top bar, menu bar, panel or top panel

[Hannie Dumoleyn]

Hi,
I am glad with the reactions so far. Personally, I prefer the word "Top 
bar" because it contains both the menu and the so called notification 
area. Should people from ubuntu-docs agree that this is better than 
"menu bar", we could make "Top bar" the standard term.
The most important thing is what the majority of ubuntu users prefer to 
see, although I realize it is hard to find out.
Regards,
Hannie
P.s.: since I started this discussion on several mailing lists, I would 
appreciate it if people send their reactions to all.

Op 10-07-12 14:26, Paddy Landau schreef:
>> ... I've had to refer to it as the 'top bar'...
>
> Thank you, Barry; obvious in hindsight!
>
> "Top bar" is an excellent term, because it says exactly what it 
> appears to be: a bar at the top of the screen. It matches our 
> real-world experience through an appropriate metaphor. (All computer 
> terms are metaphors.)
>
> I realise that the new yelp standard seems to be "menu bar".
>
> However, as the top bar contains the application title, the menu 
> (sometimes), various pieces of information, and application icons such 
> as Skype, Wine, Settings and Libre Office Quickstarter, I think that 
> "menu bar" is insufficient and even misleading --- as, in hindsight, 
> is "panel".
>
> (A panel in real life is usually not thin, so it is clearly a 
> counter-descriptive word to use.)
>
> The question becomes, then:
>
> Do we use the yelp standard, or do we use a new standard that makes it 
> immediately obvious what we mean?
>
> My initial thoughts are that we use the yelp standard for consistency, 
> and when introducing the term, we explain that we mean the "top bar 
> with the menu and other information", as well as putting it into the 
> glossary. Unfortunately, that is also potentially misleading because 
> several programs, including Libre Office, do not put their menu in the 
> "menu bar".
>
> So, my preferred solution would be to use something immediately 
> obvious to the reader and to suggest to the yelp writers to adopt that 
> standard. If we use "top bar", we could also say, "The Launcher can be 
> found on the left bar."
>
> Paddy
>
>


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