problem with dialog boxes in lower resolutions

This is where you post about usability issues (not bugs) in pre-release versions of Puppy 5.x (alphas, betas, rcs). Usability issues are things like poor contrast in the themes, non-ergonomic button layouts, unintuitive application behavior, etc.
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ssme
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Joined: Thu 15 Jan 2009, 14:40

problem with dialog boxes in lower resolutions

#1 Post by ssme »

i'm not sure if this belongs in here, so feel free to delete it. i've been using puppy woof alpha 8 (i can't find alpha 9), and a long standing problem resurfaced (copied from my post in the beginners forum... apologies for the ranty tone: it was very late :))

i don't know if this is really the sort of thing to go in this thread - or even whether it is a problem with puppy, xorg, or jwm - but one thing that really bugs me about puppy is that despite being 'marketed' to people with old machines, it assumes a high resolution display.

my laptop runs at 1024x768, but a lot of dialog boxes are far too big to fit on the screen. this means i can't read what is at the bottom of the window or, for example, what the button options are. the box can't be resized, and maximising it simply widens the little bit i can read. the only way out is to hit Enter and hope that the button i have just selected is the right one. it happened to me just now when i tried to install the java-jdk.

in an otherwise great OS, it is incredibly frustrating!

EDIT: and it's just happened again. seeing as i've spent the best part of 5 hours downloading packages for some university work, the fact that there might be huge dependency problems simply because i couldn't read the bottom of a dialog box or see a button saying "fix this!" is so utterly depressing it's almost funny. i note there is an option in the menu to check dependencies. however, i can't use this as, guess what? the list in the box disappears off the bottom of the screen and is not scrollable or resizable. joy!

is something like this really so hard to fix? i doubt puppy will be a viable alternative to windows until it discovers scroll bars!

bugman

#2 Post by bugman »

nah, this has been a problem forever, especially with the missing dependencies box, no fix in sight?

ICPUG
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#3 Post by ICPUG »

Will moving the window in the desktop image on the bar at the bottom of the screen allow you to see the bottom of the dialog box?

I'm guesssing because I don't use Puppy 5 yet.

I agree this is only a workaround but to be honest even Windows Apps developers seem to think we all have high resolution screens. At work I have a high res screen but operate in low res because I am old and have bad eyesight.

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ttuuxxx
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#4 Post by ttuuxxx »

Hi what you can do is first take screenshots, so we have some clue how much needs to be taken off of what, next you need to update the list with every dialog box that doesn't fit your screen, Most of them I can change and alter, but I need the names and pictures please. If you supply them, then I'll look at fixing them.
Thanks
ttuuxxx
http://audio.online-convert.com/ <-- excellent site
http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/A-codecs/ <-- Codec Test Files
http://html5games.com/ <-- excellent HTML5 games :)

bugman

#5 Post by bugman »

@ttuuxxx

the ones i've seen have all been dependency lists, the really long ones, dragging doesn't help because they're just too damn big

one of the problems is redundancy, it's been a while since i've seen one, but i think they're pretty repetitive--it looks like you're missing 100 libs but it's the same ones over and over?

i could be wrong, memory shot, hate proust

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DaveS
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#6 Post by DaveS »

I think I am righ about this........... cant you put the mouse cursor on some background in the window in question and double-click to grab the window, then move it bodily upward?
Spup Frugal HD and USB
Root forever!

ssme
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#7 Post by ssme »

ttuuxxx wrote:Hi what you can do is first take screenshots, so we have some clue how much needs to be taken off of what, next you need to update the list with every dialog box that doesn't fit your screen, Most of them I can change and alter, but I need the names and pictures please. If you supply them, then I'll look at fixing them.
Thanks
ttuuxxx
ok, i'll try to take screenshots of the windows i encounter. but rather than targetting individual windows/boxes, surely it's a more general window handling problem that needs to be addressed? if a window/box is too big for the screen when it is displayed then ensure there is a scroll bar, or it can be resized. either is fine by me.

EDIT: my attempt to take screenshots failed as it is impossible to save the file in mtpaint... i keep clicking OK, but no joy.

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ttuuxxx
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#8 Post by ttuuxxx »

DaveS wrote:I think I am righ about this........... cant you put the mouse cursor on some background in the window in question and double-click to grab the window, then move it bodily upward?
You hold the "ALT" key down and drag the window up. :)
ttuuxxx
http://audio.online-convert.com/ <-- excellent site
http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/A-codecs/ <-- Codec Test Files
http://html5games.com/ <-- excellent HTML5 games :)

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DaveS
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#9 Post by DaveS »

ttuuxxx wrote:
DaveS wrote:I think I am righ about this........... cant you put the mouse cursor on some background in the window in question and double-click to grab the window, then move it bodily upward?
You hold the "ALT" key down and drag the window up. :)
ttuuxxx
Oh OK thanks. I thought I had read there was some way to do it.
Spup Frugal HD and USB
Root forever!

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