Look and Feel of Minimonths

[Philipp Kewisch]

In bug [377753], the minimonth look and feel should be adapted. The
referenced wiki page [1] shows some proposals, but we don't have a
specification yet.

I'd like to gather some ideas here on what could be improved or if
anyone has a different proposal.

[1] http://wiki.mozilla.org/Calendar:Calendar_View#Month_View
[377753] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=377753

[ovidiu]

hello

I would propose an approach on the mini moth related to that
link/picture, but rather considering the display of more than one month
if resizing the pane (down at the mini month Pane..). There is an always
and everywhere approach (like the one today) witch consider the mini
month format as:

+-----------------------+
| < March 2006 > |
| |
| S M D M D F S |
|-----------------------|
| 26 27 28 1 2 3 4 |
| 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 |
| 12 13[14]15 16 17 18 |
| 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 |
| 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 |
| 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |
+-----------------------+

of course, gray extra days, highlight 'today/week/day selected', as in
the picture. With this navigating left to right,(or selecting year
month..). An extended month area pane, when dragging the delimiter
between mini month and calendars down Would make sense IMO to just show
more of the extra days in the moths before and after, more of a
continuous flow of weeks on a vertical scroll, as much as the space
allows. Like:

+-----------------------+
< March 2006 >

W#| S M D M D F S |
4 jan
[^]----------[^]----------| [^]
5| 26 27 28 1 2 3 4 |-----
6| 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 |
7| 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 |feb
8| 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 |
9| 26 27 28 1 2 3 4 |-----
10| 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 |
11| 12 13[14]15 16 17 18 |MARCH
12| 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 |2006
13| 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 |-----
14| 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |
15| 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 |apr
16| 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 |
17| 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 |
18| 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 |-----
[v]----------[v]----------+ [v]
19 may

*delimited with the colors fading or alternating for the months as they
are further (if the current one is black, others can be light gray/dark
gray..)
*or watermark in the background of the month with the name..
*if side names, then probably vertical text
*may be subject to various ways of scrolling
*may snap showing only if enough space for full months
*may show week # in left(that will somehow make it look more logical,
like that was the idea in the first place..) if wide enough..
etc

Other ideas:
*there may be a way to highlight different things, considering the
current view: for a week/month view is kinda clear, but for multi week,
it may just outline the viewed area. Or, say, the current m/w/day can be
highlighted, while the selected m/we/day outlined

This may raise a new bunch of other issues, like to establish how to
scroll etc. and not really solving the drag to make pane wider (although
it may just show more info aside or complete names of months or other
options)

Now, is this the kind of opinions asked for?
Is there a place to put it in pictures, related maybe to the wiki link,
cause it would be easier?
If this is too much of a change for next release, would it make sense
for others?

thanks

[Pete]

Philipp Kewisch wrote:
> I'd like to gather some ideas here on what

> could be improved [...]

1) I like Christian's idea of adding a "Go to Today" link.

2) I don't like changing the background color of all the days in the
current week (IMO unnecessary and looks too busy).

3) As others have suggested in the past, it would be nice if the Year
dropdown would also let us choose a month with a new foldout menu. For
example:

2006
2007
2008--> <the view's currently displayed month here>
2009 -----------------------------------------------
2010 January
February
...
November
December

4) I'd prefer it if the view changed as soon as I select a month or year
in the dropdowns (without needing to also click on a day).

[Pete]

My comments regarding the look and feel of the minimonth were based on
how I'd like it to be in month/multiweek view.

I understand that people might want a different look and feel in
day/week view, but I don't use these views.