363136 - help override!

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 351543

(SeaMonkey :: Help Documentation, defect)

Description

[Tom Schneider]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.8) Gecko/20061030 SeaMonkey/1.0.6
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.8) Gecko/20061030 SeaMonkey/1.0.6

In SeaMonkey the help window overrides the normal window.
I can't open new tabs.  I can't even keep the Help window up while typing this!
This is unacceptably restrictive.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Click on Help
2.Click on SeaMonkey Help
3. window pops up.
4. Try to click on any other seamonkey window - it won't respond.
5. Close Help window
6. now one can manipulate other SeaMonkey windows
Actual Results:  
The Help window totally controls everything.

Expected Results:  
The Help window should allow any other action!

Comment 1

[[e-mail]]

I don't have a Mac but I believe if you right-click the help text then one of the options is "Always on top". Does turning that off help?

Comment 2

[Tom Schneider]

Neil:  There is no option for 'always on top' when I right click on
the Help window in this OSX 10.4.8 (current Mac OS).  I must close the window
to have any access to other SeaMonkey windows.  Clicking on windows of other
programs such as Terminal or Mail does give me access to them.  Then clicking
on SeaMonkey windows will bring them forward but the focus immediately
switches to the Help window again.

Comment 3

[Bruno 'Aqualon' Escherl]

(In reply to comment #2)
> There is no option for 'always on top'
This option was introduced with the fix for bug 216426 which is not part of SeaMonkey 1.0.x. 

This will be in the upcoming SeaMonkey 1.1 release.

Comment 4

[Stefan [:stefanh]]

As Bruno mentioned, it will be possible to disable the "Always on top behaviour" in 1.1  

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 351543 ***

Comment 5

[Tom Schneider]

On my macintosh, the phenomena are not the same as Bug 351543.
The claim is that one has to minimize the help window..  
It turns out that if I minimize the window, using the yellow button,
it goes into the dock AND THEN COMES BACK OUT AGAIN!!  This is repeatable.
I was able to stop it by using the green button (fill the screen),
green button (unfill the screen) and THEN the yellow button.  At that point
it stayed down in the dock.  Then if I bring it back out of the dock,
I can type in this window.  Minimizing is normal.  I can now switch
windows.  This is really WEIRD behavior!

As for 'always on top' behavior - that should NOT be the default!
It's just too weird and gets in the way.  I can't imagine ever needing
it for a help window.  In OSX one always has the tiling window feature
available.  So why constrain the user?

Comment 6

[Stefan [:stefanh]]

(In reply to comment #5)
> On my macintosh, the phenomena are not the same as Bug 351543.
> The claim is that one has to minimize the help window..  
> It turns out that if I minimize the window, using the yellow button,
> it goes into the dock AND THEN COMES BACK OUT AGAIN!!  This is repeatable.
> I was able to stop it by using the green button (fill the screen),
> green button (unfill the screen) and THEN the yellow button.  At that point
> it stayed down in the dock.  Then if I bring it back out of the dock,
> I can type in this window.  Minimizing is normal.  I can now switch
> windows.  This is really WEIRD behavior!
> As for 'always on top' behavior - that should NOT be the default!
> It's just too weird and gets in the way.  I can't imagine ever needing
> it for a help window.  In OSX one always has the tiling window feature
> available.  So why constrain the user?

Tom, the underlying issue is the same. Disabling the "Always on top" behaviour will fix your problem. But if you still feel that the issue remains after you've tried the 1.1 release (coming soon), feel free to reopen. I do think you have a point when questioning the default behaviour, though. Afaik, there was once a usability study (or reference to one), claiming that novice users would lose the Help window if it was not "Always on top". One could probably questioning the results... This is something we have to consider/discuss for a future release imo.