Re: Gimp-style menus

[Mike Newman <mike gtnorthern demon co uk>]

On 15 Apr 2001 12:30:46 +0100, colin z robertson wrote:

> I'm about to start work on the section of the UI guidelines dealing
> with menus and there are a few issues I'd like some feedback on. The
> first is about the status of Gimp-style menus accessible via a
> right-click on the document. Should these be encouraged or discouraged
> in the guidelines? To what extent are they appropriate?
> 
> Any thoughts?

In my opinion (and I do seem to be expressing a lot of them today :-)
these "Context Menus" are valuable and useful - but no GUI environment
has yet achieved a consistency that actually makes users think "Ah! If I
right click on this...". A context menu should relate directly to what
in selected, focused or (at worst) under the pointer at the time of
clicking, and should display (or allow activation of) only items which
are possible/reasonable/advisable(?) in that specific context.

The Gimp (and other graphics/DTP apps using) take this to the ultimate
extent of saying "everything you can do with this image, you do by right
clicking", but most programs will not need to approach the menus in this
way. In my own code I use right click menus to expose features which are
common enough to make moving the mouse to the toolbar, dropping down a
menu or hitting accelerators a hassle.

Mike

-- 
Mike Newman, Weston-super-Mare, UK | http://www.gtnorthern.demon.co.uk