CMS Hardtalk

I have had the chance to dive into the new version of typo3 - version 4.2. (Check out the official press release)

We have used typo3 version 4 for the new site www.cmsawards.com. Just my two cents about the new version 4 of Typo3 CMS. 

User interface

Overall we have always been satisfied with the User Interface (UI) in Typo3.

Placing the "save", "save + preview" etc. both at the top and bottom at the user interface has always been redundant in prior versions, but now they are gone and the save functions are only in the top now. A huge drawback for the users, but apparently the Typo3 team have been forced to trim the UI.

Tabs to support you editorial flow

First off all I was so glad to see the tabs in top of the content area.  and to work with these tabs is indeed a pleasure. They are sorted to support the workflow (type + head line -> text -> media ->access)

It is possible to switch between the tabs without having to save before each switch. Even though this seems like only a small improvement - this makes the editing process simple and easy - especially because this is what editors do more than 80 percent of the time.

The Skin - The sugar

Even though its only to pleasure the eye the t3skin makes it some how more familiar to work with when you as a user primarily works with Microsoft Windows. It is not that it looks or feels like windows, the colours are just more familiar than the former nicotine brown coloured interface.

Moving of content parts

First of all it is easy to move content parts around in the user interface. Just locate the element that you want to move/copy and navigate to another page to drop it in here.

Typo3 has also included a functionality where you can "create an reference. This really supports reuse of content as you only have to update content one place.

What I need is a overview of the reuse of content - this is NOT supported.

Navigation

The navigation (and moving of pages in the navigation) is nearly perfect. It is simply drag-and-drop in its simplest form. Other CMS vendors could learn from this very intuitive drag-and-drop functionality, where you when you have dropped the page decide if the page should be located after, before or under the page you have dropped the page.

Beside that the navigation is fast and precise. Perhaps the interactive areas could be larger to make it more effective. Sometimes it demands precision to hit +/- in the navigation.

The RTE (Rich Text Editor)

Typo uses htmlArea as the default RTE: I like it because I can use it from Safari on my Mac. No problem here! It has included a best practice way of selecting whatever hyperlinks I want (internal pages, external pages, files, etc. - I love the simplicity here!

What I hate is that it has difficulty in handling the backspace that I use a lot. We have had some difficulty in configuring the editor to include pictures. That has been a handicap for me as I prefer the flexibility in using the editor to insert pictures. Apparently it is only a configuration.

Apparently HtmlArea isn’t supported any more, but Typo3 sources told me that it had been forked for the same reasons.

What I find annoying

1) When creating pages you elegantly go through the steps of identifying the location, inserting the page, but actually the wizard stops here. Why doesn’t they sent me to the content area right away?? Instead I have to activate the menu point in the navigation tree

2) Why is it that difficult to configure TYPO3 to include pictures in the RTE?

3) The Template Voila is definitely a great feature but for users, that doesn’t use it on a daily basis it is so much more difficult that the rest of the TYPO3 UI.

4) Some (vital and very used) parts of the user interface is still a catastrophe. E.G. when I want to go back to the page after having edited a content part: I need to press the "Close" symbol. This should off course should have been some sort of "Back"-symbol.

Despite my annoyances …

I have from day one been a huge fan of the Typo3 UI. It supports the editorial tasks very well. Perhaps it is not that "Ajax-ian", but it works!

Yesterday I got proof that a new UI for Typo is being developed. TYPO3 developer group, please be aware of the qualities in the existing UI!