Thomas Williams

I Don't Update Java Because...

...the updater is more invasive than the waft of a poopy nappy in a small room :-)

However, remembering to update software is not my strong point. gHacks put me on to a small program called JavaRa that checks for Java updates and removes old versions. And doesn't require an install. Very handy.

Time to go change that nappy!

Tags: java, updater, javara, ghacks

Xobni for Outlook

Just after Christmas, I got onto an Outlook plug-in called Xobni ("inbox" spelt backwards) (via Lifehacker).

Xobni adds a new sidebar in the main Outlook window which provides a wide variety of relevant information on the sender of the currently-selected e-mail. This information includes the number of e-mails you've received from that contact, contact details, who else they've CC'd or been CC'd on in all e-mails indexed by Xobni, quick links to their most recent e-mails, and a list of files sent to or from that contact.

I've used Xobni for only about a week and a half as I've been on leave - but already love the functionality given that I use Outlook all day. I appreciate little features like transition animations and neat, informative graphics which make for a very polished interface. The Xobni search is a step up from normal searching too (but too complicated to describe here).

Xobni is currently in beta and can be signed up for at http://www.xobni.com/, although you might have to wait to be able to download it.

Tags: xobni, outlook, windows, software, beta

Flock, 'the Social web browser'

Flock might just be the package to make me switch browsers from IE/Maxthon for my home computer time.

Flock is billed as "the social web browser" and integrates data from sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and Delicious, listing all your friends in the one place along with the last time they updated something. It is open source, has a built-in photo uploader for Flickr, and works with the majority of Firefox extensions (it's actually built on top of Mozilla), among other things.

I've tried Firefox in the past but just didn't see how it was any better than Maxthon, which basically wraps and enhances Internet Explorer in more ways than I could mention. Of course I'm still using Maxthon at work; it's just that Flock aggregates many of the sites I visit after hours anyway.

I've yet to try the built-in feed reader and I honestly have to say that I don't have any friends on Flickr or whatever apart from my Facebook dabbling (I'm what's known as a "Scott"..."'s Got No Friends"). However the Facebook integration is pretty good. And using Flock did convince me of the value of signing up for Delicious - which looks like a useful service.

Has anyone else had any experience of Flock, or any tips for using it?

Tags: flock, browser, social, web, facebook

Gripes: Outlook 2007 Interface Inconsistencies

I've been really enjoying Word and Excel 2007. They work as expected and I actually prefer the new "ribbon" to the old toolbars and menus. I even know where to find most of the functions :-)

However, the Outlook 2007 interface is a little "inconsistent" (the program itself is fine). First, a quick screenshot:

Here are my five gripes on the Outlook 2007 interface:

• Outlook should use the "ribbon" interface. I like the "ribbon". Word uses it. Excel uses it. Why can't Outlook?
• The double-chevron above the To-Do bar expands the To-Do bar, and "pins" it. However, only the double-chevron is selectable which presents a very small target. A better way to do this would have been to remove the double-chevron and use a Visual Studio-esque "pin" icon to keep the To-Do bar open.
• The scrollbar for the meeting request heading is not themed. The scrollbar for the meeting request content *is* themed. I have themes turned off (but Office 2007 still uses it's own visual style). This should be consistent. 
• The meeting request buttons are not standard. They should be either a toolbar button or a normal button, but not a different style from every other button.
• There's no mouse-over effects on column headers. I don't know if this is because I have visual styles turned off or not. It's just there's an orange mouse-over effect on just about everything else (except the blue for scrollbars, and silver for some other things) and I reckon column headers deserve a mouse-over effect.

Here's some of the things I *do* like about the new Outlook interface:

• The entire To-Do bar on the right hand of the screen is clickable. A click expands it, and mousing away from it retracts it. This is good because the feature is easily discoverable, and repeatable with no side effects.
• The To-Do bar is really helpful. Two thumbs up.
• The Calendar has been improved, adding links to previous and next appointment when you're in "Day" view. This makes it easier to navigate your way around appointments.

Tags: outlook, user interface, office, ribbon

Tabs as 'the' feature, not 'a' feature

Since 2002 I've used an Internet Explorer enhancement/replacement called Maxthon which even back then had tabbed browser windows. If you've worked with Firefox or IE7 (and I'm sure other browsers), you'd know how useful the tabbed interface can be.

Maxthon added a whole lot of other stuff over IE, but I mainly used it because of the tabs.

The other day I came across Terminals, a Remote Desktop enhancement/replacement that presents Remote Desktop sessions in a tabbed interface. It too does a whole lot of other stuff to help manage multiple connections, but tabbing is IMHO the most useful feature.

(If you check out Terminals, make sure you grab the latest source build which is currently at around version 1.6 from http://tools.mscorlib.com/)

In both these cases, the tabbed interface is almost "the" feature rather than just another feature.

I reckon the Windows taskbar needs to be rethought if the simple concept of grouping like windows together can't be done without enhancements like Maxthon and Terminals. It seems to be easier to train myself to use ALT-TAB like a keyboard ninja, rather than mousing around two monitors looking for my open program :-)

On the other hand, tabs make sense within programs to group "documents", so perhaps the the taskbar should be left alone, and individual programs' handling of multiple documents improved.

What's next - tabbed Word? Tabbed Outlook? Tabbed Windows Explorer? Hmmm...

UPDATE 7/Aug/2007: Fixed title to remove ampersands.

Tags: user interface, terminals, remote desktop, tabs

Buttons

Last week there was a post on Lifehacker about a free online button maker (the post also mentioned "Classy Glassy Buttons", a site I have used before).

I've found that there's lots of tutorials for making modern looking buttons in Photoshop, some with downloadable Photoshop files, but not having Photoshop means I can only "ooh" and "aah" at the resulting output. If I was to use a tool for making graphic elements like buttons or tabs for use on web pages, it would need to be free. Since my main line of work is not graphic design, so I don't have the interest or expertise in making and manipulating layers/filters/masks etc.

The post on Lifehacker prompted me to reflect on the primary button-making "tool" I use, which, although not free, I already own. I should add a disclaimer to that last sentence - the "tool" I'm spruiking is source code that requires Visual Studio 2005, and the end result isn't exactly images files (this involves a manual step of taking screenshots).

The two Visual Studio 2005 projects I have used are "GelButton" by Chris Jackson and "Improved and Recoded RibbonMenuButton" from CodeProject. Both are worth a read if you want to create buttons in Windows forms. However, I only need images from those projects for a web site.

My method is to create a new Windows form, set up "hot" and "cold" state buttons, add my own text, and then take screenshots. Finally, edit the screenshots in a program like Paint.NET and save as GIF/PNG/JPG (whatever's appropriate).

Using Visual Studio means I can tap into the power of custom drawing and also harness other people's work towards nice-looking buttons.

What methods do you use?

Tags: buttons, design

OT: My Start Menu as at April 2006

Scott Kuhl has put out the challenge to "Show us your Start Menu".

Mine is below. It's horribly mis-representative of what I run because a) I've used TweakUI to ensure that some programs never make it to the frequently used list, and b) because I'm training myself to use Launchy to run things from the keyboard rather than the mouse and Start Menu (I don't think running a program using Launchy makes it appear on the frequently-used programs list, but I'm not 100% sure).

Here's some points of interest from looking at my Start Menu screenshot:

• I'm running Windows XP (I don't believe there's even a timeframe for implementing Vista within the organisation I work in) with the Royale skin.
• I've opted for small icons on the Start Menu and a maximum of 14 program shortcuts, because I like to see more, and don't really care about nice 48x48 icons (especially since some of the programs I used didn't have 48x48 icons anyway).
• I run Maxthon  - and have since MyIE days -  but am looking at FireFox.
• I should probably remove "Photo Editor" from the pinned programs, I use Paint.NET for image editing now.
• I like having the Control Panel display as a menu.
• I don't like all the "My" shortcuts that normally inhabit the top-right section - I can get to the folders pointed to be these easily anyway as I always have at least one Windows Explorer instance open. In fact I have cleaned out most of the defaults on the right-hand side...how many times will I ever use "Set Program Access and Defaults"?

Looking at Scott's and my Start menu, I have a few questions that have never occured before. Why can't I make the whole thing wider (or at least the left pane)? Why doesn't text for long items wrap (when showing small icons)? And why can't I have a login picture, even though I'm on a domain?

Lastly, Scott, I'm jealous of your XP skin :-)

Tags: windows, start menu, programs

Split Button Control

I don't know why I was thinking about this the other day - but it came into my head that I really like "split buttons" and think they are very usable, for the right situations. I'd better explain.

"Split buttons" are buttons that also have a drop-down menu. Pressing the button should carry out an action*; alternatively, clicking on arrow to the right of the "split" should display different but similar actions that can be performed by clicking on the menu item. I don't know if "split buttons" have a better name or are even accepted controls, but they've been used in Windows for a long time. Internet Explorer's "Back" button, some Office dialogs, and even the new Hotmail UI are some easy examples.

Why a "split button"? In circumstances where a user needs to perform an action, but may have a choice of actions, many different UI choices can be made. I've illustrated some below where a user has to open a file, and may want "read-only" or "exclusive" options - you can draw your own conclusions as to space taken, presentation, discoverability, intuitiveness, and so on:

Of course my example is biased towards the "split button", which takes up the least room and does the basic task - opening - in one mouse-click or keypress.

"Split buttons" are now available in .NET 2.0 on toolbars, but I couldn't find one in the toolbox, which made me turn to JFo's blog where there's a nice C# class. This is basically a normal button with some special drawing code, that allows you to attach a ContextMenuStrip. Thanks JFo!

* If clicking on a "split button" simply displays the drop-down menu, it's more related to a combo box or menu control and not a "true" split button. The split button has an element of discoverability (albeit usually a fairly thin strip down the side where a click will show the drop-down menu).

Tags: windows, control, visual basic, user interface

Update 06 July: fixed links to picture (hopefully)

LogParser

Recently I had a need to examine IIS log files - lots of them - to do some usage analysis. Analog has been my tool of choice, and although it takes a bit of learning, when coupled with the right config settings will display helpful tables, charts and graphs for summary-type information (click for a larger picture):

But when it came time to answer some more directed questions about web site usage, I thought the best way would be to import the IIS log files covering 2 years worth of data into SQL Server, and utilise my existing knowledge of T-SQL. There were some pointers towards using DTS, but it seemed to me that the functionality of hand-coding import routines, allowing for header records in the log files, and coding looping constructs was already taken care of in Microsoft's LogParser.

LogParser allowed me to import the IIS log files with no problems, it cost nothing, and with a bit of help on command-line parameters from Serge van den Oever's blog, I had the table created and the import running in no time (well, it took just over an hour to upload nearly 700 web log files totalling 920MB into my test server, so that's not really "no time"). There's also an unofficial support site at http://www.logparser.com/.

Once uploaded I used ordinary T-SQL to do my queries. Easy.

This may sound like a breathless schoolboy "you won't believe what I've just done" story. But LogParser really is brilliant :-)

Tags: sql server, logparser, IIS, web server

TechCrunch Blogs About Maxthon

Ouriel Ohayon from TechCrunch posts that Maxthon V2 is nearing beta, and also points to the Maxthon blog.

I use Maxthon (formerly MyIE, MyIE2) as my browser, and have been very happy with it since first trying it back in mid 2002. The wife even likes it, which is a good test :-) And there's no way either of us could go back to using the default IE - I like my blocked ads, tabbed browsing, ease of opening new windows, etc.

I can't enter the quasi-religious debate that is browser preferences, because I've only tried Firefox a couple of times, and Avant for a few days, before I went back to Maxthon. That's not to say that Maxthon is without problems; it's just that the issues I face with it are acceptable, and life goes on.

Tags: maxthon

Data Entry Screen Considerations

SQL Server MVP and Oz Regional Director Greg Low posted a while back on "What Makes A Good Data Entry App" (I'm just catching up on some old, bookmarked, reading). He has a checklist of important considerations for designers, which is well worth following.

I found out the hard way that Greg's remarks on font sizes are relevant - an application I'm designing used the default font and size which would be fine for me, but after demo'ing the application for a user I observed that for this particular user, my screens seemed unnecessarily compact and small. Changing the font size and opening up the layout made the application look much better.

On the font size issue - a couple of things I've found helpful (while not directly related to Greg's points) are that Visual Studio 2005 & .NET 2.0 (Windows Forms) make it easier to have screens that scale well with the AutoScaleMode property on forms, AutoEllipsis on buttons, checkboxes and labels, and the new TableLayoutPanel control (which I haven't played with much).

Greg also points out that errors should be handled in a non-intrusive (e.g. non-modal) manner. I have come around to using the ErrorProvider control for marking fields that need further attention and setting focus back to the first control with errors.

One thing I think could improve the whole data-entry screen "culture" is for Windows Forms to take a bit more notice of web-based screens hosted in a modern browser. I think that over recent years, and now that JavaScript works (e.g. AJAX), lots of smart people have put time and thought into making web-based data entry screens more usable. In my mind this extends even to including simple, Scriptaculous-style animations where appropriate (currently next to impossible with Windows Forms).

Technorati tags: windows forms, .NET development, scriptaculous

History of the Office UI

Jensen Harris is posting an interesting series on the history of the user interface in MS Office. In Part 2 he talks about Word and how little the interface has actually changed (and I though I was the only one who noticed) from version 2 to Office 97, and from Office 97 to 2003. Good reading.

Technorati tags: user interface, Microsoft, Word

IdeaBlade DevForce

I notice that the latest Australian MSDN Flash from Frank Arrigo mentions IdeaBlade DevForce, a (quite mature) object-relational mapping tool:

Complimentary DevForce Express Cut down the time you spend developing data-intensive client/server applications. Get IdeaBlade's DevForce Express, a developer productivity solution for .NET that is fully integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio. DevForce: helps professional developers build, maintain, and operate smart client Internet applications by bridging the infrastructure gap between the Application layer and .NET. The solution is a "must have" for .NET development that will improve your productivity and increase application quality, reduce overall costs, and accelerate time-to-market.

I have been using the free DevForce Express in my Visual Basic 2005 developments and found it incredibly useful. I have even e-mailed some support-type questions and had them answered very promptly (and with actual help, not boiler-plate answers). And there's a user forum at IdeaBlade-Runner that looks to have a few active participants too (and another question of mine got answered - thanks!)

I have tried one or two ORM tools and appreciated the time they sliced from simple table edit screens. For my current project, I'm still hand-crafting logic in stored procedures for the web-based front end, but for the admin side of things (a Windows Forms app), IdeaBlade is perfect. Two tools that I'd tried earlier (that shall remain nameless) and I was even mostly happy with,