KPersonalizer - Whitepaper =================== Questions & Answers: Torsten Rahn Carsten Wolff Ralf Nolden Daniel Molkentin Aim: ----- When the user starts KDE for the very first time the very first impression is critical and will decide whether the user likes or dislikes KDE. While this might not sound very"fair" or "logical" it's the way people think and perceive their environment. The aim of KPersonalizer is to provide the pleasant look & feel the user expects on the very first startup. To determine which look and feel the user prefers he is guided through a minimal set of steps. What Kpersonalizer is _not_ about: -------------------------------------------- Kpersonalizer is not a wizard which configures your hardware, mount-points or any other distribution-related stuff. KPersonalizer is only meant to deal with the Look & Feel KDE provides. As soon as we would touch distribution-related stuff we risk that distributions might disable KPersonalizer. To encourage distributions to make use of it it should easily be possible to extend or change the behaviour of KPersonalizer. KPersonalizer is not meant to be part of KControl KControl is rather a graphical registry where you can change every little detail in a hierarchically arranged order. One really has to know about the details when changing stuff and one only changes things one by one. KPersonalizer on the other hand asks the user very basic questions that don't require much background-knowledge and tries to guess a set of configuration-settings which fit the users needs best. Layout: KPersonalizer consists of a window which is not set fullscreen. This has the advantage that the user sees on the fly which settings he has changed and can step back as he sees that something doesn't fit. On the left of each dialog there is a decorative 170x430-pixel-bitmap which sort of describes the step in a graphical manner. Step 1: ===== Introduction: The Introduction should give the user a warm welcome. It should explain what KPersonalizer will do during the next step and that the user will be able to refine the settings afterwards in the last step using kcontrol. Most distributions I am aware of generally set one language for all users as a first default. In certain situations the user might not speak the language of the default installation which was done by the Sysadmin. Therefore it makes sense to prompt the user for "his" country. Judging from the country Kpersonalizer will make all settings according to that country (language, currency, etc.). As distributions might take care of this step it should stay easy to disable that part of the dialog. Step 2: ===== Here the user is asked for the way his computer should act like in the future. Once again this step only deals with the way the computer works - not with the look. Depending on the radiobutton which is enabled you get a description which lists the feautres of each setting: KDE (default): The default-setting which you would get if you would disable KPersonalizer. Microsoft Windows (TM): - Double Click - Busy Cursor - Windows keyboard scheme - use 2 clipboards for c&p (keyboard/mouse) (default) - Window-Behavior -> Focus on click - Titlebar doubleclick -> Maximize - WindowList-menu on MMB - Walk trough windows mode: KDE - NOT underline IconText - NOT change pointer shape over an icon UNIX (TM): - Single Click - No busy-cursor - UNIX -keyboard-scheme. - synchronize clipboards - Window-Behavior -> Focus follows mouse - Titlebar doubleclick -> Shade - Application-menu on MMB like in FVWM - Walk trough windows mode: CDE - NOT underline IconText - NOT change pointer shape over an icon MacOS: - Single Click - No Busy Cursor - Mac- Keyboard-Scheme - use 2 clipboards for c&p (keyboard/mouse) (default) - Window-Behavior -> Focus on click - Titlebar doubleclick -> Shade (for now. MacOS X has Minimize but this isn't offered by twin yet) - Menubar on top - WindowList-menu on MMB - Walk trough windows mode: KDE - NOT underline IconText - change pointer shape over an icon Step 3: Eyecandy-O-Meter =================== The most prominent part the user should see is a big slider. Using this slider he can easily choose the level of eyecandy. Some people prefer to have a Fast & Lean environment with small desktop-items and other prefer a Big, Beautiful and resource-wasting behaviour. To give the advanced user still some control over what is being changed all items affected are being displayed in a small listview below. In front of each listview-item there is a checkbox. These items are being checked or unchecked depending on the position of the slider. "Big & Beautiful" means that all items are checked, Fast and Lean means that all items are unchecked. As soon as the user touches the checkbox of one of the items directly the state of that particular checkbox is not being changed by the position of the slider anymore. Pressing a "Reset"-button will put all items back into the position/state where the dialog started from. Features which are affected by the slider are being mentioned in the following list of Levels: Level 0 (No Eyecandy): - No animations, no eyecandy, nothing :) Level 1: - Show Wallpaper - Animate Shading, Minimize & Restore (window effects) - Display content in moving/resizing windows Level 2: - Show Konqueror/Kicker-backgrounds Level 3: - Show Iconeffects (Highlightning) - Icon Zooming (ONLY MAC) Level 4 (Default for slow machines): - Icon Animations (mng) - Desktop-Iconsize = 48 (if Resolution >= 1024x768) (ONLY MAC/CDE) - Panel- Iconsize = 56 (if Resolution >= 1280x1024) (ONLY MAC/CDE) Level 5: - Enable Image-Previews Level 6: - Enable Animated Combo boxes Level 7 (default for fast machines): - Enable Antialiased Fonts - Enable Fade tool tips - Enable Fade menus Level 8: - Enable Text-Previews - Icon Zooming (ALL SELECTIONS) - Desktop-Iconsize = 48 (if Resolution >= 1024x768) (ALL SELECTIONS) - Panel- Iconsize = 56 (if Resolution >= 1280x1024) (ALL SELECTIONS) Level 9 (Maximum Eyecandy): - Enable Icons on PushButtons - Enable all kinds of File-Previews - Enable Sound (The number of events which offer a sound corresponds directly to the "eyecandy-level".) Idea for the future: The default-position of the slider might depend on the measured performance/resources of the computer. Step 4: Theme-Selection ================= The user can choose from 4-5 themes each of them representing a look and feel which is very different from each other and might correspond with the choice made in Step 2 a bit :-) Basically this changes Icons, the widgetstyle, the WM-decoration, the Colourscheme, tiles and Wallpapers. There is a preview for each theme. Step 5: Refinement ============== The user is told how he can start KPersonalizer again if the user changes his mind on a certain setting later and the advanced user may launch kcontrol to refine certain settings. EOF