[Qt-interest] Need to show a menu item with disabled look butfunctional

livubuntu at lalescu.ro livubuntu at lalescu.ro
Wed Oct 21 09:10:42 CEST 2009


Quoting Rainer Wiesenfarth <Rainer.Wiesenfarth at inpho.de>:

>
> From: livubuntu at lalescu.ro
>> I would like to present to the user of my software a menu,
>> with a few
>> actions disabled. But I want that if the user presses these disabled
>> actions, he gets a message box to say that they must be enabled from
>> the settings.
>>
>> So, I want an enabled action, but with disabled look. Is that
>> possible?
>
> Although it should be possible using the menu item's palette (see
> QWidget::palette() and QWidget::setPalette()) I consider this a bad idea
> concerning usability:

Thank you for answering!

QAction is not a QWidget and has no palette.

>
> - Why should a user assume that there _is_ an action behind a menu item that
> looks disabled?
> - Why is the user forced to use the complicated way to enable the action?
> The action could be even self-enabling on the first click of the menu item.
> - If the user can enable the action, why not enable it by default?
>

You are right, I am a bad designer. These disabled options are risky to use
and I want the user specifically to enable them from Settings menu. That is
the reason. And I want the user to know that he can enable the item.  
If he clicks on a disabled item, he will get a message box explaining  
that he needs to activate the option.

> Best Regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen
> Rainer Wiesenfarth
>
> --
> INPHO GmbH * Smaragdweg 1 * 70174 Stuttgart * Germany
> phone: +49 711 2288 10 * fax: +49 711 2288 111 * web: www.inpho.de
> place of business: Stuttgart * managing director: Johannes Saile
> commercial register: Stuttgart, HRB 9586
> Leader in Photogrammetry and Digital Surface Modelling
>







More information about the Qt-interest-old mailing list