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All classrooms at our school use interactive boards with projectors and loud speakers mounted above. Our computer screens are projected onto the board, and we use a cordless mouse fashioned like a pen to touch the board and interact with the computer.

I would like an "interactive board mode", which would put the program bar, menu bar and tool bar BELOW the program windows. This way, even the smallest pupils - or teachers - can reach the controls.

Cheers,
Haakon

Which applications would this pertrain to?

For this to work KWin(or a suitable decoration) would need to put the title bar at the bottom of the window and perhaps something in KDELibs would be needed to put the menu bar at the bottom. I think putting toolbars at the bottom of the window is already supported in applications such as dolphin.

priomsrb wrote:For this to work KWin(or a suitable decoration) would need to put the title bar at the bottom of the window and perhaps something in KDELibs would be needed to put the menu bar at the bottom. I think putting toolbars at the bottom of the window is already supported in applications such as dolphin.

Interesting. Preferably, this is just a setting that applies to all applications. In addition to making things easier to use, there is a social element to consider. In a friendly environment, someone struggling with the controls might cause some amusement, whilst in an unfriendly environment this might destroy a presentation or deter pupils from coming forward to the interactive board. Nobody likes being made a fool of. I'm of average hight (180 cm), and have no problem with reaching these controls myself, but having this setting would make life easier for most pupils and shorter adults.

I think it should be no problem to implement this in KWin.


There aren't any German schools using interactive boards. grrr
And there aren't any German schools using KDE with GNU/Linux. grrr grrrrrrr

[quote='The User' pid='80302' dateline='1245102664']
I think it should be no problem to implement this in KWin.

Great! Who and when?

HaakonME wrote:I would like an "interactive board mode", which would put the program bar, menu bar and tool bar BELOW the program windows. This way, even the smallest pupils - or teachers - can reach the controls.

In a perfect world I'd go one step further and create a digital whiteboard application, which could have this as a feature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_whiteboard

IrquiM wrote:

HaakonME wrote:I would like an "interactive board mode", which would put the program bar, menu bar and tool bar BELOW the program windows. This way, even the smallest pupils - or teachers - can reach the controls.

In a perfect world I'd go one step further and create a digital whiteboard application, which could have this as a feature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_whiteboard

Sorry, but that would be several steps back at our school. We integrate the use of many different applications in our lessons, so it makes more sense to make the window manager (or whatever) do this. Fix it in one place, get it everywhere.

A step back? I cannot see how this is a step back?

It would just be a layer above everything else, that recorded what was happening. And if anything was highlighted, like putting a red ring around a word in a presentation or marking a section of a drawing for delete, this would be stored. We use it a lot at work during meetings, and it's not like it is a blank canvas that we draw stuff on.

I'd still say this is a step further from what you're suggesting

IrquiM wrote:A step back? I cannot see how this is a step back?

I didn't understand what you meant the first time.
Yes, an advanced screencast with annotations would be helpful.

Once an idea is validated, how many votes does it usually need to be implemented?

It is not a question of the number of votes. The votes are simply a way to show popularity, not closeness to implementation. In general if a idea becomes quite popular, a wish item is opened in the KDE bugtracker. It will then ideally be assigned a developer who will implement it.

Thanks, Moult!

Honestly:
You only need 1 positive vote, if that vote is from a developer who wants to do it.

KDE developers assign things to themselves if they think it's worth doing. It's not as implied above that someone goes around forcing jobs on people.

As for your issue:
Most applications have toolbars that can be moved about (see dolphin for example). Make sure to uncheck "Lock Toolbar Positions in the context menu". They should save that position. If they don't, I think it's reasonable to file a very specific bug on that particular application.

Though that still leaves the KWin title bar and Application Menu bar (the bit with "file, edit etc") to sort out.

Yes, some applications do have movable toolbars, others do not. However, this case is about how to control a large physical projection using touch - an interactive board mode. I think it is easier for pupils and teachers to put the controls within physical reach with a single switch for say all KDE-applications when this is needed rather than manually and individually switching back and forth every single applications toolbar - and still not reach the title bar and menu bar. My pupils and I eagerly anticipate some wonderful developer noticing this - for us - important issue.