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I've tried (with my limited Gimp skills) to picture a layout I'd
defend. <br>
<br>
<img src="cid:part1.08070801.00060306@mozilla.com" alt=""><br>
<br>
As Blake indicated, I'd suggest we address the too-much glass solely
by reducing the glass real estate and limiting it to the window
title and border. I understand this can be done really quickly (next
release or +1) and responds to the expressed grievances. <br>
<br>
I would favor this option vs saving height by hiding the menu bar
for the following reasons:<br>
<br>
- I'm not sure we should hide the menu just for the sake of having a
better looking Aero rendering. Adhering to Windows UI principles is
of course not bad per say, but it seems to me that should open a new
conversation on this topic, and not tackle it from a too-much-glass
angle<br>
- Along those lines, users might be confused (initially, or maybe
for a longer time) with the now-gone menu. Again, I'm not sure an
aesthetic issue should, all by itself, motivate a significant UI
change. <br>
- Add-on compatibility seems to be is a subject of its own and needs
to be considered carefully<br>
<br>
I think we could have a discussion on reducing the height of the
menu+toolbar+tabbar, but again in a broader UI conversation (Windows
specific or not). <br>
<br>
Jb<br>
<br>
On 28/06/2011 20:08, Blake Winton wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4E0A18B9.1050003@mozilla.com" type="cite">
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<big><font size="-1"><big><font face="Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif">Hey everyone,<br>
<br>
one of the things that has been pointed out to me recently
as not-really-pretty is that Thunderbird shows too much
glass in its Windows 7 Aero theme. Currently, it looks
like this (114 pixels of glass high):<br>
</font></big></font><br>
</big><img src="cid:part2.02060705.09050205@mozilla.com" alt=""><br>
<big><font size="-1"><big><font face="Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif"><br>
<br>
In the longer-term, I think this will be mitigated by
moving to tabs on top, and putting the toolbar into the
tabs, but that doesn't help us in the short-to-medium
term.<br>
<br>
So I've come up with a few things that I think we can do
while we're waiting for the big change.<br>
<br>
<br>
The first pair of ideas is to set the default toolbar
format to text-beside and small icons, and to hide the
menu, as per Firefox, IE, Windows Finder, and others.
That would look something like this (with 79 pixels of
glass high):<br>
<br>
</font></big></font><img
src="cid:part3.09090606.08090405@mozilla.com" alt=""><br>
<font size="-1"><big><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br>
<br>
This seems better, but I think we could do more. I'm
hoping that we can get all the way to (54 pixels of glass
high):<br>
<br>
</font></big></font><img
src="cid:part4.09080001.04040808@mozilla.com" alt=""><br>
<font size="-1"><big><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br>
But that could cause problems with extensions that put
their buttons in the tab bar. I've spoken with Philipp
about having Lightning move its buttons up to the toolbar,
and he's happy to make that change, but there are a few
other extensions that I know about that use the same area.<br>
<br>
An alternative proposed by JB was to make the toolbar
non-glass, and leave glass only for the titlebar and
borders. I'm not a huge fan of that, because I like the
glass look (just not so much of it), but it's definitely
worth considering.<br>
<br>
So, my proposal is to set the toolbar format and hide the
menu for TB 6, and look into auto-hiding the tab bar for
TB7, with the plan of backing it out if it causes
problems.<br>
<br>
I would appreciate any comments from add-on authors who
are using the tab bar area on how this would affect them
positively or negatively, as well as comments from anyone
on other quick-and-easy options to make the glass area
less distracting while we wait for the tabs-on-top to
land.<br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
</font></big></font><font face="Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif" size="-1"><big>Blake.</big></font><font
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br>
<small>-- <br>
Blake Winton Thunderbird User Experience Lead<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:bwinton@mozilla.com">bwinton@mozilla.com</a><br>
<br>
</small></font></big> <br>
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