[TYPO3-hci] Concentrate on the editors 2: RTE improvements

[Kasper Skårhøj]

Hi Uschi,

Your suggest is so detailed already that I suggest you them to the  
wiki pages here:

http://wiki.typo3.org/index.php/Usability_No-brainers#RTE_.28Endusers.29


- kasper



On Jun 15, 2006, at 15:01 , Uschi Renziehausen wrote:

> Hello humans :)
>
> Some philosophy first: A good website is made up of (quality) content,
> that is easy to perceive for the 'readers'. When it comes to content
> production, one of the most important tools for authors is the RTE.
> Therefore, as a (newbie) site developer it is my duty to make it
> comfortable and easy for the authors to get their content right. The
> readability of content is improved by semantically 'correct' markup,
> which then can be styled for the various media. This is a key point  
> that
> each and every author, who wants or has to publish for the web, will
> have to understand! This should not be too difficult, as long as the
> wording is reasonable.
>
> I will also have to teach authors how to use the RTE, and I have to  
> keep
> the learning curve low. As was pointed out in the Mambo thread, you  
> can
> only teach well what you know well. Therefore, I started to work a lot
> with the RTE as I will do as an author, and came to the following
> conclusion:
>
> Currently the GUI of the RTE is not optimized for it's main purpose:
> writing content for the web. What you get as default formatting  
> (markup)
> options is taken from the typical setup for word processors (be  
> that MS
> Word or OO Writer), and those in turn are optimized for creating
> (SMALL!) print documents like letters. They are secretaries' friends,
> but once you want two write e.g. an academic article or book, you will
> be very unhappy with these settings. Everything you need is there, but
> most of it is safely hidden away from you, and even if you happen to
> find what you need, you have to klick five times to get there OR you
> become an expert user and learn how to manipulate your toolbars/ 
> shortcuts.
>
> Now, with the configuration of your word processor, you are usually  
> left
> alone, but, fortunately, with the config of your RTE you are not,  
> if you
> have a site developer/admin, who cares for your needs.
>
> Currently, the only way to get my content right, is using the Quick  
> Tag
> Editor. But the Quick Tag Editor is only usefull for those authors,  
> who
> know HTML, and then it is not very comfortable, if you have to open up
> the QE first. Nevertheless it is my 90%-button! I know, that there are
> also the User Elements, but then again: extra klicks for the authors,
> and, furthermore, why should site developers need  to do a lot of work
> just to create standard html elements?
>
> So the major objective would be:
> Optimize rtehtmlarea for what it is used for: producing nice html-code
> without having to code!
>
> I know this is not the right place for RTE feature requests, but I put
> down some details here in order to clarify what I mean and to find  
> out,
> what others think of these ideas.
>
> 1) Direct access to all common block elements via paragraph  
> selector list
> - Make it easy for authors to add <div> (we could call it 'Box' on the
> surface)
> - Make it easy for authors to add <blockquote> (we could call it
> 'Quotation block')
> Currently it is only possible to hide items of the paragraphs selector
> box, you cannot add to them.
>
> 2) Do not abuse blockquote for indentation
> Currently increasing indent is done by wrapping the element in  
> question
> by a blockquote.
> This is bad, because not every indented block contains a quotation.
> Perhaps it would be a good idea to let site developers define a class
> for indenting left which than can be applied to a wrapper div? Then it
> is up to the css how the indenting is done (padding or margin, em,  
> px?).
>
> 3) Direct access to more inline elements:
> Currently only the following inline elements can be accessed directly:
> 	<b> - remapped to <strong>
> 	<i> - remapped to <em>
> 	<sub>
> 	<sup>
> 	<span> - only if RTE.classesCharacter is defined.
>
> My approach would be:
> A select list like the one for block elements. What is in there by
> default should be configurable (addItem, removeItem). By default one
> could imagine:
>
> q - Quotation inline
> cite - Citation (do not know whether this is correct english)
> samp - Example
> dfn - Definition
> span - Span
> var -  Variable
> code - Code
> kbd - Keyboard
>
> Also, the selector box for inline classes should react in a similar  
> way
> as for classesParagraph, means: when my cursor is inside a dfn, the
> class should be applied to the dfn-element.
>
> 4) Direct access to important attributes
> - lang (accessibility issue!)
> - title
> - id
>
> 5) Save several klicks for the table editor
>
> 5.1) The create tables dialogue
> - if classesTable is defined, let users choose them on creation of  
> table
> - three options concerning thead/th/scope
>    * make first row thead (all cell types automatically set to th and
> scope to col)
>    * make first col th (all cell types automatically set to th and  
> scope
> to row)
>    * make first row thead and first col th (all cell types of first  
> row
> th/scope=col, all cells of the first default to th/scope=row with the
> exeption of the first one in the first row)
> - add the caption and summary fields
>
> 5.2) The row properties dialogue
> In the row properties dialogue I can choose whether the row shall  
> become
> part of thead, tbody or tfoot.
> So if I choose thead, the cells should be turned into th/scope=col
> automatically. Otherwise I need as many clicks as I have cells in that
> row + choosing the right scope.
>
> 6) A way to create definition lists
> Some ideas how that could work:
>
> A button like we have for <ol> and <ul>
> Pressing that button will activate it and will create <dl><dt>| 
> <dt></dl>
> Pressing that button in active state will move the cursor below the  
> </dl>
> Pressing enter from inside <dt> will add <dd>|</dd>,
> pressing enter from inside <dd>|</dd> will create <dt>|</dt>
> I suppose a second button is needed for toggling between <dt> and <dd>
> if one needs to <dd>s.
>
>
> Prosit, Uschi
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- kasper

"A contribution a day keeps the fork away"
-------------------------------
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