UI Tweaks

[xDev]

I believe GoldenDict needs some Ui tweaks to make it as simple and easy-to-use as possible.
I suggest removing side panel and replacing it with a textbox the appears on top of the results box, just like babylon, thus reducing space needed for the list of results. suggestions should appear in a drop-down list below the textbox with suggestions from history (just like babylon, too). Next to the textbox is a button, clicking this button brings up a dropdown menu with dictionary groups to select.
Also the navigation bar (back, next, print...) should be placed on the right of the textbox, not in a separate bar in order to save space.
Tab bar should only appear when there are more than one tab.

We may call this mini mode, compact mode and keep the existing one too!
Note: I hope that GoldenDict uses the native Ubuntu icons for back, next, print and everything... this would be great!

Thanx in advance!

[Tvangeste]

Power to the people!

I mean, if you could implement such a thing, that would be an interesting improvement!

[xDev]

Sorry, I don't have time or experience to do this, but I may post some mockups soon.

[Tvangeste]

Sorry, I don't have time or experience to do this, but I may post some mockups soon.

Mockups would be also very useful, thanks.

It seems that replacing the Search Pane with textbox + drop-down would be indeed a worthwhile change in the UI, but we'll see how well that would go.

I've experimented with some UI tweaks earlier today, and besides that biggest issue of Search Pane taking too much time, there are other areas that could be improved:

* Hide single tab, freeing extra space on top of the articles. Status: Work in progress, soon for review.
** Related: Show the title of the current tab in the Frame Title bar (so that even when the single tab is hidden we could see its title). Status: Work in progress.
* Hide menu. Should be pretty simple too.

I'll probably take care of these 3 things and if will think about the big change with the drop-down list too.

P.S. Meanwhile, you could hide the toolbars already, or you could make the buttons in the toolbars smaller (at least in the latest dev. version of GD).

[xDev]

So, here we go
Here are two mock-ups (they're almost the same!)


I personally prefer the first one, but we can make this optional, right?

[Tvangeste]

So, here we go
Here are two mock-ups (they're almost the same!)

Thanks. The first image is unavailable though. At least I can't see it.

[ikm]

Me neither. Though judging by the second mockup I'd say this looks like Babylon/Lingoes. With that, let me clarify something. The whole GD project was started with a simple Qt form - a word input box and word matches to the left, an article to the right. This was one of the first things done. And it is still there - though in a modularized dockable form. I have never thought of it as of a perfect solution - it just worked, and that's all. Personally I think that the combo box for the word would be the preferred way for most users.

[xDev]

I've fixed the first mock-up.
Although GoldenDict is simple and easy to use, it can be a real competitor for all commercial look-up software (like Babylon) with some UI tweaks.
For me, it just works and I'm fine with that, but I know some users who prefer Babylon for its compact UI, they just don't like how much space it takes.

[dronelebeau]

I also prefer the 2nd mock-up. the buttons are close to each other. no need to move the farther to access them.

[Tvangeste]

So, here we go.
I personally prefer the first one, but we can make this optional, right?

I *think* that tab placement can be made optionally on the bottom, but currently I just like to finish "no tabs shown when only single tab open" first.