GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 86367
Recommend the initially selected item of popup menus
Last modified: 2020-12-04 18:19:28 UTC
Nautilus is using a custom function to position context menus so that the first item is not selected. People seem to agree that the context menus position should be the same in all apps but it's not sure if default behavior is good for usability. It would be good to know HIG position about this so that the bad behavior can be fixed at nautilus level or at an higer level if the case. See bug 85976 and http://mail.gnome.org/archives/nautilus-list/2002-June/msg00198.html
Bug #85976 has already been resolved by making Nautilus use the Gtk+ standard positioning. The reason noted on list for the behavior of Nautilus is that people were right-clicking, not seeing a menu, right-clicking again and inadvertently selecting the first item on the popup menu. The obvious solution for that is to make the menus faster. Does the HIG need to specify anything here other than "Stop breaking the toolkit!" ? (I think NeXT-style scrolling menus are better, but support should be in Gtk+ first. Right?)
Somebody should have kicked me. The toolkit normally allows popup menu positioning. I knew this. What I meant was, "I think using that to move a menu away from the cursor is misuse of the toolkit function." I read at least one other platform's HIG (don't recall which) wherein it is stated that context menus should appear to a side of the context. I fail to recall whether there was a particular side and whether this is for both mouse and keyboard activation. I'll research again for it.
So this bug can be closed?
Gregory?
Best not to close this just yet. The issue has resurfaced in some recent feedback about GNOME2. The question is not so much about the position as it is about the effect. The effect of the default position is to select (highlight) the first item on the menu. So the question is really: Should a menu item be selected (highlighted) on a popup menu that is shown in response to a mouse button action? Other related questions are: Does this change for popup menus shown in response to keyboard actions? How? Which menu item should be selected in any case? So either the summary needs to be changed, or this closed and a new bug opened.
Suggestions: When a popup menu pops up, the first item should be selected, regardless of whether it was opened with the mouse or the keyboard. I guess that this is the most consistent way to do. Also, since normally the most requested action should be at the top of a context menu, this is convenient.
There's some relevant commentary on this from Owen in bug #70372
Is this bug still relevant? The bug it supposedly blocks is closed as fixed a long time ago...
I'm closing this as obsolete. Popup menu behaviour seems consistent everywhere now, AFAICT: no item is ever selected by default when a popup menu is posted, by mouse or keyboard. If we believe that's the wrong behaviour, it's a gtk+ issue, not a HIG issue.