Closed Bug 55553 Opened 24 years ago Closed 23 years ago

Bookmarks in the sidebar should open with a single left click

Categories

(SeaMonkey :: General, defect, P3)

Product:
SeaMonkey
Component:
General
Type:
defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: braden, Assigned: mpt)

References

Details

Bookmarks in the sidebar should open with a single click.

 * IE's sidebar bookmarks open with a single click. A lot of users are
accustomed to this browser, and will thus expect this behavior.

 * Other links in the sidebar open with a single click, including What's Related
and Search results. Having the bookmark hyperlinks function differently is a
divergence of operation without any readily apparent reason for drawing a
distinction.
Further to this, going to a bookmark from the Bookmarks menu or Personal Toolbar
requires only a single click, so implementing this would add consistency.

I would say this bug is invalid. Bookmarks in sidebar are different: it is the
only place where one can edit property for individual bookmarks "on the fly", by
right-clicking and bringing up context menu. 

See bug 55656 "In sidebar, single click opens bookmark".
When saying "bookmarks in sidebar are different" i mean they resemble the
bookmark editor, where the same, double-click, behaviour is used to trigger a
load, while single-click is used to select the bookmark, for further action.

The discussion bug that covers the hehaviour of single/double clicking is
bug 20455: "Single vs. double clicking confusion"
R.K.Aa, thanks for pointing me in the interesting discussion in 20455. However
it seems to me that in that bug the majority favor the use of a single click to
go to a bookmarked address, not a double click. The use of a single click also
seems to be that favoured by new users as I read that bug.

Note that I agree entirely with the comments about the right click which 55556
addresses. The right click should not open the new location in the window.

As for highlighting the bookmark for further action, is there any action that
can be obtained after selection that is not immediately available from the right
click ?  Or from a different viewpoint,is there any action that can be obtained
from the main menus anyway after selection ?

Sending to German
Assignee: hangas → german
If you want to select a range of bookmarks for deletion, a one-click load of 
bookmarks would be a problem i think. A one-click load also becomes a problem 
when you user really wanted to move a bookmark, not spawn the URL.
These are possible actions you can do in bookmark manager and sidebar, and not 
in the dropdown menu bookmarks.
If you want to delete a range of bookmarks, use the bookmarks manager; the
bookmark sidebar should be designed with quick, simplified access in mind.

As far as right clicking goes, I'm amending the summary slightly. Only a left
click should select a bookmark for loading.
Summary: Bookmarks in the sidebar should open with a single click → Bookmarks in the sidebar should open with a single left click
Here is some usability data (lake may chime in):
It is a problem for those users with somewhat limited dexterity to distinguish
between two close actions such as left-mouse single click and left-mouse drag.
Folks get very irritated when the bookmark 'accidentally' launched.
However most beginners that tried/expected single click for opening the
bookmarked pagewere almost immediately trying to double click after not seeing
it launch. Most were not even aware of this behavior.
I agree that in things where you do not have management type functions like
viewing related or search results a single click is preferred, but where you
have both activating and selecting for editing, single click should -not- be
used for activating. Marking wontfix.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 24 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
WONTFIX is premature. German, your comments with respect to users with "limited
dexterity" suggest that perhaps double-click should be an accessibility option.
It doesn't seem to make sense to penalize reasonably dextrous users on this
count.

To your comment suggesting that people will try a double-click after finding
that a single click doesn't do the trick, I say: Well, duh. What else would they
try, a rain dance? That misses the point completely. Even after knowing how it
works, people will intuitively single-click and expect something to happen,
since that's the way the rest of the sidebars work. Well, *this* person does
that, at least. Have you tested for occurrences of this?
Status: RESOLVED → REOPENED
Resolution: WONTFIX → ---
mass-moving UI:Design Feedback bugs to hangas
Assignee: german → hangas
Status: REOPENED → NEW
changing status to reassigned

Chaning the qa contact on these bugs to me. MPT will be moving to the 
owner of this component shortly. I would like to thank him for all his hard 
work as he moves roles in mozilla.org...Yada, Yada, Yada...
QA Contact: mpt → zach
updating to new owner. sorry for the spam.
Assignee: hangas → mpt
This applies to the history sidebar as well.

Note as that more graphical shells offer single-click-oriented interfaces (for
instance: Windows Explorer, GNU Nautilus), users who prefer this behavior will
expect to see it applied consistently in the apps they use.
Summary: Bookmarks in the sidebar should open with a single left click → Bookmarks/history in the sidebar should open with a single left click
(using build 2001032304) I noticed that you can single-click the bookmark
folders  in the sidebar as long as click anywhere to the right of the arrow.
However, you have to double-click if clicking on the arrow to open the folder.
This the reverse in the history sidebar panel. Personally, I'd like it if the
folders open with a single-click regardless of whether you click on the arrow or
the folder icon/area to the right of the arrow. 
jkng@visto.com: that is bug 71768
In today's build (2001-07-12-08) on Mac OS 9.1 the top-level folders in History
(Today, Yesterday etc.) open with a single click, but the sub-folders
representing the different sites visited require a double-click to open.
Single-clicking between the disclosure triangle and the folder icon in the
sub-folders opens them as jkng@visto.com reported previously for Bookmarks. I
agree that a single-click for everything seems more appropriate for History.
*** Bug 92000 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
WFM for bookmarks, but still broken for history (bug 71661).
History subfolders requiring double-click is really confusing.

Also, a UI feature might be turning the pointer cursor into a "Hand" cursor over
items (Bookmarks, History) which open with a single click, to make the user
associate them with hyperlinks which always open with single click. What do you
guys think?
Restricting to bookmarks, since bug 71661 covers history.
Summary: Bookmarks/history in the sidebar should open with a single left click → Bookmarks in the sidebar should open with a single left click
Blocks: 20455
Then we're done here, right? Single-click for bookmarks (and bookmarks folders)
seems to work fine.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 24 years ago → 23 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
Component: User Interface Design → Browser-General
Product: Browser → Seamonkey
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