I want to create a typing assisting addon to my Firefox such that whatever the user is typing currently appears on a small window on the right hand side bottom in bigger fonts.
This will help slow typists to type at a faster rate.
For example, when the user is on yahoo sign-up page and text box name, a small window should appear on the bottom right corner and should display the text he is entering in larger fonts. In this manner, the user can keep typing without moving his head up.
I have no experience with firefox addons, so I would like to know whether this project is feasible. If it is, then I would like to know whether it's possible to do with only JavaScript; or if I will have to use jQuery.
It will be much appreciated if you can provide some guidance in this matter.
Sure it's feasible. You never have to use jQuery and it's not very useful when writing an add-on anyway, since you don't care about differences between browsers.
I suggest you start with https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/developers/ , try to get a page-mod running, make it handle keystrokes and display them in a <div> on the web page it's running in.
Related
I've been having some RSI issues, and I'm attempting to use voice controls as much as possible to help my body. I've gotten pretty good as navigating my system and entering text on macos, but web browsing is still a half won battle. I can create new tabs, search for text, and things like that. The missing link though is the ability to select and click links via voice in Chrome. Is this possible to do? Thanks!
In my j2me blackberry application, I want to open editfield to enter text when user clicks on search icon. I have search icon added at the top right corner, when user clicks on it, I want to open basiceditfield with animating from right to left. I want Animation should be like default search on main screen in blackberry. How to do this? Is it possible?
You can do almost anything with the Blackberry Ui, if you understand it and are prepared to put the time in. But what you see when you press the magnifying glass is something that someone has spent a lot of time doing. There is API for doing anything like that (at least not one I have found). So if you are not experienced doing BlackBerry Ui, as I suspect is the case here, then I would suggest that replicating what the BB engineers have done with the animation from the search icon on the Home screen to the search screen, is too difficult to justify.
A lot of these sorts of things are, in my opinion, just gloss. They do not make the application any easier to use, just make it look flash. Personally, I would spend your time on making sure your application works well, rather than making it look flashy.
I do recommend using the screen transition animations as a way of moving from one screen to another. These are fairly easy to use and when used correctly, provide a good visual clue to your user regarding the flow through your application. I also suggest you spend some time making sure your assets (icons etc.) look good, on all the various sizes of BB that you are developing for.
how to edit Firefox 'basic page style'
for all sites
with a Stylish script
to set scrollbar to a higher contrast color.
I can't see the thing its terrible.
is there any other way to do this?
The scrollbar is an operating system feature, not a feature of your website. Its look-and-feel are controlled by the user, not the webpage. IE provides a way to change scrollbar colors but it was heavily abused in the early days and is now considered a generally bad idea. In short, if you are trying to manipulate scrollbars from a webpage you're going to have to code a 'fake' scrollbar in Javascript or forget about it.
If you are trying to change only your own system then you may find some possibilities in creating user chrome, greasemonkey script or persona. I'm not sure what is possible there.
You know how sometimes you are on a good site and you click a button (like to submit a form) and the form doesn't go away, instead, the foreground becomes transparent and it contains a message of some kind, or another page. The message is at the forefront but the previous page is still mostly visible behind it - how do they do that? I'm assuming it's an Ajax-esque trick.
This is called a light box modal. There are quite a few JS plugins that can do this including Lightbox and the JQuery UI Dialog to name a couple. I just recently started using Fancybox and have been very impressed with its speed and configurability.
Here is a pretty good (not all inclusive) list of them:
http://spoonfedproject.com/jquery/extensive-list-of-jquery-lightbox-modal-plugins/
One way is to use GreyBox. I think this similar to the effect that you're talking about.
which of the following styles do you prefer?
An application which to perform tasks opens new forms
An application which keeps the various "forms" in different tabs
An application which is based on a PageControl and shows you the right tab depending on what you want to do.
Something else
Also do you have any good links for gui design?
From a programmers point of view, the PageControl solution quickly gets out of hand. Possibly too much code and certainly to many components on one form. (Originally this question was tagged Delphi, so I go from there.)
From a users point of view, the "opens new window" paradigm often is confusing. We people tend to think that we are able to multitask and handle many open windows and tasks, but we are not (we task switch at a loss of time like computers and add loss of accuracy).
Obviously this really depends on the type of application. But I would tend to a paradigm as Chrome and Firefox show in their latest incarnations:
keep the various forms in different tabs
let the user detach a tab into its own form (dock and undock via drag%drop)
add a good way of navigation
I implement something like an SDI as main screen of an application too. Look at something like "outlook style". Navigation, list of objects, object details in different panes, some additional panes like a cockpit. And then open a new window/form for certain tasks (some modal, some non modal), but short lived. After the email is written, it is sent and closes the window. But I have, if I am capable of doing so, the possibility to work on multiple emails at the time.
Look at the problem. If it has dashboard character, take "outlook style" or so. If the users are a wide spread, heterogeneous, non computer savvy crowd, use SDI or forms on tabs. If you write for programmers, you might go for multiple forms, just because we tend to think that we can handle it. And it works for multiple screens (hopefully).
MDI is the worst choice possible, in my opinion. There's nothing I hate more than having to resize a bunch of windows, or tile them or whatever.
Tabs are bad, too, especially if you have more than one row of them (or if you have one row but still have more tabs than will fit, and have to use some funky scrollbar or "more" button with them).
I would rather see the programmer think about the problem and just show me what I need to see based on what I'm doing as a user. Implementing the different user interfaces in your programs as user controls (as opposed to discrete forms) and then showing them or hiding them based on the current context is the way to go.
The Tabbed form is a good idea if you use a frame for each tab content. This keeps you out of trouble from getting too much code in one single form unit. Try to do the same as Google Chrome. I personally create a menu with the options that are actually frames that loads only when the user asks for it, so there will never be many tabs visible unless the user needs them all opened.