicator. The status bar is usually used for view state, so functionally and logically this is be the place for showing the zoom factor %.

Comment 14

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

(In reply to Axel Grude [:realRaven] from comment #13)
> (In reply to Blake Winton (:bwinton - Thunderbird UX) from comment #12)
> > The difference in importance is because in (html) composition, the zoom can
> > interact with the font size, so you may be interested in what it is currently 
> > set to, so that you can tell how other people will see your message.
> I do not understand this argument. There is a distinction between content
> formatting and view state, most users are aware of this. Also view state
> (font size) is something you ought to be able to control in plain text mode
> as well.

How about if I state it like this: To see what size fonts other people will see when composing a message with different font sizes, you may want to change your zoom level.  When just reading email, it's unlikely that you'll want to change your zoom level.

> > To conclude, I would totally ui-r+ having zoom buttons, and maybe even an
> > integrated zoom control (not shown by default) that the user could put
> > wherever they wanted, but I don't think they should be part of the status
> > bar, or part of the default set of buttons.
> 
> That's ok, but do not put it in the formatting toolbar. It simply doesn't
> belong there. 

Sure, with the extra comment that I think users should be allowed to put it wherever they want.  :)

> My initial idea was just to show the zoom percentage (no widgets to control
> it) on the bottom right, which would be just a non-intrusive as a row,
> column indicator. The status bar is usually used for view state, so
> functionally and logically this is be the place for showing the zoom factor
> %.

I think that would be better than having more controls there, but I still don't think it's a useful enough bit of information to be in the status bar by default.

Thomas mentioned that people in other bugs agreed that it would be useful.  Perhaps he, or someone else, will summarize the reasons to add it to the status bar in a comment in this bug, to try to convince me?

Thanks,
Blake.

Comment 15

[:aceman]

Bwinton, the zoom level is important to set when reading email. But it may be done once and not changed much as it persists between sessions.

Comment 16

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

(In reply to :aceman from comment #15)
> Bwinton, the zoom level is important to set when reading email. But it may
> be done once and not changed much as it persists between sessions.

Sure, but does it matter whether it's at 100% or 110%?  Shouldn't it just be set to whatever you feel is readable, no matter what the number is?

Comment 17

[:aceman]

In my workflow, I set ASSIGNED only once I produce some patch :) So this bug is still free to take until that time.