hiding menu entries

[Mark Galassi <rosalia cygnus com>]

On the issue below I agree with Toshio: I find it pedagogically
confusing when a program sometimes does not have some menu entrie, and
sometimes it does.

One example that has frustrated me is FrameMaker+SGML, where the
SGML-related menus change a lot according to what type of document you
are editing.

The "explanation" feature would be awesome!  You would want the
greyed-out area to be highlighted differently as the mouse sits on
it.

    >> # Disabled Options - Not Set Yet
    >> 
    >> Disabled options are painfull. They should not appear (the user
    >> will never be able to uses it, so never show it) or if inform
    >> about the reason when clicked (yes, you click a grayed button
    >> and a messages says "Your account can not use me, not enough
    >> rights" or "You can not use me at this moment, a previous
    >> action is needed for me to work", or bigger explanations).
    >> 
    Toshio> Diabled options are useful so that the layout of the menu
    Toshio> always stays the same.  That way if I get used to clicking
    Toshio> the "File" Menu and pulling my mouse down about three
    Toshio> centimeters to get the option I want, it's the same when
    Toshio> some of the intermediate options are disabled.

    Toshio> I like your idea of being able to click on the greyed out
    Toshio> option and get a message explaining why, though.

    Toshio> Does anyone know if something like this could be built up
    Toshio> through the tooltips mechanism or if something totally new
    Toshio> would have to be written?  Wouldn't be click -- just
    Toshio> hovering over the greyed out item would pop up the tooltip
    Toshio> explaining why the option's not available....  (Course,
    Toshio> the tooltip would have to be configured somehow to either
    Toshio> pop up different tips when the option is enabled/disabled
    Toshio> or else configured to only show up when the tooltip is
    Toshio> disabled....)

    Toshio> -Toshio -- badger \"The Difference between today and
    Toshio> yesterday is not so much what has @prtr-13 \ changed
    Toshio> between then and now as what I hope to change by
    Toshio> tomorrow."  .ucsc.edu
    Toshio> \~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~