Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 69885
Long Menu Items
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:34:36 UTC
Long Menu Items One of the things I hate most is when I encounter a long menu item which widens a specific menu and I have to access a submenu in from that menu. PROBLEM when trying to access the submenu, I have to move the mouse to the right border of that particular menu, wait for the submenu to open and then move the mouse inside that submenu. However, if the menu is very wide (due to some unfortunate menu text), it can easily happen, that when I move the mouse towards the right menu border, the mouse cursor will slip into the wrong submenu. This is very annoying, especially when trying to make something fast. SOLUTION * make menu items as brief as possible (this is especially important for lacalised versions of OOo; indeed some vrsons have such big/ wide entries, that virtually every menu is a nightmare) * implement a different mechanism for submenus: -- when clicking on a menu item that points to a submenu, open the submenu and position the mouse inside that submenu; this would be indeed a very useful feature;
Created attachment 39596 [details] Long Menu with Opened Submenus
I have created an attachement (it is actually from Seamonkey, NOT OOo, but it underscores what I tried to explain). It is by no means the worst menu I encountered, in some locales, most menus are even wider. For OOo, see e.g. OOo Calc -> Format -> the various submenus there; even in the english version, the "Format menu" is very wide. If you want to do something very fast and your mouse just isn't the best one (like so often happens), you easily slip with the mouse in the wrong submenu (because the mouse has sometimes its own will). IF the menu wouldn't be so wide, the chance of that happening would be less. As explained, if there would be an option to click on the menu which opens the submenu, and automatically move/put the mouse inside that submenu, this would be great.
Created attachment 39597 [details] Real Calc Menus which are wide
My second jpeg-image shows a real Calc-Menu that is even worse. The problem here is, that the opened submenu is close to the main menu bar. If it happens that the mouse slips *ONTO* the menu bar, - the menu and submenu closes - while a new menu will open (in this case most probably the "Data" or the "Windows" menus) This way, it is even more cumbersome: you need to get back to the "Insert Menu" -> and enter the submenu. [Sorry for 2 separate posts, I forgot to point this in my previous one.]
Well, this issue is really about mouse travel distance. Please also see issue http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=19557 for a similar feature request/problem. I strongly favour *very short* menu entries. IF such short menus cannot be made, then: - implement a method in which when clicking on the submenu-name, the submenu opens and the mouse is positioned on an item of the submenu (instead of displaying the submenu AND having to travel with the mouse inside the submenu) - draw the submenus (when they open) NOT close to the menu-bar. This minimizes the risk that the mouse inadvertently slips to the next menu group - maybe some other breakthrough GUI technology
ES, please care about this.
Reassigned