Better icon for 'Show more symbols'
Reported version
3.1
Type
Graphical (UI)
Frequency
Few
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Reproducibility
Always
Status
active
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project
The current icon for the 'Show more symbols' dialog in the Palette is anti-intuitive in my opinion. The '???' first seemed like a rendering problem (was I missing an icon perhaps? Broken font or installation?).
A better icon which is normally used for this type of dialog would be '...'. Here is a mock-up done with GIMP:
This is obviously a very minor issue, but a clearer symbol can help people make more sense of the interface and discover this option.
Comments
... is a rather obscure symbol and in no way improves the current method in my opinion. What's more there is a symbol ... that is placed above tremolos to indicate play the tremolo staccato, so it would get confusing if the user placed this in a custom palette.
In reply to ... is a rather obscure… by mike320
How is ... Obscure???
It has been the standard since Windows 3.1 to open more menus.
@mike320 I don't think ... is obscure and I don't see much of a problem concerning the tremolo staccato symbol since it would only be present in a custom palette, but perhaps it could be worth considering a different icon then. Two other suggestions:
Perhaps someone else can come up with a better idea. But in my opinion, the ??? icon is simply incomprehensible from a UI point of view.
Or other options still:
I think this last one is a particularly good solution, because: 1) it uses another very standard symbol, 2) the text clarifies what the action is, 3) it is in the bottom right corner and cannot be mistaken with another symbol from the list.
Pretty much anything's better than the current icon. Thanks for bringing this up, @gsagostinho! The icon confused me the first time I opened MuseScore 3 and still did until just now.
See https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/pull/5138 which uses a simple ellipsis "…" and an (already existing) tool tip:
![more.png]( "more.png")
Another option would be the vertical ellipsis, "⋮" or a midline horisontal ellipsis "⋯" or this "︙"
A vertical ellipsis usually indicates a context menu, does it not?
I think a horizontal ellipsis seems more fitting. I would prefer a simple one to a midline one.
So the PR as it is currently.
Yep! :-)
Just noticed: that tooltip isn't translatable, will add that to the PR
Tried to make the ellipsis bold:
![more-dark.png]( "more-dark.png")
![more-light.png]( "more-light.png")
In reply to Tried to make the ellipsis… by Jojo-Schmitz
@Jojo-Schmitz Thanks for taking a look at this! I also think the horizontal ellipsis is clearer. As for the bold vs the regular version, the ellipses in the bold version do not look very good, they look like three squares which are heavy anti-aliased. In my opinion your first screenshot (non-bold) looks much better and crispier.
This is probably the low DPI settings I made those screenshots with
In reply to This is probably the low DPI… by Jojo-Schmitz
Ah I see now. In that case, please ignore my previous comment.
A new proposal.
![F380AC6D-8CAA-43C9-B3A5-318718B7A7B8.jpeg]( "F380AC6D-8CAA-43C9-B3A5-318718B7A7B8.jpeg")
IMHO it should be inside the palette, instead of the ???, not in the palette's name. Also would require some special coding to be able to select that.
The "+" icon, while not being bad in itself, implies adding something (as one meaning, the other being 'more'?), which isn't the case here.
"..." or ">" (as an icon maybe, danger of confusing with hairpin or articulation?) or "etc." seem to convey the meaning better?
PR got closed: "Palettes are under reconstruction and refinement right now. Let's see what we can achieve with Tantacrul's help ;)"
This issue will be part of a redesign for 3.3