Design of "cannot write" dialogs

[Lefteous]

When trying to copy/move/unpack/create a/many file/directory to a destination folder where the current user has no write permissions a dialog is displayed to provide appropriate commands.

The problem is that there is not just one dialog but many for similar situations. This can be quite irritating.

Please take a look at my linked illustration. It contains remarks on the current solution and a suggestion. I hope I found all of these dialogs but I guess I missed a few. I hope my suggestion is at least a good starting point to improve this dialog.

http://img396.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannotwritedialogdesignyp5.png

[JohnFredC]

2Lefteous

Excellent ideas! Thank you for bringing them up.

I particularly like the "consistent questions style" and "content area visually separated from command area." Modern looking and functional without changing the user's behavior.

Further suggestions for dialog improvements:

For mouse users, it is often better if button sizes and positions differ according to their "depth" in a typical user's task hierarchy. "OK" and Cancel" buttons, for instance, being more frequently chosen, should be larger (ie. larger mouse targets) than (again, for instance) an "Options" button.

Further, symmetrical placement of buttons within a dialog is not always the best policy. Commands that are mutually exclusive should be separated by the widest spacing (as they are now in many TC dialogs). Commands that are related in a general way can be visually grouped. Of course, control placement should be consistent between dialogs, except when routineity of mouse behavior could cause a disaster (delete confirmation, for instance). In such cases forcing the mouse user to stop and seek the appropriate button is a good policy.

I have seen software that places the "OK" button in different locations on the Delete dialog every time the dialog is invoked. Not a totally bad idea.

Since the tab sequence in some TC dialogs doesn't currently follow the visual sequence (from left to right, top to bottom, for us Westerners) of control placement, there would be no need to change that. Keyboard users could continue to count on their instinctual keypress sequences.

[tbeu]

I also would prefer to add intuitive icons (hint, question mark, exclamation, stop) to the dialog.

[Hacker]

JohnFredC,

Since the tab sequence in some TC dialogs doesn't currently follow the visual sequence (from right to left, top to bottom, for us Westerners)

Left to right...

Roman

[JohnFredC]

Jeez. So much for my credibility.

[MauriceSnell]

The most useful change for me would be to add a "Yes to All" option on the dialog which says "Error: Directory [x] not created. Continue?".

The second most useful would be to be able to define at the start of a job that you want "Yes to All". This way you could start a copy job that you know will have some errors, and still have it complete automatically. Example: copying the entire drive C: from a Windows PC - where certain system files will fail to copy.

The retry option is useful: sometimes you need to reconnect a drive or re-login to a network, or close an app holding a file locked, and then retry will work.

[petermad]

Example: copying the entire drive C: from a Windows PC - where certain system files will fail to copy.

Untill we (hopefully) get a "Yes to All" option (and a "Skip All" option) before job start, a WorkAround could be to put the files that you know will cause an error in the Ignore list.