[jsword-devel] Suggestion for improving display

[DM Smith]

Several people have made suggestions/requests for improvements in the 
lookup/search/match area.
Perhaps Mark meant that the divider between the LHS and RHS could not be 
moved to the left. This is a side-effect of sizing the combo box to the 
size of the longest bible name. I  changed it from having a prototype 
that always truncated medium size names to one that displayed them all.

If we put this on a line to itself, it will show the full bible names 
and also allow the divider to be moved. It will still limit the amount 
of travel to the left, but in my testing it seems to be a reasonable 
limit. Any smaller and the reading area becomes too narrow, IMHO.

Someone suggested that search and match should not jump back to the 
lookup screen. This would allow the user to see their search request and 
the answer at the same time.

I suggest that we merge the three cards into one. The basic idea is that 
all three perform a search, the interpretation depends upon context. In 
each case the result is a passage. In the case of the lookup, it 
replaces the search request with the results. In the case of the other 
two, it puts the result in the lookup card and switches to it. In the 
case of search/match, the lookup can be restricted.

There still would be a Bible ComboBox picker.
There still would be a radio button group of lookup/search/match.
There still would be an entry area for search request.
There would be a restriction widget, which would be active if either 
search/match is selected.
There would be a lookup passage button, which would be active if the
There would be a result text area, which would show the results of the 
lookup/search/match

So from a layout perspective
Row 1: Bible Picker (or this can be on the same row as radio buttons as 
it is now.)
Row 2: lookup/search/match radio buttons
Row 3: Search input w/ Go button
Row 4: Search restriction input or Passage Selection button or both.
Row 5: Passage result.

In the case of lookup, row 2 would not change, but row 5 would have the 
interpretation of row 2.

Someone else suggested merging search and match and trying to deduce 
which the user wanted. This would prevent the confusion concerning the 
difference between search and match. I don't think this would be too 
difficult.