View Menu
The idea is to group all the options related to viewing a document under a single menu.
This new menu would replace the existing zoom menu. The icon for this menu should ideally be an eye or an icon similar to the one of Evince.
Entries under this menu (in order):
- Zoom level box (see below)
- Fit Page
- Fit Width
- Automatic
- (separator)
- Continuous
- Dual
- Odd Pages Left
- Right to Left Document
- (separator)
- Night Mode
- (separator)
- Save Current Settings as Default (see below).
- (separator)
- Rotate (see below)
Some considerations
Zoom level box
In this new menu, only the zoom level box should appear, with the '-' and '+' buttons nearby. Preselectable zoom levels are removed as the user can easily enter the desired zoom level in the box. The design sould be exactly the same as in Eye of GNOME, without the preselectable entries.
The removal of preselectable entries is guided by the fact that, in my opinion, most current users certainly use the mouse wheel or their fingers to zoom (touchpad or touchscreen). This box is therefore presumed not to be used much.
Related issues:
- #1616 and #346. Either the algorithm of the manual value entered in the box or the one of the entries must be selected. In my opinion, the zoom should be proportional to the size of the format: considering that 100% is A4 format (210x297 mm), 200% should be 420x597 mm, and 75% should be 157.5x222.75 mm. The zoom can be proportional for documents which have a defined size, and can be by area for documents which do not have one (if I understood correctly what Christian Persch said in #346).
- #979. The idea of a slider for zooming would either be an addition or superseded by the zoom level box with '-' and '+' buttons.
Save Current Settings as Default
Because all of the entries subject to default settings would be in the same menu (except fullscreen, see below), "Save Current Settings as Default" may be under in the same menu, and therefore more relevant to the user (see issue #1136). However, this option needs to be renamed to be more understandable. "Use Above Settings for Newly Opened Documents" reflects more what this option does, but is longer than the current label...
For now, renaming to "Save Above Settings as Default" would be appropriate.
Note: This feature also save the state of the sidebar, but I think it is a little bit better.
Fullscreen and Present as Slideshow
Fullscreen is not included in the proposed menu. Indeed, a user does not want this setting by default (see issue #742). I guess having documents open directly in fullscreen is not a common use case ; the option is easily accessible.
"Present as Slideshow" is currently not an option for default settings. It also not an option to manipulate the view of a document. Therefore, this option should not be part of the proposed view menu.
Night Mode
Currently, this is a setting that can be saved as a default setting (for newly opened documents). However, contrary to what is said in issue #1515 (closed), this setting should not be saved as a default setting (for newly opened documents or for all documents). As said in issue #1256, the idea is to rethink the whole night mode. In addition, I think this option has nothing to do with manipulating the view of a document.
However, saving this option as default can be important for users who often work in this mode. Thus, this option can be kept, placed above "Save Current Settings as Default" (renamed), while waiting to rework it.
Rotate
Rotation can be seen as a manipulation of the document view. This setting cannot be saved as a default setting. If this setting is included in the view menu, it should be below "Save Current Settings as Default" (renamed), not above, so that there is no confusion in the settings that are saved. Another way is to label the subdivisions of the menu, but there will probably be too many entries:
Zoom
- Zoom level box (with '-' and '+' buttons)
- Fit Page
- Fit Width
- Automatic
(separator)
Reading (or another name)
- Continuous
- Dual
- Odd Pages Left
- Right to Left document
- Night Mode
(separator)
Save Above Settings as Default (or another name)
(separator)
Rotate (not as a title)
If necessary, perhaps the settings that are not used frequently can be grouped into a submenu (Fit settings or Continuous/Dual/Odd Pages Left/Right to Left Document). If you don't know what to do, keep it in the hamburger menu so it [Rotate] does not overload the menu too much.
Also, because the zoom box is removed in the headerbar, maybe we can have a 'Zoom' menu and a 'Reading' menu in its place?