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UI: Make it clear that additional User IDs can be added after creation

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Patrick Fasano

11 Jun, 2013 07:22 PM

When having a friend of mine get started with GPGTools, he went and created a separate key for each email address; the dialog box which appears when creating a key does not reference the fact that you can add additional email addresses later. This could be fixed by adding a simple line below the email address box: "More email addresses can be added after key creation."

1. Support Staff 1 Posted by Steve on 12 Jun, 2013 11:04 AM

   

   Hi pjfasano,

   we try to keep the UI very clean. If you are an unexperienced user, it is recommended to follow this KB-article about key creation. At the end of the article, there is a link to another article: "How to associate different email addresses with one key".

   All GPG Keychain Access KB-articles are also available via the GPG Keychain Access help menu.

   But we still need to point out the usage in a nicer manner to new users. We are considering our options and hope to address this.

   Best, steve

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2. 2 Posted by Patrick Fasano on 12 Jun, 2013 11:25 AM

   

   I totally understand about keeping the UI clean -- however, having a user create 5 keys, and then revoke 4 of them, might be messier than an extra line in the key creation dialog.

   As he (my friend) explained to me:

   Here's what the dialog said:

   Your own keys (containing a secret and a public key) will show up in bold (type: sec), while the public keys of your friends are in normal font (type: pub).

   Important: The mail address you use, to create your new key pair, has to perfectly match the mail address used in Mail.app > Accounts (case sensitive).

   Thus if I have multiple accounts that I use, I assume that I need multiple keys.

   I'm not sure where he saw that message (I can't reproduce it) -- however, there needs to be some very obvious message advising users that they can have multiple email addresses per key.

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3. Support Staff 3 Posted by Steve on 12 Jun, 2013 04:15 PM

   

   pjfasano, let's try to look at this closer.

   http://support.gpgtools.org/kb/faq-gpg-keychain-access/generate-a-key contains the passage you cite. In that passage we point out that the mail address being used does have to match the mail address used in Mail.app > Accounts. Otherwise GPGMail won't work.

   I've added the GPGMail reference to make this more obvious. "Important: The mail address you use, to create your new key pair, has to perfectly match the mail address you have used in Mail.app > Accounts. If those don't match you won't be able to encrypt any mail with GPGMail. Make sure capital letters are identical."

   After you finish all the steps in that tutorial, you'll find a link under the "Suggested Reading" section with the name "How to associate different email addresses with one key". Following that link will bring up a knowledge base article dealing only with adding more mail addresses to an existing key.

   Dose this make sense?

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4. Support Staff 4 Posted by Steve on 12 Jun, 2013 04:21 PM

   

   We've also created a ticket to cover your suggestion which is indeed absolutely correct.

   We've a ticket for this now. Please subscribe to the ticket if you want to be notified of changes being made in regards to this issue:

   https://gpgtools.lighthouseapp.com/projects/65684/tickets/167-after...

   Hopefully soon the key creation wizard will cover this. :)

   Best, steve

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5. 5 Posted by Patrick Fasano on 12 Jun, 2013 06:48 PM

   

   I don't think it's safe to assume that users will read the entire tutorial before they start creating keys (speaking empirically). ;-)

   Cheers,
   pjfasano

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6. Support Staff 6 Posted by Steve on 12 Jun, 2013 09:53 PM

   

   It sure is not, that's why we've opened the ticket. :)

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7. Steve closed this discussion on 04 Jul, 2013 07:58 AM.