OOo Interface Demos: Zooming/Page arrangement behavior

These interface demos are an attempt to unify view and zoom features, reducing the number of distinct view and zooming modes. They were created during the discussion Writer: Multiple pages per View on the mailing list discuss@ux.openoffice.org.

If the pages won't get any smaller when you move the zoom slider further to the left, it is because your browser is set to display web pages at a certain size. The demos should work properly if you temporarily deactivate this feature.

Please contact me if you've got questions or suggestions.

Oct 21, 2007: Demo 1: Static Window Size

A first attempt to demonstrate how an easy-to-access zoom feature (e.g. using a slider) could replace a dedicated "two pages next to each other" view mode.

See also mailing list posting.

Interactive elements: Tested browsers:

Try out Demo 1

Nov 1, 2007: Demo 2: Resizable Window, no Auto-Scaling

Resizing the browser window resizes the demo's OOo Writer "window." This interface demo adheres to the window metaphor. This means that enlarging the window reveals more of its content (Enlarging the window does not scale the content in this demo, see Demo 3 for an example where this happens).

See also mailing list posting.

New in this demo: Interactive elements: Tested browsers:

Try out Demo 2
(my favourite, but for the facing pages checkbox)

Nov 1, 2007: Demo 3: Resizeable, Auto-Scaling Window

Identical to Demo 2, but has an additional auto-scaling feature. When you resize the window, the content scales with the window. This behavior deviates from the window metaphor. (Personally, I prefer Demo 2's behavior, but this page is not the right place for debate.)

See also mailing list posting.

New in this demo: Interactive elements: Tested browsers:

Try out Demo 3

Nov 3, 2007: Demo 4: Christoph's Idea

This interface demo lets you play around with Christoph Noack's suggestion for dealing with special Viewing and Zooming modes. As you see, the modes still exist, but here, the user can see them all the time. This demo tries to emulate the suggested behaviour. While it isn't 100% exact in doing this, you can still get a feel for it, I think.

See also Christoph's mailing list posting and his Mockup.

New in this demo: Interactive elements: Tested browsers:

Try out Demo 4

This page as well as the demos themselves can be freely used, modified and redistributed (2-clause BSD license, view page source for details), with the exception of the third-party slider code, to which other restrictions may apply.
Please also bear in mind that, while this page and the demos use XHTML/CSS, they are not a good place to get inspiration for clean coding. They're abominable hacks.