pwsafe
Simplify File | Properties dialog
Password Safe v1.19-pre on master branch on Ubuntu 23.10.
Getting into issue 1228 it looks like "Close" button is not innocent, it actually saves the data to database. Close button should not be used to save data of any kind. I think "Close" button should be renamed.
Or... probably better, simplified solution is to just make Properties dialog more useful with two fields.
The full path of the database in the first row is useful when the user has multiple instances of pwsafe running. The "Name" can be a simple edit control, per suggestion, but I think that the "Description" should support more than one line, so either put a 3 line edit box for description, or keep the "..." button. If we keep "...", then perhaps we should keep this for the Name, for consistency?
@ronys, you are right, I have overlooked description is multi-line field.
I have been thinking this through little bit more...
Why do we have two fields (Name and Description) in the first place? Users click on File | Properties and than there is Name field. Someone (including me for the first time before testing this) may expect this Name field will rename the database name. You know File | Properties and changing Name, name of what? File name? Actually Name is instead of "Short Description" and Description is for "Long Description", isn't it? In my humble opinion we do not need two fields, one is enough. Except I missed something and this "Name" field is used somewhere... then we are having another problem, not properly explaining why is Name for.
Actually now I see, when I enter File | Properties I expect to get some info about current database and I actually expect to have Close button, just like it is now. And I assume most of the users don't have multiple password databases and so they don't see a point of setting description. For most users I assume having Save/Cancel dialog would be unexpected. I previously did some design proposal changes, because I was surprised that Close button actually does the saving part. I remember there used to be Finish button and I suggested to use Close button instead (and this was changed), because I just didn't understand what does Finish button finishes. The problem is, Close button should not save the setting, some upper dialog should make the physical saving.
New suggestions:
- At top left: Now there is just some file path that is not clear what this path is all about. I suggest to add the field label "Password Database" in front of file path.
- Date and time info in my humble opinion should be in two forms: a) system locally set date and time format or b) set as ISO standard YYYY-MM-DD. Using back-slashes and it gets confusing, what kind of format is this?
- As explained about I don't see a point of having two description fields (short and long). I suggest to remove Name field.
- If there is no description I see no point of displaying N/A, just leave it empty. I actually don't like N/A, because it can be confusing. What does N/A stands for, is it for "Not available" or "Not applicable" and as a consequence how will it be translated. From end-user perspective null value field or empty field is the same and I see no point of complicating design with this minor distinction. Suggestion, if field is empty just don't write any text.
- When clicking on three dots to set some description, Description dialog should have "Save" button instead of OK button and Save button should perform actual save operation when clicked on it.
- Close button should only close the dialog and NOT! do any actual saving.
- Is the "Name" used or displayed anywhere in the app? Even if not, perhaps it's useful when exporting to text or XML formats.
- How about displaying the description field as a multi-line text box, like the Notes field of the "Edit Entry..." dialog? Then having a button to save changes would be more clear.
