Membranophonist’s Ramblings

Apple has added some nifty (and genuinely useful) text decoration controls to the font panel (in TextEdit: Format ->Show Fonts or command+T). The options are good, but I find the UI lacking. See my TextEdit/Font Panel screenshot for an overview of the problems.

The color square next to the T in the font panel doesn’t change to the color selected by the user, remaining a lovely lime green at all times. Similarly, the document color swatch remains white regardless of user setting. These color swatches ought to update dynamically to reflect picked colors.

The T’s in the underline and strikethrough drop-downs should change their icons to reflect the current state - the single underline should become a double when that option is selected, etc. The default state is for no underlining, so the default T should have no underline.

The strikethrough control might be best handled by making the default T icon have a dashed strikethrough, then a solid black, double solid black, or (chosen) color line based on user selection.

If the underline control T icon were changed, the text shadow toggle button T should be given a heavier shadow to make its function more clear and to better differentiate it from the underline control icon, which would then have no underline by default.

A simpler and less informative way to implement the underline and strike through options would be for the active drop-down menu option to have a check mark by it. This might be easier to implement, but it does not communicate as much information and requires activation of the menu to confirm a selection rather than a quick glance.

The shadow angle degree should be adjustable by direct numerical entry as well as the dial widget.

These visual changes might also help users keep straight about which document is currently selected when multiple documents are open in the same application by changing noticeably between documents with different color and style settings.