Transport Toolbar Tooltips

[Gale Andrews]

Split from http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 20#p299920

Either we show the default "Play/Stop" shortcut in the tooltips for both "Play" and "Stop" buttons, or we set default shortcuts for Play only and Stop only.

I think the most useful approach for users would be to show whatever key(s) currently act as a shortcut for the button.
This gets a bit awkward if Play, Stop and Play/Stop have shortcuts defined, but in this case I think the most informative message that we could show would be to list both shortcuts for each button.

That could really make the Play button tooltip long, but I don't object. Others might.

I think the main issue is that the "()" conveys nothing meaningful. Perhaps it would be better to hide shortcuts that are not set, so the Play button default tooltip would be

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Play/Stop (Space)/Loop Play (Shift+Space) 

Gale

[steve]

That could really make the Play button tooltip long, but I don't object. Others might.

By default it just has the word "space" added, rather than the meaningless "()". I think that would be an improvement.
For experienced users, tooltips should rarely be seen due to the hover delay before the tip is displayed. I'd guess that it is mostly experienced users that use custom shortcuts, but in the case of an inexperienced user that has custom shortcuts for these buttons, I'd imaging that the long tooltip would be invaluable.

[steve]

On the subject of tooltips, I've noticed a minor bug since we upgraded to wxWidgets 3.0 - every now and then the playback volume tooltip opens for no apparent reason and remains open until I hover the mouse pointer over the control for several seconds. The weirdest thing about this is that when this occurs, this tooltip remains visible even when another application window is brought to the fore. I've not seen any other reports of this so perhaps it is just my machine.

[Gale Andrews]

That could really make the Play button tooltip long, but I don't object. Others might.

By default it just has the word "space" added, rather than the meaningless "()". I think that would be an improvement.

I don't think the Play and Stop button default tooltips should be

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Play (Space)/ Loop Play (Shift + Space) 

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Stop (Space)

That would be confusing when going into Keyboard Preferences to change shortcuts.

Gale

[steve]

That would be confusing when going into Keyboard Preferences to change shortcuts.

Three shortcuts for what appear to be two commands is somewhat confusing. Wouldn't it be better for users if the "play/stop" command was hidden from the UI such that the user is presented with two commands, Play and Stop, and for the code to handle this such that both may use the same shortcut?

[Gale Andrews]

That would be confusing when going into Keyboard Preferences to change shortcuts.

Three shortcuts for what appear to be two commands is somewhat confusing. Wouldn't it be better for users if the "play/stop" command was hidden from the UI such that the user is presented with two commands, Play and Stop, and for the code to handle this such that both may use the same shortcut?

Do you mean that in Keyboard Preferences there is no "Play/Stop" and in default Audacity we see in those Preferences that both Play and Stop are set to SPACE? I guess that should not inconvenience anyone.

But if someone unsets a shortcut for any of those Transport buttons they will still see "()". I think it could be better to show nothing rather than "()".


Gale

[steve]

if someone unsets a shortcut for any of those Transport buttons they will still see "()". I think it could be better to show nothing rather than "()".

Imo, if there is no shortcut set, then no shortcut (and no brackets) should be shown.

If there is no shortcut for Play or Loop Play, then the tooltip for the Play button would just say "Play". In this unusual case, the only way to Loop Play would be from the Loop Play command in the Transport menu - Loop Play is not possible from the Play button. Unfortunately in this case we lose the "tip" that the button "could" be configured to do Loop Play, but it would be misleading to show "Loop Play" in the tooltip while the button does not work for Loop Play (and it is only by the deliberate action of the user that this situation can occur, so I think we have to assume that they know what they are doing).

[Gale Andrews]

if someone unsets a shortcut for any of those Transport buttons they will still see "()". I think it could be better to show nothing rather than "()".

Imo, if there is no shortcut set, then no shortcut (and no brackets) should be shown.

If there is no shortcut for Play or Loop Play, then the tooltip for the Play button would just say "Play". In this unusual case, the only way to Loop Play would be from the Loop Play command in the Transport menu - Loop Play is not possible from the Play button.

I would not like that change. As it is now, you can unset SHIFT + SPACE, but still SHIFT-click on Play to Loop Play. At least that still works on Windows and Ubuntu.

So I think if Play and Loop Play shortcuts are unset, the Play button tooltip should say "Play / Loop Play".


Gale

[steve]

As it is now, you can unset SHIFT + SPACE, but still SHIFT-click on Play to Loop Play.

My mistake, you're right.

So I think if Play and Loop Play shortcuts are unset, the Play button tooltip should say "Play / Loop Play".

Yes, I agree.

[waxcylinder]

I think the main issue is that the "()" conveys nothing meaningful. Perhaps it would be better to hide shortcuts that are not set, so the Play button default tooltip would be

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Play/Stop (Space)/Loop Play (Shift+Space) 

I seem to recall asking for just this a long time ago - and being told then that for some "technical reason" we couldn't do that

Peter