Lack of interest XF 2.2 Editor improvements

[RobinHood]

I know you're probably sick of getting feedback about editor icons etc. But I really like the improvements you've made so far and I've got a bit more feedback.

My initial post was a reply to another thread asking about why this divider was here



It seemed odd that there was a section divider after all the text formatting options, then to display another singular text formatting option, then a space and all the content insertion buttons.

I was going to suggest either moving it or removing it.

Then I got thinking about how the icons are now all sectioned and the type of buttons in each section.

It seems all the text formatting buttons are in the first section, and all the content insertion buttons or in the second section. This makes a lot of sense, but you can help explain this to users with a little more shuffling and more distinct labelling of the 'More Options...' buttons.

I appreciate how you've managed to consolidate to just two more options menus, so now you should make it more clear that there's two batches of buttons, each with their own 'More options' bars.

My suggestion is that:

The 'Lists', 'Alignment' and 'Paragraph Format' buttons should now all go after the 'Text Colour' button, this consolidates all the text formatting options into one section, then have a 'More Text Formatting Options...' tooltip for their menu bar toggle.

Then have a gap or divider and all the content insertion icons, with a 'More Content Insertion Options....' tooltip.

This helps the user more clearly understand that the logic behind the organisation of the editor is that all the text formatting options are on the left, and the content insertion options are on the right. This makes it easier for them to understand where to start looking for whatever icon their looking for and keeps them from using trial and error to dig into two unlabelled menus.

 

[Sim]

I think the intent behind the current layout is to group the icons into 3 areas:

1. text formatting
2. paragraph formatting
3. block insertions

Inline code and inline spoilers are basically just advanced forms of text formatting, which is why they are there and not part of the other content insertions menu.

The drop down after the text colour icon is to give you access to more inline formatting options. I think keeping them together makes sense, and then grouping the paragraph formatting icons together after the drop down like we have now.

I agree that the divider between the alignment and paragraph format would make more sense if it were moved after the paragraph format menu - but I'm not sure we need to go further than that?

 

[RobinHood]

Hmm, yeah, some good points.

In which case besides addressing the rogue divider, maybe just making the 'More options...' button tooltips a bit more descriptive as to what kind of options they reveal would be useful, instead of being generic and leaving the user to try and figure out what the structure is.

More inline text formatting options... / More inline text markup options... / More text markup options... / More markup options... / More text options... /

More content insertion options... / More insert options... / More content options...

 

[Monkeytime]

In the same manner as Sim pointed out 3 categories of icons, I suggest 3 subtle lite shades of pastel background colors for each icon. One shade for each category.