Currently for people to edit what is in their scratchpads they have to go to edit their user information, and then go elsewhere for the scratchpad. I've noticed that this process causes considerable confusion and causes experienced people to have to give a complex little explanation when trying to help newbies in chatter.

My suggestion is that from within your own scratchpad you should have a textbox where you can edit the contents of the scratchpad and change whether or not it is public. Just like how we can edit our own posts.

That would allow us when dealing with a newbie to just type in Can you put some code [pad://your name] and let us see it? Much easier to describe, much easier to do, and much more intuitive than the current process.

(Note: this post was inspired by a comment from tye in chatter about how useless it is to tell people to put something in their scratchpad, and link to that scratchpad. That uselessness struck me as a sign of a bad UI...)

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Edit scratchpad from within the scratchpad
by theorbtwo (Prior) on May 07, 2004 at 16:51 UTC

    foo's scratchpad now gives an "edit your scratchpad" link if you are foo. In other words, "done"... kind of. You still have to go somewhere else, but it's clear where that "somewhere else" is. Or at least clearer.

[reply]
      That's a good start, but the immediate same-window effect of an Update form and button would be many many times better.
[reply]

        Why? I'm a bit tired of the update window when I'm not updating. I prefer the current 'home node' interface of not including the update form when you are only looking (except I'd like "view above update form" after applying or for previewing an update). But I certainly don't see how either is "many many times better".

        I'd rather see my nodes much closer to the same way others see them. For example, the big input box skews the display in none-too-subtle ways. The effect is particularly obnoxious when I'm working in a small window (but is annoying to me even when working in a huge window).

        And the real problem with scratchpads is that they are fields in the 'user' record and they should instead be node types. Hacks and work-arounds are being done to sort of compensate for this when the effort should probably instead be toward fixing the root problem.

        My original comment was a sideways dig at how "bolted on" scratchpads are. There are several poor user interface issues with them currently, only one of which was just noticed and has now been improved a bit (thanks, theorbtwo).

        - tye        

[reply]
        I guess the problem I see is that after you've edited your scratchpad, you have to stumbit it, wait for the server to accept it, then go view your scratchpad to see if you made a fiddly mistake. Even if I have a separate window open to the scratchpad, I find the process of stumbit, switch windows, wait, refresh, wait, and then see the effect to be obnoxious.

        tye, I've often wondered why the Update form is there all the time; any reason not to just have the button that takes you to a displaytype=update view (which looks the way things are now, with both output and input, not the way displaytype=edit looks).

[reply]
        Then can't you put this link in your personal nodelet?

        -QM
        --
        Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of

[reply]
Re: Edit scratchpad from within the scratchpad
by greenFox (Vicar) on May 08, 2004 at 00:32 UTC
    I am replying to the original because I wanted to comment on items addressed throughout the thread...
    • The "edit your scratchpad" link in the scratchpad viewer is a good start, the link at the bottom needs <p> tags around it though, at the moment it runs in with the last line of whatever is in the scratchpad.
    • I tried but I couldn't add a link to my scratchpad to my "personal nodelet", the username gets stripped. (I keep wishing that I could edit the stuff in my personal nodelet, to change titles for example, though since &bull; was re-enabled that is less pressing *grin*)
    • I'm with ysth being able to edit and preview on the same window would be goodly (thanks for the discussion tye and ysth it is nice to see the thinking process behind design).
    • If some enterprising monk wants to earn some ++ and good will the PerlMonks FAQ seems like it could benefit from an update on the subject of scratch pads :)

    Thats probably enough from me on this otherwise fine Saturday morning :)

    --
    Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought. -Basho

[reply]

      WARNING: New User, First Post

      I'm not sure if I'm a unique one here, but I use LiveJournal as my primary blogging means. I've found LiveJournal's User Interface fairly simple to use when it comes to posting/previewing new entries.

      Actually, now that I've hit ``preview'' on this for the first time, quite similar to this, as well.

      Would it be that hard to implement an interface similar to the one for this reply feature, with a ``preview'' and an ``update'' button for easier usage?

[reply]

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