Toggeling tool tips messages: Opposite meaning of icon

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. It is nice, that AI uses tool tips for the tools in the toolbar.
2. What makes it confusing that in some 'toggeling'-cases, that tool tips
say the opposite of what the icon shows: 
- e.g. 'Ignore Boundaries' is on
-- icon shows actual state (e.g. Selection ignores Boundaries)
-- tooltip tells you, what happens when you click it (Stop Selection at
boundaries.
- e.g. punctuation is displayed in the text, 
-- the symbole shows actual state (by an exclamation mark)
-- tooltip of hide/show punctuation shows: Hide punctuation

- the name of the tool, if this is a 'non-toggeling-tool', e.g. Jump Back
- name of the opposite tool for toggeling tools, e.g. 

3. For the non-toggeling tools, the tool tip and the icon give the same
message:
- e.g. Tool tip: Jump Back, icon: pointing to the left
- e.g. Tool tip: Move down one step, icon: points down

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

What to suggest?
There is no easy solution, as in some instances the 
- icon-imageone is used to show the actual status and
- the tooltip is used to show the new status (if you click it).

Here are some suggestions:
- put all those 'two-sided' icons on one end of the toolbar
- give them all a special colour
- put them into an extra box ('sub-box') on the toolbar
- give the tooltip a general name and put a +/- besides to switch it on/off
something like: show punctuation: +/-, boundary crossing: +/-, copy
puntuation: +/-, make phrase: +/-, show source text: +/-, 

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
AI 4.1.1./Linux

Please provide any additional information below.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by wolfgang...@gmx.de on 11 Mar 2009 at 4:33

[GoogleCodeExporter]

As you have observed, the toolbar tool tips all tell what action will take 
place if
the button is clicked. This is true for all of the buttons, whether the toolbar
button toggles to a different state or not. In the case of those buttons that 
have
different toggle states, the image on the button always indicates what the 
current
state is, so each of those buttons give an instant clue as to the state of the
application, especially since each state is only temporary. The tool tip 
changes its
wording to its opposite meaning as well as the button image when clicked. It is 
a
matter of perspective whether one thinks the button should show the current 
state or
the state that would obtain once toggled. I don't see any advantage of moving 
the
toggle buttons to one end of the toolbar, or to a 'sub-box'. For the toggle 
buttons,
users learn to associate the change in the images they see with the actions that
ensue from clicking that button. Giving them a special color would make them 
less
distinguishable from one another, so their functions would be more difficult to
remember. Having +/- would not work well either for at least three reasons: (1) 
Tool
bars on applications are there to conserve space and avoid manipulating menus. 
There
simply is not enough space on a toolbar to have a non-clickable image (or 
words) with
separately clickable buttons '+' and '-', and even if we did, on which side of 
the
image (or words) should the '+' button and '-' button go? And, how would you 
know
whether the '+' and '-' buttons are for the image/words preceding them, or 
following
them? They would have to be grouped together and the wasted space would defeat 
the
purpose of having a toolbar. (2) If words are used instead of images, they 
would need
to be localized for the 8 languages that Adapt It currently supports and such
localizations would likely not fit on a toolbar of reasonable length, (3) For 
many
users the '+' and '-' symbols communicate less information than you might 
think, and
many would not associate '+' with "yes" or "on", and '-' with "no" or "off".

Original comment by adaptitbill@gmail.com on 12 Mar 2009 at 1:29

• Changed state: WontFix

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by adaptitbill@gmail.com on 12 Mar 2009 at 1:30

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi,

Thanks for your explanation.

I understand the issue and think, that this is a point which has to be included 
in
teaching of AI.

By the way, is there any other software which does a similar thing (opposite 
meaning
of a tool-image and tooltip?) I do not remember ....

Original comment by wolfgang...@gmx.de on 12 Mar 2009 at 6:35