Show document properties dialog when creating a new document

Bug #1362061 reported by Sebastian Zartner
8
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Inkscape
New
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

When creating a new document a document properties dialog should appear allowing the user to choose from a template and to customize the document settings.

This dialog may be different to the existing Document Properties dialog as it should just show the most important settings. An example dialog for this would be the one in Photoshop as it was posted in http://sourceforge.net/p/inkscape/mailman/message/32764778/ (attached to this report).

If it's decided to reuse the same dialog, the Document Properties dialog should probably first be reworked as described in the blueprint https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/document-properties-rework.

Sebastian

Tags: templates ui
Revision history for this message
Sebastian Zartner (sebastianzartner) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Alvin Penner (apenner) wrote :

I believe that most of what you want here is already available within existing inkscape. When you start Inkscape by itself, with no document specified, you are actually loading a default document, whose properties you can edit if you want to. On Windows, this default document is located at:
C:\Program Files\Inkscape\share\templates\default.svg.
At this location there are also other templates such as default_mm.svg, etc.

In my case I normally get a default document with px as the unit. If I edit default.svg, or overwrite it with some other file, I can get mm as the default unit on startup. As far as I know, I think the same applies to all the settings in the document properties dialog.

su_v (suv-lp)
tags: added: templates ui
Changed in inkscape:
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
Revision history for this message
su_v (suv-lp) wrote :

@Sebastian - did you try a recent develop snapshot build (0.91pre2) which features a new dialog to choose from available templates, and now also supports procedural templates? The new dialog had been implemented based on last year's GSoC project by Jan Darowski (Slagvi) [1].

Other recommended reading (before tossing Inkcape's current template-based 'New document' feature out of the window):
http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/using-templates-in-inkscape
(based on the state in current stable releases, does not discuss new features in upcoming major release 0.91)

--
[1] I didn't find a full spec / final report on the net, but you can read his progress reports to the devel mailing list e.g. here:
http://inkscape.13.x6.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=user_nodes&user=360746

Revision history for this message
Sebastian Zartner (sebastianzartner) wrote :

Sorry for the late reply.

> @Sebastian - did you try a recent develop snapshot build (0.91pre2)
> which features a new dialog to choose from available
> templates, and now also supports procedural templates?
Yes, I did and it's already a good start, though not exactly what I had in mind.

> before tossing Inkcape's current template-based 'New document' feature out of the window
I didn't say that. The new behavior would still be template-based. The difference would be that the user first sees a dialog before a new document is created. The preferences in this dialog would be set by the default template.

As in the earlier mentioned blueprint I suggest to also rework the Document Properties dialog to allow it to be reused for this purpose. I attached a (Win8-based) mockup of how I imagine this dialog to look like.

Key points:
- Tightened up UI
- Ability to choose from the different templates
- Current settings can be saved as new template
- Preview of current format
- Buttons to create and cancel the document creation

Let me know whether this idea should better be put into another blueprint instead of this bug.

Sebastian

Revision history for this message
Sebastian Zartner (sebastianzartner) wrote :

Btw. while Slagvi's dialog for choosing between templates could be kept behind a button within the New Document dialog, my mockup reduces this to a single combobox.

Idea behind it's functionality: Allow to choose between the different templates by clicking the arrow at the side and allow to filter them by entering keywords into its text area.

Though that's probably even worth another report/blueprint.

Sebastian

To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.

Other bug subscribers

Related questions

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.