Hello all.
I have been using Spark for about a week now, and like it very much. I would like to suggest a feature enhancement however. I keep the Spark window (contact list) open as a small window on my second monitor all day long. I would love it if instead of Spark taking up a full Task Bar entry, it only used a Systray icon, even while open in a window. This would be like the Winamp option for example. Thank you so much for your time, and a great product.
Jnuw
Just thought of 2 other suggestions. I love the spell checker option, and it would be great if you could invoke it with the F7 key, like in MS Word. Also, it would be a nice option to be able to set incoming messages/chats to automatically pop up. Sometimes its nice to see them, other times I like them to stay minimized until I want to read them.
Thanks again for your time, great product!
Jnuw
Hi Jnuw,
Thank you so much for your requests. So let me get them down in a list
Invoke spell checker with F7.
Have incoming messages/chats auto pop up. The SparkWords plugin should do this for you.
Have the window stay in the systray? Could you explain further.
Cheers,
Derek
How about making spelling suggestions availible from the right-click menu on misspelled words (ala MS Word)?
That’'s already in there
-Derek
What version did that make it into? It dosnt work on my 1.1.1 version. And I cant get 1.1.3 working (see my other post about that). Running the Linux version.
Hi Derek,
do you need more to know about “3) Have the window stay in the systray? Could you explain further.”?
I think it’'s quite simple, just like Trillian or Winamp, both have the option to place an icon in the TNA/Systemtray (like Spark) and if you click it the main window appears on the screen (like Spark) but there is no Taskbar Entry (Spark displays its logo and “Spark - User”).
LG
do you need more to know about "3) Have the window
stay in the systray? Could you explain further."?
I think it’'s quite simple, just like Trillian or
Winamp, both have the option to place an icon in the
TNA/Systemtray (like Spark) and if you click it the
main window appears on the screen (like Spark) but
there is no Taskbar Entry (Spark displays its logo
and “Spark - User”).
it2000,
Spark does this already. At least it does for me on Linux (version 1.1.1)
Hi,
I’‘m using Spark for some time now. As a longtime Adium/Mac OS X user I’'d suggest some tweaks on the interface side.
No “send button” needed
Line Break option
Don’'t need to see my own avatar
Profile, Conference, Send file could be very small or reduced to context -menu since I don’'t use it often (could be a counter-argument
Find could be hidden as well you don’'t need that to often
Bounce message when in away mode
Welcome Thomas,
the “Line Break option” is already there, it’'s ShiftEnter and nothing else. I usually user CtrlEnter …
“Don’'t need to see my own avatar”
“Profile, Conference, Send file could be very small”
“Find could be hidden”
It seems that you are looking for a compact skin. I’'d also prefer a compact skin, it makes no sense to see all these options while never using them.
LG
Line Break works great, thanks for that one.
Further feature requests:
searchable chat history with better date discrimination
military time option
Thomas
> 3) Have the window stay in the systray? Could you
> explain further.
Hi Derek, thanks so much for your time. What I’'m thinking is this, right now when Spark is either open as a window on the desktop, or minimized, it is listed on the Taskbar as a large entry (see: http://webpages.charter.net/orum/Spark/TaskBar.jpg ).
However if you click the close X in the upper right hand corner, it moves to only[/b] being in the system tray (see: http://webpages.charter.net/orum/Spark/SysTray.jpg ).
It would be wonderful if Spark had only a system tray entry, no matter if it was open in a window, maximized, minimized, or anything else but shut down. This is the behavior with Winamp if you select this option: http://webpages.charter.net/orum/Spark/Winamp.jpg under Options/Preferences/General Preferences.
Having this system tray only option is nice for those people that leave the spark window open all day, and making it an option would ensure the greatest flexibiltiy. Let me know if this helps explain what I’'m after, and thanks again for your time.
I would like to ad a few things to that list. One is a popup when a contact comes online. Curious as to why this has not been put in yet. I have been looking at other clients just because of that feature not being there.
Wouldn’'t mind a button that switches the line break in the chat. Personally I like Enter to line break. But a switch would let people choose between Shif-Enter and Enter.
I would also like to Send a message instead of a chat. The message is basically the same as a chat except after sending it the window closes.
Hi,
there is one thing I forgot to mention. I’'d like to have multiple accounts active in one instance of Spark. (compare Adium/Mac OS X)
Thomas
While we are at it, I guess I’'ll 1 more to my original requests. It would be really cool to have a “Move Up” and “Move Down” option when right clicking on the list of contacts, allowing for user re-ordering, instead of just alphabetical order.
There are a lot of good ideas in this thread, and as the thread starter, I would like to put down my request for “system tray only” entry as my most important suggestion. Saving precious space on the Task Bar is always a challenge, and I hope you can help me out on that one. Thanks again everyone.
Jnuw
KevCar -
The contacts coming on line notification thing really should fall within my SparkWords plugin. SparkWords provides notifications of incoming chats, keywords in chat, etc. Let me look into it and see what I need to do to add it. Shouldn’'t take too much time or effort.
Tim
Hi Jnuw,
you can track the TNA issue with SPARK-295 and I hope that you vote for it (just create a new user if you have no JIRA user).
LG
Thank you very much for adding the TNA issue, I hope you are able to implement it!
– Jnuw
Hi,
I’'m not working for Jivesoftware and have no Spark source code access, Derek will hopefully solve it as the issue is assigned to him.
LG
