Suggestion for a small change to add variant interface

[B Kh]

My main workflow involves completing an interlinear text to add lexical entries. So I will often see a word in the text and want to add it as a variant. And often the main word is not in the lexicon. So from the drop down I select "Variant of…".

I then enter the word that should be the main entry. For example, like this:

You can see that (very helpfully) I'm being told that an entry exists that might be the one I'm looking for. However, what is not so helpful is that it automatically selects the first result. My suggestion is that the first result should not be selected by default.

Why? Because it makes it very easy to select the wrong button at the bottom of that modal:

by automatically selecting the first entry in the results, it activates that "Add Variant" button. In my example, I do not want to add a variant to the first result that is (without my action) selected. I want to create a new entry. But because 

• the add variant button is active
• the "Create Entry" button is far off to the right
• I'm already in the mode of "adding a variant" because that's what the whole process is supposed to be doing in my mind

I end up clicking the add variant button. Frequently. Granted, I'm not so smart. But I'm doing it often and I can't be the only one.

If the first item in the results was not selected by default then I would not even be able to click that add variant button. So that is my suggested solution.

Why does it bother me so much? Because when I incorrectly click the wrong button not only do I have to go and remove the variant from the wrong entry, but I also have to go into the Word Analyses section and remove the error from the word form analysis.

A couple of other UI changes could also help:

• Don't put the "Create Entry…" button so far from the other buttons. There is no good reason not to group it with the other buttons
• Change  "Add Variant" to "Add to Existing Entry"

I realize I am only one user, but I wanted to share my experience.

Thanks for all the hard work people are putting into this tool. It really is wonderful.

[B Kh]

Another suggestion for the interface…

It would be good if the modal actually showed what the variant is that you are adding. For example something like this in the title bar of the modal:

Or if that isn't feasible, then something in the modal itself, like:

Many times I have to move the modal to see exactly what the variant is that I'm adding.

And while I'm at it, I've often wondered why the modal for adding a variant when in the Lexicon Edit section doesn't have the same drop down as the modal above. So something like this:

Because every time  I add a variant I need to change the type from "unspecified" to something else.

Anyway, just some more thoughts. Thanks again.

[Kevin Warfel]

This response addresses only one small element in what you've brought up--the "Add Variant" button. This wording on this button has confused many users, myself included, over the years, so in January 2018, I logged an issue in the FLEx bug-tracking and feature-request tool (JIRA) to have the wording on this button changed. The work on this was completed very recently, and I expect the improvement to be included in the next (alpha) version of FW 9.3.x. From what I see in the issue, the wording has been changed from "Add Variant" to "Link Selected".

Caveat: When I logged this JIRA issue, I was working in the Lexicon Entry view, not the Interlinear Texts view. I am not sure if the dialog box you get in the Interlinear is the same one as the one that comes up in Lexicon Edit, so it is possible that your experience will not change as a result of the work that has just been done. If this happens to be the case, we will need to put in a request for the same change to be made to the dialog that comes up in the Interlinear context, because we all agree that "Add Variant" is somewhere on the continuum from ambiguous to misleading.

Best wishes,

Kevin

--
"FLEx list" messages are public. Only members can post.
flex_d...@sil.org
http://groups.google.com/group/flex-list.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "FLEx list" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to flex-list+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/flex-list/b9327278-403e-4b4d-ad72-09c8fd6826ccn%40googlegroups.com.

[B Kh]

Oh, yes, the JIRA issue you link to is also a big problem but that only have ever led me to error messages. What I bring up in my first post is unfortunately something completely different.

I'm not sure if I'm handy enough to create a whole new JIRA issue. But I'm glad I'm not the first one to have that problem either.

Thanks!