The current tables interface is much improved, but still has significant
user interface problems. It is confusing and misleading, and very
non-intuitive.
We have one single interface for controlling properties of cells, rows,
columns, and the table as a whole. This is the "blue select" interface.
A rectangular section can be selected, and depending on the object
operated on, the selection is interpreted in different ways. For example,
if I change a "rows" property, the selection means "every row selected
here". But this is different if I change a "columns" property.
The blue select thus loses almost all meaning in terms of visual
feedback. It is often quite unclear what will actually be affected by what
operations. Furthermore, the tabular dialog is particularly confusing -
each tab treats the selection differently. I myself have been surprised by
its behaviour more than once.
The solution is to add some handles to the tables. Think spreadsheet - we
will have little grey boxes around the top and the left of the
table[1]. Now to apply rows property changes, we can select the row box,
and immediately get sensible blue-select feedback. We can select a number
of rows, and apply changes to them. Right-clicking can bring up a separate
dialog for rows only - the confusion is gone. The multicolumn "impossible
operation" message can be avoided.
Later on, sorting by column, and switching/moving columns and rows will
have a simple and obvious interface.
Juergen, what do you think ? I think something like this is really
necessary before table interaction will stop being painful [2]
thanks
john
[1] not sure how this would work with nested tables
[2] context-sensitive right-click stuff is generally frowned upon in the
UI community, but it seems a reasonable compromise here
