simple questions:
Besides the obvious difference from using notepad (italics, etc.), how fast is this? I mean, I have notepad pinned down to the taskbar because it's SO SIMPLE and quick to open/close, despite what happens when I don't save and the comp crashes :F
testing it out. Stream of consciousness, beware.
the load button near the bottom is a little... unclear? I mean, it's an image of something writing to the paper. That doesn't really indicate LOAD. The classic microsoft open-folder thing (with an arrow? I think?) makes this a bit clearer, or normal open/close images are a bit too ingrained for me to really feel like the current thing you have going is an load thing.
Is there any better ui for the default save location thing? that particular windows has, in my opinion, been annoying, opening/closing those folders, when the normal larger ui with etc. could work just as well, and is easier to navigate.
When first opening this, I wasn't too sure what to expect, to the location of those three buttons sorta confused me, and afterwards the close story button was also momentarily confusing. (I'm sure I'll get used to it with continued usage, just saying first impressions). Particularly, after pressing the close story, it took a moment to realize that I couldn't do anything until I opened a new story, which was sorta counter-intuitive; the CLOSE story part of it implied to me that closing it would... you know, close everything, and if it didn't, why shouldn't it open something up, rather than making us take another click to open a new story when we couldn't really do anything anyways after pressing close story? (as far as I know)
compared to notepad, it's fast, but a *lil* bit shorter boot up (prolly 1 sec or .5 secs atm) would make it rival notepad in usage a lot more.
The hide on top should take larger note, imo - it's a pretty good feature of something that's meant to be made like this.
your buttons for the new/load/close stories are off. the images in the midde are not centered particularly correctly for each of the buttons - the first button drifts to the right, the middle *seriosuly* is drifting left, and etc.
Why the hell does the close story button have letters attached to it? if it has that, then the others shoudl ahve it, or none of them should have it. Funny enough, it's the MOST intuitive button there (i mean, a giant x. pretty simple in relation to other windows users, x = close).
The fact that the x button to the top corner CLOSES it and not hides it is pretty... huh. I mean, it's meant to open fast, so the X button should go hide it, and the first time people use it, when you press it it should warn you this WILL NOT close the appl, but hide/minimize it to tray, with a checkmark box (with it checkmarked) saying don't show this warning again, so that people will understand what happens. I mean, its hide/minimize thing is a pretty important part of this (so I believe), so it should have better importance than that.
On a similar sentiment, why the hell is the large exit button down there? The X button to the corner does the same thing. If you took the advice in the previous paragraph, it'd make a lot more sense. Right now? Not really.
(also, I have a small inclination that having large buttons for your program to close itself is bad from a developer point of view - with it there, the user might get ideas about exiting more often than not, which would be contrast to what the developer wants (which is for the user to use it more). I mean, I'm not saying to make the exit the program button the most obscure thing there, but I think three ways to shut down your prgram (the x, the exit button, and file - shutdown) is pretty extensive for not many reason)
Also, why is the exit button differently termed than the file => shutdown button? I mean, they do the EXACT same thing. I think consistency would help.
Having a color wheel for the color choices (with predetermined set of colors) could make it feel better with less... idk, blargh? design. right now, the blocks presented look boring.
I like the default font
You need one more font format option. when I see it now, you know what I see?
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/law-for-kids-parodies
That missing space.
The insert image file is VERY counterintuitiive and not explanatory. ESPECIALLY with its close approximation with the word/page format stuff, and the way it looks like some bulletins and... well, the iamge is not very good for it.
you need more mouse over pop-ups. There's a help documentation, obviously, but many times it's simply simpler if you can just mouse over instead of getting all into the help file. In particular I'm thinking of the many, many buttons that have images, the load file button, and the format button right next to the insert image button, which, although I can pretty easily guess what it does, I think, it's not the most intuitive thing, especially for people not tech friendly.
Jsyk I love word counts and character counts - it makes me feel like I am accomplishing something as I write.
the images for the file and help are very cool, although help looks a bit like options, but the hide sorta implies passwordiness. (this is pretty hardcore nitpicking, btw)
Just wondering, where did you get the age from? is it always preset to 18?
That reminds me, options. Maybe set up something for every new story/whatevers. It's always cool to have additional stuff to do. (such as the word wrap and other small junk. I'm not sure if it's the most necessary thing where it's located, although I might be wrong about how many times a user will adjust word wrap (something you should take into consideration. idk the stats :P))
found settings.
the search button almost feels like a zoom, but it's fine.
ouse over popups for the four buttons are highly recommended.
umm
the stories/recent stories don't really make sense with both of them labeling the box. But I haven't saved any stories yet, so idk. Unless it's actually two columns, having both text there is kinda weird. and having two columns would be weird anyways.
Not so sure how necessary the font larger/font smaller buttons are. I mean, the font size changer is LITERALLY right next to it, and, again, I'm not sure how often a person would need it, seeing as this program isn't a hardcore paper and essay editor, but one of those light ones, where people would consider size less important after setting it to something they need.
The text laveling for the type of thing we're doing (memory/text/whatever) over the box options is sorta unneeded, particularly in relation to the fact that the names of them are right beneath, and the three labeled there are missing ONLY two types of... whatever you call it. Change it to, umm.... note type or whatever type or etc.
(as a matter of fact, this could be a cool options choice- add more types of things the user can name their random craps as. categories and junk, make their own categories)
If you're not adding user made categories into options and junk, at least add one more type of (whatever) into there. 5 choices, one small missing area for another choice. :\
If I post a link into the thing, and hove my mouse beneath it in the text area (beneath the hyperlinked text), then the mouse becomes that hand thing, but clicking doesn't do anything. If I make another line and type stuff, it goes away, but whatever.
Maybe be able to change the size of the program window? another versatility reason I've loved using notepad.
file => load blox. Hmm... I know this isn't a story or game or WHATEVER, but I think I can say that the BLOX part there took away from the 'immersion' into the program. I mean, the others (new, save as) don't have blox, so it's like.... huh. either have them say new blox, save blox, etc., or just take that part away. YES I REALIZE I'M USING YOUR PROGRAM DON'T HAVE TO REMIND ME (example thought process highly focused and exxagerated :P)
Why is the help => register not allowed to be pressed?
The about part in help looks like the facebook icon.
Website image in the help is MEH especially when it's used as one fo the alignment things.
so uh i found settings, so ignore some of the stuff i wrote before.
what does append: BU mean? not intuitive.
since the file has the save, load, etc. etc. etc., when shouldn't the open/load/exit button area have a save as well?
too lazy to do more, although not sure how much more i'd be doing. the program's pretty nice actually, just some small gripes when I'm comparing it to notepad.
Don't forget the kiss principle, man: keep it simple, stupid.
(edit: actually not sure how the kiss principle works too much here besides comparing it to the success(?) of notepad, but I just really wanted to use that term ever since I learned it two months ago :P)
The icons are pretty much temp icons. I was not going to release to program and keep it all to myself, but I figured people would help me improve it (such as what you are doing here). I will add a lot of those changes into the next change log and make sure I get the most out of changing it.