57299 - Focussing the URL bar should select the entire URL text, a la Win32

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 37587

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, defect, P3)

Description

[Matthew Mastracci]

One feature missing from Mozilla is the ability to select the entire URL bar by
simply clicking to the right side of the URL.  This is something that has been
in IE (and I believe in Netscape) for some time now.

It cuts off one of the clicks required to enter a new URL, bringing the total
down to one (ie: you click to the right of the URL and start typing, rather than
double-clicking the URL).  I think this is a fairly major usability issue (a
sizable annoyance) for people who type URLs, and might end up being a
psychological barrier to acceptance of the product over something like IE or
Netscape 4.x.

Comment 1

[Peter Trudelle]

->xpapps

Comment 2

[Peter Trudelle]

reassigning

Comment 3

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

over to claudius who's the qa master of the URL location field.

however, my $0.02: i actually would prefer if clicking on the right part of url
location field *only* places the cursor at the end of the url, *instead* of
selecting the entire contents. but that's just my opinion. i prefer to
double-click the url location to select its entire contents. (ah, the
differences of usability. :)

Comment 4

[Matthew Mastracci]

Ack...  you know what?  I think this bug should be marked INVALID.  First of
all, IE doesn't select the entire URL if you click to the right, but rather if
you give the URL bar focus where it didn't have it before.  Second of all, I
think the usability issue might actually come from mistaking a double click for
a click-and-drag.  When I try double-clicking the URL it sometimes treats it as
if I had clicked the left-hand side and dragged to the location of the second
click.

In conclusion, the big problem here is that I can't accurately double-click the
center of the URL (for instance), because it sometimes ends up selecting only
half of the URL.

As for the single-click selects everything on giving focus to the URL bar, I'm
not sure what should be done there.  I would like to point out that the majority
of clicks on the URL bar are to change the URL, so single-click can end up
selecting everything, while double-clicking could place the insertion caret
where the location of the click happened.

Should this bug be closed and a new one opened?

Comment 5

[Matthew Mastracci]

Err...  one more note.  IE's visual cue for the URL bar is to make the cursor an
arrow while hovering over a URL bar that doesn't have focus.

As I root through a number of Win32 apps, I believe I can conclude that all UI
elements that act like a combo box (as the URL bar does) have a
"single-click-selects-all" behaviour.  This is especially apparent in Visual
Studio (find dialogs, quick-find combobox, etc.)

Comment 6

[Blake Ross]

this is a dup of bug 37587...if we're gonna highlight the URL upon single-click, 
we're going to do it upon single-click anywhere -- not just to the right of the 
URL.

Also...

>so single-click can end up selecting everything, while double-clicking could 
>place the insertion caret where the location of the click happened.

That would be extremely non-intuitive, and the exact opposite of any other 
textfield, where single-click places the caret and double-click selects all the 
text.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 37587 ***

Comment 7

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

No, this isn't a dup of bug 37587.

> if we're gonna highlight the URL upon single-click, we're going to do it upon
> single-click anywhere -- not just to the right of the URL.

It ain't necessarily so. As QA for bug 37587 I have been watching it collect 
duplicates at a rate of one per month, while trying to figure out ways of making 
selection of the whole URL easier (like IE does) without hampering users' ability 
to use the location field like any other text field (like IE does).

Unfortunately, none of the existing bugs for making this easier have been fixed. 
They are:
* bug 28583
* bug 31809
* bug 52784
* this bug.
This bug isn't necessarily valid, but it should be considered -- for all text 
fields, not just the location field.

Also worth considering is:
* selecting the textfield contents when the user drags up out of a textfield from
  either end of its contents
* selecting the textfield contents when the user drags down out of a textfield
  from either end of its contents.

Comment 8

[Blake Ross]

Nothing you mentioned in the comment for reopening this bug explained why this 
specific bug needs to stay open.  Neither of the "also worth considering" ideas 
are what was originally reported.  Furthermore, I don't think this bug will 
ever be implemented as originally reported.  It would require some amazing 
hackery to only select the URL if you clicked to the right of it.

Comment 9

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

I said:
|
| This bug isn't necessarily valid, but it should be considered -- for all text
| fields, not just the location field.

That is, for all single-line text fields, the whole contents of the field should 
perhaps be selected if the mouse is clicked anywhere in the gap between the end 
of the text and the end of the field (if such a gap exists).

Comment 10

[Matthew Mastracci]

I just want to re-iterate: the URL bar is *not* a text field, but rather a combo
box.  As combo boxes don't really appear anywhere else, this shouldn't be a huge
UI issue.

Under Win32, focussing a combo box selects the entire text.  It's just the Way
Things Are.  :)

Comment 11

[Matthew Mastracci]

Updating summary to correctly reflect this bug.  This is what the original bug
report *should* have said.  (sorry for the spam).

Comment 12

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Ok, with that summary this bug *is* a dup of bug 37587.


*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 37587 ***

Comment 13

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

mass-verifying Duplicate bugs which haven't changed since 2001.12.31.

set your search string in mail to "CitizenGKar" to filter out these messages.