GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 169895
Sticky notes focus always on top.
Last modified: 2005-08-03 18:06:07 UTC
Can we have a toggle 'On Top' for sticky notes? Prior to upgrading to Gnome 2.10, sticky notes could 'hide' under other windows. Since the upgrade, all notes are set to 'On Top' by default, which makes it quite annoying: I only want to reference a note by clicking on it - not having it stare at me for 8 hours a day! I'd rather not make all other windows 'On-Top' to cover up the sticky note. Other information:
A bug about this has been opened here too: https://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=8045
This behaviour is a reaction to changes in the way Metacity works. I haven't quite thought of how I want to handle it properly yet, however without you would lose stickynotes with no way to get them back.
Today, I upgraded to Ubuntu 5.04 RC and noticed the same strange behaviour of Sticky Notes. As my laptop's display is rather small I cannot use the new Sticky Notes anymore. I had to close all Notes - after saving them to a text file, of course. I would very much appreciate if there was an option for how the Notes behave. But thank you anyway for providing such a nice program!!! Until today it was really useful to me. Uwe.
Confirmed on G10 (old naming is 2.10.0) with GARNOME 2.10.0.1. This is really a pain compared to 2.8 behaviour. I now have to mask all my Notes (Using the contextual menu on the applet), otherwise my whole display is unusable and cluttered (not speaking of focus problems when using an application and inadvertantly passing focus on a note...) Note : the Post-It on my desk are masked if I put a sheet on them ;) This "always on top" problem should be a toggable option.
I hate to add a "me too", but I just wanted to present my point of view on what this change implies. The "What's New" page[1] says this is a feature, but I disagree wholeheartedly. In my view this allows only two modes of operation for sticky notes: 1) In my way, or 2) Out of sight, out of mind! I mainly use notes as a "todo" list. Each note indicates something I should have done already and my wife will bug me about if I don't do it. They need to be there in my periphery, so neither currently-supported mode works for me. I (and I suspect I am not the only one) have a mental model of notes being part of the destktop (like the desktop background) rather than an application in its own right that deserves "on top" status. I don't want to see them in my tab list, nor do I want to see them over the top of applications I'm doing work with. I do want to see them whenever I'm between tasks, so if they're "part of" the desktop background that's perfect for me. I'm afraid changing from gnome 2.8 to 2.10 makes the notes unusable for me. [1] http://www.gnome.org/start/2.10/notes/rnwhatsnew.html
Just synced-up to Gnome 2.10 when it went stable in Gentoo. While I really like the stickynotes applet, I can't stand the new "always upfront" feature. Instead of being a background list of things-to-do or a list of interesting little tidbits, the stickynotes are now always upfront and in the way of other programs and highly annoying. Now I have to use "show notes" to toggle them in and out of sight, but this greatly reduces the tremendous utility of the stickynotes applet. And at first I was so happy with the 2.10 version of stickynotes because they actually remembered their position 100% of the time between sessions. Please, bring back the old way. Stickynotes should stick to the desktop background, not magically hover over every app window.
*** Bug 308768 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I'm surpised this bug still remains "Unconfirmed". Is it possible that someone out there believes either of the current modes of operation are usable? I and other users of the stickynotes feature have reported in detail how we use stickynotes and how the change affects us. We've taken time to comment on a feature that we liked and used previously but cannot use at all in its current incarnation. Is it possible that there are others telling you that everything is fine and that they are able to use stickynotes as is in gnome 2.10? Is the problem that a usuable model is too difficult to implement? If this is so, I assure you that the bug remains. Leaving the app in an unusable state is in my mind worse than removing it from gnome. At present, you are telling users like me that you're not convinced yet that a problem exists. This is a rebuttal of our efforts in reporting the seriousness of the problem. Confirm this bug, and let us know what you plan to do about it. Explain the technical challenges to making things right. Set a timeline in place to resolve the issue. Garner feedback on alternative solutions. Ask for assistance. Start a poll asking present and past sticknotes users whether they can live with the new implementation. Ask them how they use the software, and tailor your solution to those use cases. You already have some sample use cases in this bug report and its duplicates. Don't leave this bug UNCONFIRMED. If you don't have enough information to decide whether it is a bug or not, get it. If you do, make a decision. I believe that stickynotes will have a significantly reduced following after gnome 2.10 and that if you want to see the app continue to be enjoyed you'll have to do something soon. I'm also sure that each of the handful of people who have contributed to this bug report represent dozens or hundreds who didn't know how or didn't bother to contribute their gripe. Benjamin.
This has been looked at and a solution has been implemented in 2.11. Hopefully Jaap H. will agree to look after stickynotes and give it more attention then I have.