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Cosmetic Surgery


David Lang

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Since this topic is largely about cosmetic issues, here's my feedback:

 

1. I would still like to see the ability to have verses align across versions in different text panes.

 

 

 

1) I am really glad someone brought this up. If there is one request I could make for Accordance 9, this would be it. I do not know enough about programming to know if this is easy to do, but my problem lies in that I prefer to use the Charis SIL font for my english texts, but this font seems to leave a larger amount of space between lines than other fonts, particularly the greek Helena texts. For me, the Greek text needs about 30% of leading in preferences, otherwise it feels too cramped. However, when I apply this, it makes the Charis SIL too spaced out, and it doesn't match up verse for verse with the Greek text at all. If there is any way to have all the verses sync up, and not just the top verse, this would be excellent. In order to do this, I imagine the largest and spaciest (if that counts as a word) font would have to act as the normative guide for other fonts. The more I think about it, the more this sounds like it might just be too complicated or even awkward looking to be worth it. But I really just want to be able to hover my curser over a tagged word in one pane, and have the corresponding word in the Greek or Hebrew light up directly parallel. A little OCD of me, but since someone else mentioned it, I thought I'd chime in.

 

2) Also, I love the resource palette, so please don't get rid of this, or at least implement something that is just as functional and elegant in its place.

 

3) I agree about graphics being more on par with the iWork suite, especially concerning graphs and charts as used in Numbers.

 

Ultimately, I love Accordance as is, so keep up the good work!

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I want to start off saying thanks. Thanks for the great software, the excellent customer service and one-on-one interactivity with all of us here on the boards.

 

First off, several have posted that they wouldn't change a thing. I personally think there is ALWAYS room for improvement. I completely agree with David on following the Apple Interface standards. The "Pixelmator" interface, while nice for an image editing app, I don't think it would work well in an accordance environment. Having used Photoshop for several years, I've come to appreciate the no frills UI. It allows me to focus on the task at hand.

 

I completely agree with Mr. Voth. I too use Accordance on a 15" ibook at times. I believe the resolution is 1024 x 768. I would like the ability to hide the search panel and the add texts section. Take for instance both Safari and Pages. With Safari I'm able to hide most of the interface down to the bare window and title bar. I can hide the Navigation bar, Tab Bar, Status Bar and Bookmark bar. There are two reasons why I like this feature. One, it allows flexibility and two, it hides distractions/features that are needed at that time. Some people like having every menu open at the same time, while others don't. Both Pages and Safari allow the flexibility to let the user decide how to use the program.

 

I don't think the "run inside a box" would be be beneficial. This is one thing that Windows does that I strongly dislike. What I would like to see though is for the floating palettes to be able to snap to the sides of windows or to have the resource pallet or library pallet work like the sidebar/drawer of several apps such as Pages, BBEdit and Preview. The ability to snap or combine the pallets within the window via a sidebar/drawer would give a cleaner appearance. I don't know that every single pallet needs to be separate. Although with Indesign and Photoshop I do at times uses them independent of the other pallets. I'll include a screenshots of some example pallets. I like Omnigraffle's Inspector pallet. The user can snap it to the side of the window if they prefer. What I especially like about it and this is what I was getting at above with the search window, The little arrows to the left that allow the user to click and hide parts of the inspector they don't need or want to see at any given time. Accordance already does this with the resource pallet.

 

post-548-126556579382_thumb.png post-548-126556774414_thumb.png post-548-126556774609_thumb.png

 

Another option with the search window and the add texts panel would be to use something similar to what Xcode does to separate out the sections of the window. I think Joe made reference to this. It's cool because you can simply double click it to open/hide that portion of the window. Script Editor does this too.

 

post-548-126556782632_thumb.png post-548-12655678289_thumb.png

 

As for the books looking like the printed text. Hmmm. I find myself using my own set of fonts and leading for reading onscreen much more useful. For instance, I'm a member of an online technology site that allows the reader to put books in a bookshelf and then read them. Most books are viewable in either html or a scan of the book. 9 times out of 10, I much prefer the html look. It's cleaner and allows some customization. Most notably, font size and leading. The leading feature that was added to accordance was a big deal for me personally, plus the ability to change the color of the background of the text. HUGE readability improvement.

 

"Vs, Ch, BK" triangles - I think you could make them the exact same style as the triangles used by "More options" within the search window, and not as big.

 

I have to agree with Joe as well on moving Accordance to Cocoa. You may lose some individuals who don't have an intel mac but they won't be completely left out in the cold as the current version of Accordance works on both platforms. If not I think you might run the risk of getting left behind. Adobe products have done this and even apple with their move to intel only macs. It's only a matter of time before we will all own one. I'm still using a mirror door G4 and ibook, both of which are about 8 years old but I don't expect companies to wait on me to upgrade before they do. (I'm doing the Dave Ramsey thing!)

 

Finally about the graphics. I think the colors used in the timeline could be better chosen. This is where a designer, like the one used to design the icons (which I like and find appropriate,) could enhance the look. Also Google Earth has spoiled me abit and makes my map seem lackluster. Although the ability to add my own layers is ultra cool.

 

I think Accordance is an outstanding program overall, but we can ALL use some improvement. :)

 

God Bless.

Rick

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Just for the fun of it, I modded the Accord.rsrc file with ThemePark in Leopard. If only I could run ResEdit...... I only modified the bk, ch, and vs arrows at the bottom and replaced the increase / decrease font icons with blank images. I have attached two screenshots one with blue arrows and one with gray arrows. The arrows were "borrowed" from Pages. This mod is pretty pointless, but I got a little bored.

post-29745-126568667607_thumb.png

post-29745-126568668447_thumb.png

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Let me throw in my own 2 cents into this discussion,

 

I agree that pixelmator is not a good comparison. Both Pages AND Safari are what I think of when comparing apps. I like the idea mentioned about the Pages formatting stuff being able to easily be hidden. Preview's annotation tools conveniently appearing or hiding at the bottom of the window is another good example.

 

Observations on the current UI:

- One big thing, which I'm sure Accordance recognizes, is the redundancy in a window. For instance, I have the NRSV opened up. there are THREE placees telling me I have NRSV

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