[okular] [Bug 401329] New: Order of Next and Previous buttons while searching in Okular should be reversed

[Thiago Sueto]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=401329

Bug ID: 401329
Summary: Order of Next and Previous buttons while searching in
Okular should be reversed
Product: okular
Version: 1.5.3
Platform: Neon Packages
OS: Linux
Status: REPORTED
Severity: wishlist
Priority: NOR
Component: general
Assignee: okular-***@kde.org
Reporter: ***@gmail.com
Target Milestone: ---

SUMMARY
As of version 1.5.3, when using Find..., the following buttons appear: Close,
the Find: text field, Next, Previous, Options. Find..., Next and Previous also
appear on the Edit menubar.
From an usability POV, Next being immediately after Find makes sense since it
is the most used and it is generally used first, having a shorter path to
navigate through mouse and keyboard. However, this does not follow a
left->right and top->down reading convention.
Maybe the Previous button should come before Next, as occurs in other PDF
readers such as Evince and Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Linux/KDE Plasma: KDE Neon User Edition 5.14
KDE Plasma Version: 5.14.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.52
Qt Version: 5.11.2

[David Hurka]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=401329

--- Comment #1 from David Hurka <***@mailbox.org> ---
This layout is the same as in most other KDE applications, and I think it's
fine.

I personally can't imagine whether another order is easier to understand. A
simple test might be invoking okular with "okular -reverse". (This changes the
order of everything.)

[Nate Graham]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=401329

Nate Graham <***@kde.org> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CC| |***@kde.org

--- Comment #2 from Nate Graham <***@kde.org> ---
Not all KDE apps use this layout; Konsole for example has Previous before Next.
Most 3rd-party software uses previous/next too. Putting previous before next on
the toolbar does make a certain amount of sense. But then the toolbars would be
inconsistent with the ordering in the menu, which generally goes:

Find...
Find Next
Find Previous

...Which I think does make sense.

Hmm.

[Albert Astals Cid]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=401329

Albert Astals Cid <***@kde.org> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CC| |***@kde.org

--- Comment #3 from Albert Astals Cid <***@kde.org> ---
The problem with this, is there's *literally* one person that has complained
about the button ordering in 13 years. Assuming we have more than one user, i'd
have to guess that "in general" people seem to like the current layout and that
changing it wouldn't be a wise idea.

[Nate Graham]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=401329

--- Comment #4 from Nate Graham <***@kde.org> ---
The number of people who have complained is not always a valid metric. The real
question is whether or not the proposal is genuinely better; sometimes all it
takes is one person to alert you to that.

Consistency with the world of 3rd-party apps as well as the intuitive-ness of a
left-to-right arrangement are compelling arguments for me, but I don't like how
that would leave the toolbar inconsistent with the ordering in the menu. If
that's not a concern, I would support changing the toolbar order.

That said, obviously this is all pretty low-priority stuff. :)

[David Hurka]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=401329

--- Comment #5 from David Hurka <***@mailbox.org> ---
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #2)

Post by Nate Graham
Not all KDE apps use this layout; Konsole for example has Previous before
Next.

Not really, the buttons change when you deselect "Search Backwards".
Konversation does it similarly. ("bottom->up reading convention")

To understand what's more intuitive, we should ask someone who doesn't now
really anything about find bars and not much about computers, for other people
there won't be a difference. Maybe the answer will be: "I always read PDFs
top->down, so the first offered option should be 'Search Top-Down', no matter
which other options exist.".

[Nate Graham]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=401329

--- Comment #6 from Nate Graham <***@kde.org> ---
(In reply to David Hurka from comment #5)

Post by David Hurka
Maybe the answer will be: "I always read
PDFs top->down, so the first offered option should be 'Search Top-Down', no
matter which other options exist.".

That makes a lot of sense, actually.