Neptune - close icon on slide pages ...

rfm2

Posts: 68
Registered: 13-Dec-2007

Neptune - close icon on slide pages
Posted: 23 Aug 21, 18:40

I want to experiment - now, now, don't cringe - I said just experiment - with using the index/thumbnail page icon in the Atom skin in place of the X/close icon in Neptune slide pages. If I replace the close.svt in the Neptune source with the renamed index.svt from Atom I can get the "close" icon in the Neptune slides to respond to size changes in the UI but I can't get it to respond to the color changes. Is there a simple way I can get Neptune to respond to the color also?

JeffTucker

Posts: 8,492
Registered: 31-Jan-2006

Re: Neptune - close icon on slide pages
Posted: 23 Aug 21, 22:19

in response to: rfm2

Yes, the Atom color schemes are very simple beasts, so the variable names are much more limited. But it's easy. After you've copied index.svt from Atom and renamed it close.svt, open it up in a text editor and replace ${iconColor} with ${slideTextColor}.

rfm2

Posts: 68
Registered: 13-Dec-2007

Re: Neptune - close icon on slide pages
Posted: 23 Aug 21, 23:09

in response to: JeffTucker

Great! Got that burr out from under my saddle. I still want to play around with it for a while, so I'm sure I'll be back very soon with another question or 2.

Thanks.

rfm2

Posts: 68
Registered: 13-Dec-2007

Re: Neptune - close icon on slide pages
Posted: 24 Aug 21, 18:16

in response to: rfm2

ClipThumbsIcon.jpg (35.1 KB)

I seem to recall (not a reliable source of information) in a long ago discussion you indicated that you didn't see the necessity of having a tool tip for the close (return to thumbnails) X icon on the slide pages, and that doing so would be difficult. Out of curiosity in this experiment with using the index page icon in place of the X icon, is there a way to use an entry in the UI code tab to achieve that without having to change the source code? If I go the index icon route it may be more obvious as to what it does than an X icon that could mean close the web page as well as return to the index page (attachment).

Never mind. The more I look at the way the slides are generated on the fly apparently by the floatbox.js the more I can see the impracticability of even thinking about messing with it. I think I will just go with the index page icon and revise the wording on the album opening page about how to return to the thumbnail page.

Edited by: rfm2 on 24 Aug 2021, 19:06

JeffTucker

Posts: 8,492
Registered: 31-Jan-2006

Re: Neptune - close icon on slide pages
Posted: 24 Aug 21, 19:46

in response to: rfm2

There are two aspects to this. The first is that the skin coding currently has no provision for putting a tooltip on things like the "close X." The icon image would need an HTML title attribute, and there currently isn't one. If I added that attribute, I would then have to provide a way for the user to change the text to a different language, which means more stuff in the skin's settings panels. That new text string would also have to be pumped through the routines I use for cleaning up sloppy text strings, as well. In short, what seems like a small change produces a cascade of other needed changes.

But I think the more fundamental problem is trying to use something other than a "close X" to close a lightbox. This is almost universal on the web. I don't think there's a computer user on the planet who is puzzled about what's going to happen when he clicks that X. In fact, in a lot of my albums, I don't even bother with having an icon - almost all users instinctively click off-image to close a modal window. In fact, many are probably annoyed when that doesn't work.

I feel much the same way about the right and left arrows for "next" and "previous." Does anyone actually need to be told what those do? I've left tooltips for those in a couple of my skins, but I've often considered clobbering them.

I really dislike pages that start off by explaining, in exhaustive detail, how to navigate the site. Most of it is self-evident, and even if it's not, the visitor will quickly discover how to get around, and doesn't need to be given instructions upon every visit to the page. It would be like having your car show you the owner's manual page about how to start the car every time you got behind the wheel. It would be really irritating.

rfm2

Posts: 68
Registered: 13-Dec-2007

Re: Neptune - close icon on slide pages
Posted: 25 Aug 21, 00:16

in response to: JeffTucker

I have already indicated that I agree with the first paragraph of your comment that a tooltip in Neptune on the slide page is not a doable option. But I certainly disagree with most of your second paragraph.

Your position is based on the fact that most of the people you deal with (album viewers, album makers, skin developers) are experienced computer users. Many (most?) of my album viewers (family and friends) are computer "challenged" at best, and there is little danger that I have over-coached them in my album notes. 0% of them would know what a "lightbox" based skin even is, let alone that the X on the slide page is to close the box and not to close the web page, as they are used to doing by clicking the X in the upper right corner. I agree that they will catch on after a few views.

The left and right arrows for image advance/return certainly do not need a tooltip to know what they do, but remember that in the Matrix days when click right or left side did not advance or return (as many skins at that time did and most current skins do) but only advanced with the upward pointing hand, so the tooltip you used then was essential. I still have several hundred Matrix albums on my website.

Several of your current skins do not return to the index page when clicking off-image, and the up arrow at the top has a tooltip to let the user know that it goes up one level. If I used one of those skins I would change the tooltip for my albums to say "Thumbnail page" since my "challenged" users may not know what "Up one level" means. That's why I have the note on every album opening page to tell the user that they can get back to the index page by clicking off-image or by clicking the X (or index icon, in my new albums).

The bottom line is that each album maker should provide as much help (and only as much help) as he/she thnks the particular level of viewers need to comfortably browse the album. It's just that your viewers would prefer less "intrusive" help, and my viewers may need more help than some skins provide. I agree that most users, regardless of skill level, can eventially muddle their way through an album either way.

Thanks for your note.

JeffTucker

Posts: 8,492
Registered: 31-Jan-2006

Re: Neptune - close icon on slide pages
Posted: 25 Aug 21, 00:49

in response to: rfm2

rfm2 wrote:
Your position is based on the fact that most of the people you deal with (album viewers, album makers, skin developers) are experienced computer users. Many (most?) of my album viewers (family and friends) are computer "challenged" at best, and there is little danger that I have over-coached them in my album notes. 0% of them would know what a "lightbox" based skin even is, let alone that the X on the slide page is to close the box and not to close the web page, as they are used to doing by clicking the X in the upper right corner. I agree that they will catch on after a few views.

Do any of them use Facebook? Do any of them do any online shopping? If so, they should be quite familiar with the "click on this small image to see a bigger version, click the X or click off-image to get back to where you were" mechanism. It's become really, really common.

I would just add that my visitors include my exceedingly non-computer savvy siblings who have 8 and 10 years on me. Doing support in here is a piece of cake, by comparison - trying to help my brother is like doing surgery while wearing mittens. But once I gave him an explicit way to grab images from the family website, he was fine (a nice, obvious "download" icon is sometimes worth its weight in gold).

Several of your current skins do not return to the index page when clicking off-image...

They're not lightbox skins, and even I occasionally find myself trying to click off-image to return to the thumbnail page when testing them, and being momentarily puzzled when it doesn't work.

I've thought about changing that, but it raises all sorts of problems with things like swipe responses. It's a long story.... It would also violate some basic web site conventions about page navigation.

I agree that most users, regardless of skill level, can eventially muddle their way through an album either way.

You've obviously never encountered a MarkusD Baffling Ordeal Album™. (Let's see if Markus reads non-Tiger threads.

)