FromAndToArea

The FromAndToArea is a block that appears in the DetailView. Here's an obsolete wireframe that does show the FromAndToArea20041019 in the upper portion with red indications:

The FromAndToArea displays the origin of the item associated with a Message. This Area is always present, and it will just hold empty "from:" and "to:" fields in some cases (MailFromField, MailToField). Items that are not MessageKind may still have values in the from field if it originated as an Message, e.g. a message that has been stamped Task. You can always put a value in the "to:" field in preparation for sending. Note that the "from:" field sticks to the originator of an email thread - when there are subsequent exchanges the from and to fields don't change (unless new recipients are added to the "to:" list?) The "from:" field is a single contact, the "to:" field is a list of contacts.

• The MailFromField is a simple static text block that shows the word "from:" followed by the contact that originated the message.

• The MailToField is field is more complicated than just a list of recipients. However, for this implementation I'm just going to make the MailToField be a list of recipients. The other items appear to be a pencil (enable editing?), a check mark (user has responded?), and possibly others. The "to:" field is a collapsable StaticText block, with a triangle control that allows the list to be expanded/contracted.

??? Are there other elements to this Area? The UI Design shows some kind of sharing status line that might be a text button saying "Stop auto-updates..." but I'm going to leave this out for now.

Questions:

• Is it OK for me to leave out the "auto-update" status line shown in the UI below the MailToField?
• Is there a "cc:" field? A "bcc:" field? Is there another way to compose an email other than the detail view?
• Can a contact be drag-and-dropped onto this area?
• When an expandable text area is expanded, what size does it go to? Can it be grown once it's expanded? I'd guess that the non-expanded size is one line high, and the expanded size is stored in the block, changed when the user grows it, and has a preset default.

-- DonnDenman - 24 May 2004