OpenOffice/Gnome file dialogs

Fri Sep 30 13:58:31 CDT 2005

Hi, everyone,

On Friday 2005.09.30 11:07:48 +0200, Julien Olivier wrote:
> Le vendredi 30 septembre 2005 à 09:53 +0100, Thomas Beckett a écrit :
> > > In another posting, a list member mentioned the fact that his Windows buddy could
> > > not figure out how to install additional fonts on Ubuntu.  I also could not
> > > figure out the GUI way to do it on Ubuntu.  So of course I resorted to the non-GUI way
> > > which is easy for me (i.e., as root drop fonts into /usr/share/fonts).  But
> > > even as I was solving the problem for myself, I was thinking, gee this *really*
> > > is *not* the right answer for inexperienced users!
> > 
> > If you load nautilus as root then you can drag and drop the files into
> > /usr/share/fonts
> > You can also store fonts in ~/.fonts (i think thats the name) so i
> > assume you can just create that folder if it doesnt exist and then
> > drag and drop your new fonts to there as a normal user. The font
> > importer then opens and installs them there.
> > 

This requires the user have knowledge of /usr/share/fonts.  Granted, sooner or later
they will learn about "/usr/share" and it will make sense.

As for "./fonts", how many inexperienced users are going to figure that one out?
Probably not many.  Since ".fonts" is a "hidden" folder, users don't just "see" it
in Nautilus -- the user has to toggle "Show Hidden Files".

Here's a solution:

      ~> ln -s .fonts Fonts

Now that "Fonts" is a symbolic link to ~/.fonts, it has now become a visible 
folder and the (inexperienced) user could quickly experiment and realize
that dropping fonts into his "Fonts" folder was the equivalent of installing them.

> 
> There is a simpler way: open System -> Preferences -> Fonts.
> 
> Here, click on "details" (at the bottom-right of the dialog). Then, an
> advanced dialog opens. Just next to the "close" button, there is "go to
> font folder" button. Click on it, and it'll open the list of installed
> fonts. Just DND your new fonts here.
> 

Thank you for pointing out the correct GUI-based Gnome way to do it.

Now let's analyze it:

  1. System ->
  2. Preferences ->
  3. Fonts ->           ... so far, so good!
  4. Details ->         ... hmmm, not very obvious ...
  5. Advanced Dialog -> 
  6. Go To Font Folder

OK, six steps so far. So now I download a new font, "graver.ttf", to my desktop
and open a view of it in Nautilus.  Then I drag the icon of "graver.ttf" into the
already opened Nautilus font window.  Nothing happens.  No error message.  And I
don't see "graver.ttf" in my list of fonts.  So I think something is maybe wrong.
But about five minutes later I take a look at my "~/.fonts" directory from my
terminal and see that the folder has been populated with "graver.ttf".  So I think
that what happened is that Nautilus gave me a view of "/usr/share/fonts" but
when I dragged and dropped the font, it deposited it in "~/.fonts".  Is this what
happened?

Now let's compare this to KDE:

1. Settings ->
2. Control Center ->
3. System Administration ->
4. Font Installer

I can now install fonts from this screen. Also, there is a button that says
"Administrator Mode" for installing fonts system-wide.  So it is fairly clear
that there is a distinction between local and system-wide fonts.

Now let's try Windows XP:

1. Start -->
2. Control Panel -->
3. Fonts -->

Then just drag and drop the font. That's pretty good.

Now let's try Apple OSX:

1. Double click on a font on the desktop.
2. Click the "Install" button which is on the bottom of the preview window.

So, Apple OSX wins as it requires the fewest steps and is most intuitive.
Windows XP comes in 2nd, KDE 3rd, and Gnome in last place with the most number
of steps.   And it's not intuitive. 

But wait, you say I did not try just double clicking on the font icon on
the desktop in the other OSes the way I did in Apple OSX.  Fair enough:

Windows XP: When I click on the "graver.ttf" font icon on the XP desktop,
XP says "The requested file was not a valid font file."  Here we can see 
the retarded aspect of MS Windows starting to show through.  Not only is
the file just fine, the error message even uses the wrong tense ("was" instead
of "is")!

KDE on a vanilla SuSE 9.3 box: Clicking on the "graver.ttf" icon on the
desktop attempts to call Gnome Font Viewer which is not even available because
I did not install Gnome.  But, if it were available, I would get Gnome's
font preview but no option (i.e. button) to install the font.  This is
really retarded because KDE should be set up to use KFontInst, not Gnome
Font Viewer.  I don't know what SuSE was thinking!

And Finally:

Gnome on Ubuntu: clicking on "graver.ttf" on the desktop brings up Gnome Font
Viewer which lacks a button for installation.

Conclusion: Gnome needs to rethink font installation. 
Actually, they don't have to think very much, because Apple has already thought up
the right solution for them.  So just copy Apple OSX by adding an "Install" button at
the bottom of Gnome Font Viewer.  And make sure that the options for local vs. 
system-wide font installation are crystal clear.  When this has been 
accomplished, Ubuntu will have a fighting chance of being the Linux "for human
beings".

My 2 cents--

--Ed Trager

> -- 
> Julien Olivier <julo at altern.org>
> 
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