[Sugar-devel] annotation support in abiword (was Fwd: uwog - r29358 - in abiword/trunk: . plugins/collab/backends/service/xp plugins/collab/core/packet/xp plugins/collab/core/plugin/xp plugins/collab/core/session/xp plugins/opendocument plugins/o

[Martin Sevior]

Hi Gary,

OK I just made a screenshot. You can download it from this location.

http://www.abisource.com/~msevior/AnnotationSS.jpg

The popup appears when you hover the mouse over the purple dotted line
which shows that region of text has an annotation. Sorry the gimp
removes the mouse marker when it takes the screenshot.

The whole UI has more features. You place an annotation by selecting
text and choosing "annotation" from either the "tools" menu or from
the right click contaxt menu. If you right click on the annotated
region you can pop up the annotation dialog which allows you alter the
annotation or replace the current text with the content of the
annotation.

To really see how the UI works though it is best to actually try it.
Most recent versions of linux carry abiword 2.8. Even Ubtuntu!
If you run windows you can download it from here.

http://www.abisource.com/download/

Cheers

Martin

PS. Yes I use AbiWord all the time in day job :-)

On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 12:19 PM, Gary Martin
<garycmartin at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi Martin,
>
> On 12 Oct 2010, at 00:51, Martin Sevior <msevior at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I think the main point of the annotation feature for Write will be
>> allow teachers to correct children's writing.
>>
>> They can simply highlight a region and put in their correction or
>> suggestion. Children can see the correction along with their original
>> text. In abiword we do this with a dialog and a popup textbox but
>> we've disabled dialogs in Write. I'd be interested in receiving
>> suggestions for how to do this UI for Write and if it is wanted at
>> all.
>
> Do you have any screen shots available showing the new Abiword annotation features in action? I couldn't see any in the online documentation.
>
> Regards,
> --Gary
>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Martin
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 10:33 AM,  <forster at ozonline.com.au> wrote:
>>>> ** Ideally we should try harder to better layer complexity in the  Write,
>>>> Calculate, et al UIs so that you need to drill down to the  more complex
>>>> features while the common/novice features are exposed  early at the top
>>>> level — but it seams there's only so far you can  take this (Write and
>>>> Calculate being on the cusp of this cliff edge).
>>>
>>> Maybe this question would be better on IAEP or SUR because its about
>>> pedagogy more than technology?
>>>
>>> More features just for features sake is not a good idea, Sugar is an
>>> educational tool not an office productivity tool, not all new office
>>> features need to be included. I would like to hear from teachers on this
>>> question. They might, for example,  like annotation in a paperless classroom
>>> as a way of marking essays.
>>>
>>> I agree, we should try harder to layer complexity, in line with the goal of
>>> low entry and high ceiling.
>>>
>>> I think that children handle complexity and incomplete information much
>>> better than adults so its not necessary to give them cut down versions of
>>> Activities. As long as they can ignore features that they do not need and
>>> still get unobstructed access to the simplified features they are happy.
>>> Adults however are more likely to get stressed if presented with too many
>>> features.
>>>
>>> I looked at Calculate again. I am happy with the features. You can still do
>>> 9+1=10 by ignoring the extra features. None of the menus obscure simple
>>> calculator operation. If you select hexadecimal then 9+1=0xa but quitting
>>> and resuming reverts to decimal operation so it seems experimenting is
>>> likely to be harmless to simple calculator use.
>>>
>>> I share some responsibility for encouraging feature creep on TurtleArt.
>>> Maybe complexity could be layered better but I dont thinks it needs a
>>> version with it disabled. The goal should be that basic blocks, repeat,
>>> forward, right, are the ones most obviously presented to the learner and no
>>> amount of random clicking should make them not discoverable. Maybe the
>>> pallettes can be reordered to emphasise beginner blocks.
>>>
>>> With write, the goal would be to emphasise the beginner tools and
>>> deemphasise the advanced features, and make recovery from random clicking
>>> easy.
>>>
>>> Tony
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>