explode the 3 dots menu

[ChameleonScales]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
First, thanks so much for your work, this app is very useful to me.
The 3 dots menu in the upper right corner contains only 3 items (Details, Preview and Fullscreen).
I know the app is meant to be distraction-free but having a menu there feels rather unnecessary given what's inside. I personally often use the Preview feature and would like to switch back and forth quickly between edit and preview mode.

Describe the solution you'd like
Exploding (for lack of a better term) this 3 dots menu and putting the 3 buttons horizontally arranged in that same area without the text (a tooltip could give the info on mouse hover)

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[korelstar]

I'm not sure about this. What do you think, @jancborchardt ?

[jancborchardt]

It would be ok to have 1 action outside of the menu, similar like we do in the Mail app for Reply and the rest:

(See implementation and details at nextcloud/mail#1774)

So we could have the toggle which switches between Preview and Edit as the button outside the menu, and Details, Fullscreen in the menu.

• As icon you can use .icon-toggle, see https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/16/developer_manual/design/icons.html
• Differently than in the Mail app, the button should not be .primary blue cause that would pull too much attention to it, and it’s not a primary action.

[roadfox]

Toggle of Preview/Edit outside of the menue would be highly appreceated.
Btw. why is it called Preview? There is nowhere a "Final" view

[jancborchardt]

For example, GitHub also uses the words "Write" and "Preview". :) And other Markdown editors do it similarly, as does our own Nextcloud Notes app for Android.

[ChameleonScales]

Personally I would prefer keeping it in a single button, with the icon changing dynamically.

[jancborchardt]

@ChameleonScales which is exactly what I mentioned above :)

So we could have the toggle which switches between Preview and Edit as the button outside the menu

[korelstar]

Should the button has a text label or is an icon only fine, too?

[ChameleonScales]

How do you feel about my tooltip idea? (first post)

[jancborchardt]

We could try with just an icon (of course needs a tooltip) if it’s only that and then the 3-dot menu.

3 icons without labels next to each other are not good, so ungood that it’s called mystery meat navigation. ;)

[ChameleonScales]

I don't think mystery meat navigation should be invoked here. This concept applies to websites, not apps, and even doing so, it doesn't apply to all websites anymore.
Apps like LibreOffice or GIMP use buttons with icons which tell you what they do as you hover on them. They are meant to be used frequently (like Nextcloud Notes) and their buttons are meant to be pushed many times, whereas (most) websites are meant to be visited seldomly by any specific visitor and any specific link they contain is meant to be clicked maybe just once, which is why they shouldn't require a visitor to learn anything.
And as I said, it doesn't apply to all websites anymore. The line between website and app has become a complete blur for many websites (e.g. social networks and cloud sharing platforms) but anyway, Nextcloud Notes is an app, not a website.

[jancborchardt]

That seems based on the assumption that the majority of Nextcloud users do it like you do, and regularly use everything. :) But that’s not the case. There’s a lot of people who infrequently use parts of it, or people who only use it when they get something shared to, etc.

The comparison with LibreOffice and GIMP is a total argument against showing all the icons at the same time, since GIMP is an app aimed at experts, and LibreOffice has sooo many features, yet there’s others like Google Docs who do it in a more usable way.

[ChameleonScales]

Ok, then do it as you prefer. It's no big deal and I actually don't feel like this 3 button idea is worth this much debate.

[JadeVane]

Same here, BTW, I use the preview mode very frequently, in fact, I prefer to set the preview mode to the default mode.

[jancborchardt]

@JadeVane this would also be fixed for you by the proposal in #366 (comment), correct?

Anyone up for implementing that? :)

[psy-q]

For example, GitHub also uses the words "Write" and "Preview".

Semantically the word makes sense there. You have not yet submitted a comment, so seeing what the published result would look like is a preview.

I don't have a better idea for the name, just thought I'd point out the difference :)

Some editors use "Source" and "Visual", but that wouldn't work here either because there is no visual editor. "Source" and "Rendered" would be semantically correct but surely confusing for people who don't know what an MD renderer is or does. Oh well.

[zeroepix]

If you want to keep it distraction free and less clicking, just make the menu open on hover.

Also preview toggle has been added as of 3.6.0. Ctrl-/ is your friend.