Enable "Select all" in context menu of empty address input (To/CC/BCC) to select all pills with mouse (Ctrl+A mouse equivalent)
Categories
(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, enhancement)
Tracking
(Not tracked)
People
(Reporter: anjeyelf, Unassigned)
References
(Blocks 1 open bug)
Details
Enter some valid email address in TO or Cc or Bcc field.
Senario: you have three or more email addresses in a Cc field, you want to highlight all of them and then move all highlighted email addresses to Bcc.
Currently:
Use 'Shift' and arrow key to manually select/highlight each pill in turn, press right menu key (or Shift + F10) and press B.
But it means manually keying through each 'pill'.
In 'Cc' field, a right click offers a drop down menu that includes 'Select All', but it is greyed out; disabled, even though there are valid 'pills' in that Cc field.
It would be helpful if the 'Select All' was a selectable item, so I would not need to manually select each one. Easy if only a couple, but a real pain if you've put a load of email addresses into the wrong field and need or choose to move them to eg: Bcc
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Comment 1•4 years ago
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(In reply to Anje from comment #0)
Enter some valid email address in TO or Cc or Bcc field.
Senario: you have three or more email addresses in a Cc field, you want to highlight all of them and then move all highlighted email addresses to Bcc.
Currently:
Use 'Shift' and arrow key to manually select/highlight each pill in turn, press right menu key (or Shift + F10) and press B.
Hey Anje, I thought you'd already know the trick:
Just press Ctrl+A from anywhere within the row to select all pills, even with cursor behind the last pill. Make sure there's no non-pillified text in there, otherwise Ctrl+A will select only that text, not the pills.
But it means manually keying through each 'pill'.
No, just Ctrl+A is the easiest. Alternatively, you can hold Shift and just keep holding down arrow-left key until it reaches the first pill - also just takes a sec. "Manually keying through each will" sounds as if you have to press cursor for each pill again, which isn't true.
In 'Cc' field, a right click offers a drop down menu that includes 'Select All', but it is greyed out; disabled, even though there are valid 'pills' in that Cc field.
True. That's an implementation-level thing: "Select All" (just like the other commands in that menu) are only for the text input, so if there's no text, nothing to select. I do understand that you'd wish that to select all pills instead. We can only do that when there's no non-pillified text, but in that case, I guess we could. A bit tricky to implement as we're getting that menu from toolkit and would have to tweak that to act differently.
I'd consider Ctrl+A to be far superior, but when you're on mouse, yeah, we should probably have something to click on, too.
It would be helpful if the 'Select All' was a selectable item, so I would not need to manually select each one. Easy if only a couple, but a real pain if you've put a load of email addresses into the wrong field and need or choose to move them to eg: Bcc
Zero pain if you just press Ctrl+A...
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Comment 2•4 years ago
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Btw, pressing Ctrl+A twice in a row (this time to have to let go the A at least!) will conveniently select all pills of all fields - that's currently the only keyboard-accessible way of cross-field selection. With mouse, you can cross-select holding Ctrl key and clicking pills in different fields.
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Comment 3•4 years ago
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Indeed, Ctrl+A is the way to go and it's super useful the double press to select all pills in every recipients.
I think we can definitely implement something in the context menu of the recipient fields, maybe a couple of items like:
- Select all addresses in "FIELD_NAME"
- Select all addresses
We could also use the occasion to add the shortcuts to the right of those menu items and make them discoverable.
re :Hey Anje, I thought you'd already know the trick:
Just press Ctrl+A from anywhere within the row to select all pills, even with cursor behind the last pill. Make sure there's no non-pillified text in there, otherwise Ctrl+A will select only that text, not the pills.
Yep, I know that one, but there's nothing in any menu that provides that option. So it's one of those things; if you know it it seems easy.
For example: If you select one of the Cc 'pills' and then use the Menu Bar: Edit > Select All (which is now enabled), it does not select all the other 'pills' in that eg: Cc field. You would expect it to highlight all the pills in that Cc area.
If you have entered several pills and cursor is still in the Cc field ready to enter another email address and you not selected a 'pill' , the right click option does not offer to 'Select all' as it is disabled.
Why would I expect this to work ? If I was composing text in email and cursor was focused in that composing area after the last bit of text, but no text was highlighted, the right click would offer option to 'Select all' in that area and it works. Equally, the Menu Bar: Edit > Select All will also highlight all the text.
So I'm pointing out that there is no continuity of method. There is no menu option either by right click or no working function via Menu Bar. I think it is something just overlooked.
I believe this is something that should be available.
(In reply to Alessandro Castellani (:aleca) from comment #3)
Indeed,
Ctrl+Ais the way to go and it's super useful the double press to select all pills in every recipients.
I think we can definitely implement something in the context menu of the recipient fields, maybe a couple of items like:
- Select all addresses in "FIELD_NAME"
- Select all addresses
We could also use the occasion to add the shortcuts to the right of those menu items and make them discoverable.
This sounds good, but would request it to be available on a right click in eg: Cc and also in Menu Bar under Edit.
People do not expect to have to select/highlight a pill first - as per my previous comment.
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Comment 6•4 years ago
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I don't think we should over populate the context menus with further selection related items. Select all is already there, it's just not enabled.
Sorry but I also don't want to add hotkeys into context menus (it's ugly and also against conventions).
(In reply to Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] from comment #6)
.....Select all is already there, it's just not enabled.
It would be very useful if it was enabled.
Not all users know or understand about using keyboard. I have friends/relatives who use everything from a mouse click on menu type of method.
So, the option to Select all is not available at the moment.
In one case it looks like it should be available but there is no functionality and in the other case it is greyed out.
You do not have to have additional items in context menus - I agree with you, but you do need those that exist to be enabled so they function.
Arrived here trying to fill in a bug about missing option to "Select All" in either "Edit" menu or the right click context menu for the To/CC/BCC fields ( since mouse over to make a selection is not available).
Alessandro Castellani (comment #3) and Anje (comment #7) remarks have a point about "discoverability". When in doubt about what actions are available in a given context the user shouldn't have to know "the secret keyboard incantations" but be able to discover the actions instead; or so I think. So what would work for me and all my friends who complained about the matter would probably be for the "Select All" action to be present in both places ("Edit" and right-click menu). Elegance bonus points if the shortcut is also listed e.g same way Firefox' Edit from top menu reads:
Select All CTRL+A
but whether that's possible or not (or how much effort it would cost) I have no idea.
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