FR: icon for adding a sub-heading

[aspiers]

IIUC, currently to add a sub-heading you have to click the + icon, then create a new heading, then tap two more icons to indent the new heading below the existing one. It would be considerably more convenient to have a single icon for doing this in one go.

On a related note, it's also somewhat confusing that the existing + icon is placed above a heading, yet adds a new heading below it. From a UI design perspective I think there may be room for improvement here.

[munen]

I’m not aware that Emacs Org mode has a short cut for adding a sub-header. Does it have one? In any case I don’t see an intuitive UX solution to do the same thing slightly different in a size constraint GUI. What is your proposal here?

On a related note, it's also somewhat confusing that the existing + icon is placed above a heading, yet adds a new heading below it.

This is a recent change. Before, the action bar was below the header. Meaning, it was in between the header and its content. People rightfully complained that the action bar was now in the way in between related content. Hence, we moved it on top of the header. A few weeks later, you come along^^

What is your UX proposal for putting the action bar to reconcile both requirements?

[schoettl]

To be honest, I also liked it better when the toolbar was below the headings. My reason for that is:

• I often click on a header to see its sub headers
• Then I want to "close" and hide the sub headers again (because I've seen what I need)
• To hide them, now I have to click on a different point in the UI

So, placing the toolbar above the header line makes the important UI element (the header line) jumping around. That was also unintuitive for my dad ;)

I just tested https://org-web.org/sample and really like that more. One finger inbetween header line and content is no problem for me and better than a jumping header line.

[aspiers]

I've submitted #188 to address the "header jumps around" issue, so let's continue the discussion of that there and keep this one for focusing on the idea of an icon for adding sub-headings. Sorry for accidentally raising multiple topics in this issue ;-)

@munen commented on December 25, 2019 9:08 AM:

I’m not aware that Emacs Org mode has a short cut for adding a sub-header. Does it have one?

I don't think it does, but it probably would have by now, if I had been less lazy and submitted my implementation upstream any time after I wrote it in 2007 ;-)

In any case I don’t see an intuitive UX solution to do the same thing slightly different in a size constraint GUI. What is your proposal here?

I would suggest simply adding another icon to the toolbar. When combined with my space-saving suggestions in #188, this should end up as a fairly unobtrusive change.
But of course if it's considered too obtrusive for those who don't want that feature, it could be made optional.

To be clear, I'm not proposing anything nearly as sophisticated as my implementation above - only an icon which creates a new demoted header under the current one, and activates the toolbar on it.

[munen]

@aspiers Good job on writing a new Org feature waaay back in 2007! 🚀

Back then I was still using VIM^^

Back to the issue you proposed. If you'll build the feature and make the appearance of the icon a non-default configurable setting, I'll happily pull in the PR.

Would you want to build it?

[aspiers]

Haha, glad you saw the light eventually 😜 I discovered emacs at university - I think it was 1994.

Yes, I would definitely want to build that; however it might be a while before I get to it. My top priority with organice is currently #151.

[munen]

Haha, glad you saw the light eventually stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye

Took me some 14 years of VIM and some big efforts to finally grasp LISP to understand why the old saying "Emacs is a great OS, it only lacks a good editor" is absolutely true and yet only a positive statement^^

I discovered emacs at university - I think it was 1994.

Lucky you! My business partner also learned Emacs way back at university when a prof mandated it. He never looked back, of course^^

Yes, I would definitely want to build that; however it might be a while before I get to it. My top priority with organice is currently #151.

Sweet. I'll assign it to you, then. Then there's no rush. As long as someone comitted to wanting to do something, an issue can stay in the backlog for a good long time as a reminder!