Closed Bug 270614 Opened 20 years ago Closed 15 years ago

Ctrl-w should close Element Properties window

Categories

(Firefox :: Keyboard Navigation, defect, P4)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
Keyboard Navigation
Type:
defect

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED INVALID

People

(Reporter: alex, Unassigned)

References

(Blocks 1 open bug)

Details

(Keywords: access, helpwanted) 

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041111 Firefox/1.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041111 Firefox/1.0

Ctrl-w does not currently close properties windows. This is especially bad as
they don't have special close button and can only be closed using system UI
(window manager decorations).

Ctrl-w should really close any UI window, but properties are especially hard to
close without this shortcut for people that tend to work without titlebars.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Right click on a hyperlink.
2. Select "Properties"
3. Try to close the window without clicking on window manager buttons.
Blocks: firekey
Keywords: access
We should apply accel+W to every window, and remove all the duplicate XUL code
in each window that implements it. It doesn't need to be internatialized, it
always uses w.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
It's important that in the main window ctrl-w closes current tab not the whole
window. Just as a reminder and a regression test.
er, no, Ctrl-W is close document on GNOME, so its certainly not appropriate for
closing dialogs.  Its also generally used for close document on Windows as well,
not closing windows.  On mac its used for closing windows, not dialogs.

Why isn't escape enough here?  That's the traditional dimiss key for dialogs,
with tab/enter or accesskeys for multiple-choice dialogs, and I've never seen a
WM that eats Escape.
Ctrl-W closes Download, Extensions and Bookmarks managers, View Source windows,
e.g. Why not use it as a universal Close Window shortcut?

> Ctrl-W is close document on GNOME, so its certainly not appropriate for
closing dialogs

I don't get this argument. Do you think that Ctrl-W should close the document
altogether with all its windows (properties, source, whatever)? Does GNOME do this?
I'm not sure that our usage of Ctrl-W is actually correct, except for Mac.  It
does seem rather inconsistent to have it as a close window shortcut in some
windows and close tab in others.

Why isn't escape sufficient in this case?
The thing is that on Windows these sorts of dialogs tend to have Cancel or Close
buttons anyway, whereas our page and meta data info windows do not.
I'd like to emphasize: Properties window is not a dialog, it does not have
dialog buttons nor it is modal. It does not request any user input. On Windows
it even has its own button on Task Bar.

> Why isn't escape sufficient in this case?

Escape indeed closes Properties window, yes. Somehow I never tried it, probably
because I thought that Escape tends to be the access key for Cancel button which
does not exist there. And of course got used to Ctrl-W closing almost anything
in Firefox on all platforms especially when there's no Apply, Cancel buttons.

In spite of the fact that I still would like to have Ctrl-W close any window in
Firefox this particular problem with Properties window does not bother me any more.
The question still remains whether Ctrl-W to close window is actually an
appropriate keybinding.  I'm quite certain that on GNOME it isn't, Windows it
probably isn't, while on Mac that's the defined Close Window shortcut (and
Cmd-Shift-W _should_ be close tab, but that's a weird one that it may be worth
violating the HIG on).

Just because we've done it so far doesn't mean it's right or that we should
expand it.
Keywords: helpwanted
Priority: -- → P4
Ctrl+W is certainly NOT appropriate on Windows for closing dialogs.

Use any Windows app and try Ctrl+W on dialogs.

Ctrl+W is used to close primary Windows.

Note that Alt+F4 works to close properties windows - why do we need another
shortcut?
(In reply to comment #9)
> Ctrl+W is certainly NOT appropriate on Windows for closing dialogs.

"Properties" is not a dialog and does not even look like one. No buttons, no
user interation at all. And separate taskbar button.

> Note that Alt+F4 works to close properties windows - why do we need another
> shortcut?

It does not -- on alternative platforms.
Unless someone can give me a reason why this needs to be a window, not a dialog,
I figuring on just changing it to a dependent dialog and ending this that way.  
I, as originator, support this. Do not forget to add "Close" button and make the
dialog modal.

The only problem I forsee is when I need to copy-paste some information from
properties into main window without closing properties. This is probably a rare
occasion, though.
> Unless someone can give me a reason why this needs to be a window, not a dialog,
> I figuring on just changing it to a dependent dialog and ending this that way. 

I tried to advocate this a long time ago and got major feedback from UI folks
(in the Mozilla suite space that is)
*** Bug 268892 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Is there a separate Mac bug for this issue? Sorry if this is the wrong one;
nothing turned up when I searched.

I've noted that 1.5b1 still doesn't let Cmd-W close the Properties window. Even
more strange is the fact that the menu bar contains a lot of commands unrelated
to the window (e.g. Close Tab, Save Page As... and so on) which makes no sense
at all.

I'd suggest using the same menu bar that Page Info uses where Cmd-W is
associated to Close Window and many other menu commands are disabled to reflect
the window type. On a related note there is also a Show/Hide Toolbar widget in
right-hand corner of the window that does nothing.

I for one don't like the idea of turning the window into a modal dialog. I
frequently open several Properties windows to compare URLs for links or images.
*** Bug 355560 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I never knew that ESC would close the element properties window until i found this bug writeup. This is simply because ESC is generally known to be associated with a Cancel button, and there is no Cancel button on the element properties window.

In fact, there are close/resize/minimize buttons in the corner, which makes it appear like a normal window (these buttons don't usually exist on dialog boxes). I'd say, either make cmd/ctrl-w work for this window (preferred), or add a Cancel (or at least a Close) button in the lower right. The way it works right now is just completely inconsistent with UI for most windowed systems.

Also note: On a mac, when you push cmd-w while an element properties window is open, the File menu flashes, as it does when you successfully use a hotkey for a menu command. Since it appears that the command was successful, but nothing happens, this looks like it's broken.
QA Contact: jruderman → keyboard.navigation
Assignee: aaronleventhal → nobody
Hardware: PC → All
Summary: Ctrl-w should close little "properties" windows → Ctrl-w should close Element Properties window
Version: unspecified → Trunk
Thanks for marking the dupe, Adam. I'd not found this bug in my searching.

Now, I am totally amazed this bug has been around since late-2004! that's 2 and half years. An eternity.

Hoping we can come to a resolution.
Command-W closes some windows, but not others.  MAC OS X10.4.9, Firefox 2.0.0.9 and previous.  Command-W closes some windows, while command-shift-W closes other windows.  I can see this by looking at the file menu when different types of windows have been opened.  Should not this keyboard shortcut be the same for all windows and a different one for closing tabs.  It is confusing.
Could this be resolved for FF3?

On OSX it is getting quite irritating that the properties window (not a dialogue) seems to be the only window which is not closed with [cmd]+[w].

Thanks
Severity: normal → minor
This bug is still present in Firefox 3.1b2pre. There might be good arguments against fixing it on some platforms but on Mac OS X the shortcut Command+W closes all kinds of windows, including the preferences, view source, page info but not element properties, which makes no sense at all and disrupts the workflow when closing windows when you suddenly have to reach for the mouse or another key on the keyboard.
Still present in FF3.5.3, also on MacOSX, except here the key combo is "Cmd-W" (or "Apple-W").

I'm perfectly fine with the current behavior of the "Cmd-W" key combo of FF3.5 on MacOSX, i.e., closing tabs when there are multiple open in a single window, and closing the window when there's just one tab left. However, not being able to close the Properties window is counter-intuitive, in my opinion. Please fix.
The properties dialog has been removed (bug 513147), so this is INVALID for Firefox 3.6 and later.

http://blog.johnath.com/2009/09/04/deletion/
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 15 years ago
Resolution: --- → INVALID
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.