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More config dialogs in NVDA settings should have descriptive text #13568

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XLTechie opened this issue Mar 31, 2022 · 8 comments · May be fixed by #17160
Open

More config dialogs in NVDA settings should have descriptive text #13568

XLTechie opened this issue Mar 31, 2022 · 8 comments · May be fixed by #17160
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component/documentation good first issue github features these at https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/contribute p4 https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/blob/master/projectDocs/issues/triage.md#priority triaged Has been triaged, issue is waiting for implementation. z goodfirstissue (archived) z goodForNewDev (archived)

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@XLTechie
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XLTechie commented Mar 31, 2022

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

While looking at NVDA settings categories, I noticed that many of them still don't have long descriptions. This reminded me of when I first started using NVDA: I had no idea what the Input Composition settings were for, or when those settings were applicable, as I had never tried to enter Asian languages.
Of course, now it is easy to hit F1 and get context help about it (unless Firefox is your default browser, in which case that doesn't work; see #12362), however back then it wasn't.

The following config dialogs are lacking in basic introductory text:

  • General
  • Speech
  • Braille
  • Keyboard
  • Mouse
  • Review Cursor
  • Input Composition
  • Browse Mode
  • Windows OCR

Describe the solution you'd like

Some of these--such as Speech, Braille, Keyboard, and Mouse--have purposes that are very obvious from their names, at least in English. I'm not sure about this in other languages. And General is a common Windows concept for "settings that don't fit anywhere else".

But I think the rest of these should be described.

Steps to demonstrate

  1. Invoke the NVDA settings dialog (NVDA+N, P, S).
  2. Press O to go to Object Presentation settings, then press Tab.
  3. Allow the dialog to read. You will hear the description of the Object Presentation settings.
  4. Press Shift+Tab, Up-arrow, then press Tab, to go to the Input Composition settings.
  5. Allow the dialog to read. You will hear no description of the Input Composition settings, only of the first checkbox.

Sample results from speech viewer

NVDA menu
p
Settings... s 1 of 4
s
NVDA Settings: General (normal configuration) dialog
Categories: list
General 1 of 18
o
Object Presentation 9 of 18
Object Presentation property page Configure how much information NVDA will present about controls. These options apply to focus reporting and NVDA object navigation, but not when reading text content e.g. web content with browse mode.
Report tooltips check box checked Alt+t
Categories: list
Object Presentation 9 of 18
Input Composition 8 of 18
Input Composition property page
Automatically report all available candidates check box checked Alt+c

@Qchristensen
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Just so I'm looking in the right place, I tried the general settings category first. When I press F1, it opens the local copy of the User Guide to userGuide.html#GeneralSettings - which starts:

"12.1.1. General (NVDA+control+g)

The General category of the NVDA Settings dialog sets NVDA's overall behaviour such as interface language and whether or not it should check for updates. This category contains the following options: "

Is that what you mean? And in that case, is it that the description here isn't enough? My initially reading was that it wasn't there at all?

@XLTechie
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XLTechie commented Apr 5, 2022

@Qchristensen I was talking about the introductory text of the settings dialogs themselves. I apologize that this was not clear.
I have updated the description with a sample STR, and a speech viewer paste of what happens.

@Qchristensen
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Ok, I'm with you now. So similar to how when you go into the Vision category, it has "Configure visual aids" and then further broken up into groups: Visual highlight, and screen curtain.

Have you got an idea of what you might have for each? I just looked at "General" and couldn't think how to further compartmentalise it?

@CyrilleB79
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Ok, I'm with you now. So similar to how when you go into the Vision category, it has "Configure visual aids" and then further broken up into groups: Visual highlight, and screen curtain.

Have you got an idea of what you might have for each? I just looked at "General" and couldn't think how to further compartmentalise it?

The request of @XLTechie is not to further compartmentalise the settings panels. He just requests that the panel have an introductory description text. In his example:

  • The object presentation panel HAS such description text. It reads "Configure how much information NVDA will present about controls. These options apply to focus reporting and NVDA object navigation, but not when reading text content e.g. web content with browse mode."
  • The Input Composition panel HAS NOT such description text.

Note: if present, the description text of the panel lays visually at the top of it, above the first option.

@Qchristensen
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Ah thanks Cyrille, sorry I looked at the Vision page (the first one NOT on the list above), and got distracted by the categories. That makes sense. I was originally thinking the description could come from the description in the user guide (that you get when you press F1), though looking at the Object Presentation page, the text is actually different.

So it's possibly worth considering whether there an argument for aligning the description in the user guide with the description on the settings screen.

The main argument for is that it would be one less string to translate, and the descriptions would be consistent.
The main argument against is likely that you'd want the description in the dialog box to be brief whereas the user guide has more room to expand as needed.

@CyrilleB79
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Hi Quentin

IMO, we should not force alignment between the user guide description and the setting panel description in the UI. Looking at the introductions of each settings category in the user guide, I feel that it reads well and that there is a higher amount of information that what would fit in a settings panel. On the contrary, in a settings panel, the description should remain brief as you wrote, since it is read before the first option when you tab to it from the category list.

@XLTechie
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XLTechie commented Apr 6, 2022

@Qchristensen, I would agree with @CyrilleB79. We shouldn't just take what's in the user guide and duplicate it here, but should come up with something more brief. The context help is there for more information, I think we just need something basically informative as the example I presented contains.

I will have to take some time and try some writing if you want me to come up with suggestions, but I haven't had a chance yet.
Plus, I didn't want to do that until I was sure NV Access was on board with these changes.

@Qchristensen
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I'm happy with the idea, and I agree that the wording should be brief on the dialog, but can be expanded in the User Guide - I felt it was worth considering the question though.

@feerrenrut feerrenrut added component/documentation z goodForNewDev (archived) p4 https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/blob/master/projectDocs/issues/triage.md#priority z goodfirstissue (archived) good first issue github features these at https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/contribute triaged Has been triaged, issue is waiting for implementation. labels Apr 11, 2022
@XLTechie XLTechie linked a pull request Sep 11, 2024 that will close this issue
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component/documentation good first issue github features these at https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/contribute p4 https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/blob/master/projectDocs/issues/triage.md#priority triaged Has been triaged, issue is waiting for implementation. z goodfirstissue (archived) z goodForNewDev (archived)
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