[IAEP] Adding a word-count to write

[Gary C Martin]

Hi Martin,

On 18 Jul 2009, at 22:58, Martin Sevior wrote:

> We do not expose the underlying code to extract the numeric value of
> the word count from a document at present. It would trivial to add
> that to the API if there was consensus this would be a useful thing to
> do. Now is a good time to put in such requests because we're just
> finishing off the 2.8 release.
>
> However you can pop up the AbiWord modeless Word Count dialog by  
> doing:
>
> self._abiword_canvas.invoke_cmd("dlgWordCount","",0,0)

Thanks. Just added this as a toolbar button to test. For those  
interested, here's what it looks like in Sugar. With Sugars fullscreen  
interface design, the use of dialogues is rather finicky as it's easy  
to loose the dialogue behind to the desktop background layer:

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> This will give you document statistics as you type.
>
> I can imagine that having the word count auto-updating in the toolbar
> would be a neat little feature
> for the Write 0.86. It might one of those "high ceiling" features for
> users to discover.
>
> One might also think of "find", "replace" and "goto" all being
> implemented in the toolbar.

FWIW, "find" is available under the Edit tab (but no "replace"  
functionality), and "goto" (page) is available on the View tab (but  
not goto line number).

> We have to careful to remember our target audience though.

+1 I think it took some strong restraint to keep the number of  
features exposed down to what we see today in Write :-)

If you have the time ? I've been looking for feedback on a new Toolbar  
design that may be arriving in some form for Sugar 0.86. Some of the  
goals are to show the "Stop" activity button at all times (kids often  
get lost in the text tabs); resolve the difficulty of small click  
targets caused by the narrow height text tabs; use icons rather than  
relying on text tab names (lower age, and improved non-illiterate  
access):

   http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Design_Team/Proposals/Toolbars#Top_level_Activity_toolbar_for_Write

The mock-ups specifically keep the current Write functionality and  
tool groupings so it can be more easily compared with the current  
Write implementation.

Regards,
--Gary