Closed Bug 581646 Opened 15 years ago Closed 14 years ago

After bug 578614 landed, there is no tab context menu when right-clicking on the empty space to the right of the tabs, but some commands actually do need it.

Categories

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
Tabbed Browser
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: klonos, Unassigned)

References

Details

No context at all on the empty space to the right of the tabs is a bad idea. There are some commands that apply to all tabs like 'Close All Tabs', 'Reload All Tabs', 'Save All Tabs' and 'Bookmark All Tabs'. So, it does make sense to display at least these menu options there (there might be other ones that I simply didn't think of).
Those Items (apart of "Save All Tabs" - which seems to be non-default) are exposed on a Tab Context Menu of your Choice.
If not the return of the original context menu then the addition of some of those commands to the customization menu should be considered. Case in point, the target area for accessing the "Undo Close Tab" feature by mouse users needs to be expanded. I'm not one for having 50+ tabs open at once. The Test Pilot study highlighted that I usually have only 3-4 tabs open at any given time and very rarely have at max more than 5-6. Now with App Tabs hosting three of those usually opened tabs, the tab strip is a very empty place and to undo a closed tab requires targeting one of those three relative small App Tabs at the far left of the screen. I find myself constantly right-clicking the empty tab strip expecting to see "Undo Close Tab."
Alex, could you please check this bug? We have removed ui on bug 578614 without asking for ui-review.
Keywords: uiwanted
Also, double clicking the tab bar, even if tabs are not on top, now maximises or restores the window, which seems really odd. (Tell me if that should be another bug, but I think it's another result of the same change...)
blocking2.0: --- → ?
Blocking+ to get UX eyes on this. Might make more sense to just remove the single-tab menu items instead of removing the context menu altogether.
blocking2.0: ? → betaN+
The problem appears not to be limited to only Firefox additions to context menus, which experienced people might not have noticed when using keyboard shortcuts. The context menu was dumped on all but the primary (first) tab, so additional tabs, empty space on the tabs bar, tabs list, tab close button on right, all show the same default context menu on toolbars that allows selection of toolbars and ends with "Customize...". This makes all extensions that add to the tabs context menu appear to fail ... including this one I use extensively "Multiple Tab Handler", those I use sometimes "Perma Tabs Mod", "Fox Splitter" (formerly Split Browser), and one that I used to use "Duplicate Tab". This can be seen in mixed results shown in "Compatibility Reporter" https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/compatibility/reporter/multipletab@piro.sakura.ne.jp?show=100&page=2 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/compatibility/reporter/%7B20291fcc-1471-46c8-8213-0911f5ce6d66%7D https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/compatibility/reporter/%7B29c4afe1-db19-4298-8785-fcc94d1d6c1d%7D
Faaborg had been talking about general menu refresh and cleanup, so cc'ing him.
Assignee: nobody → fryn
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
>There are some commands that apply to all tabs like 'Close All Tabs', 'Reload >All Tabs', 'Save All Tabs' and 'Bookmark All Tabs' These commands are available on the context menu of the tabs themselves (and if you have a window open you have at least one tab). The reason why we are not displaying these options on the window background is that this area visually no longer appears to be the tab strip as much as the window itself.
Status: ASSIGNED → RESOLVED
Closed: 14 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
Assignee: fryn → nobody
No longer blocks: 578614
blocking2.0: betaN+ → ---
Keywords: regression, uiwanted
alex, if that area is no longer considered tab-strip, should we not also disable double-clicking to open a new tab? should i open a new bug for that?
we've already disabled that (at least as far as I can tell).
(In reply to comment #12) > we've already disabled that (at least as far as I can tell). We did not disable double-clicking on the blank area to open a new tab, at least on OS X. Should this happen? If we want some tab context menu items on the new tab button, a bug should be filed for that.
Does OS X do anything when you double click the title? The main reason we removed it on Windows was that users will double click the window background (which visually extends into the tab strip) to maximize and minimize. If OS X doesn't do anything for double clicks then we might as well keep the behavior since it isn't going to conflict with an existing expectation.
Also, the double-click on Windows was disabled due to the new titlebar work, but it's going to be restored on bug 575248.
sorry, i was referring in comment #1 to tabs on the bottom. does this bug consider that case as well?
Alex, we do nothing when double-clicking titles. We open a new tab when double-clicking the blank area. Felipe, the issue is the lack of visual separation between the two regions. eyal, if by "tabs on the bottom" you mean placing the tab bar on the bottom of the browser window, that is not an available built-in configuration, so it would be up to add-ons that implement it to handle it.
i just meant not tabs on top
Current Firefox has "List all tabs" and "Panorama" button on right end of tab bar. So this means that tab bar runs to right end point which buttons places. In this case, Firefox should treat the empty area between tab and buttons on tab bar. (For example, Google Chrome doesn't have any buttons on right end of tabbar. so Google Chrome does not show tab context menu in empty area. But Opera has buttons on tha point and show tab's menu on empty area.) Also, it should not change the existing behavior before Firefox 3.6.
(In reply to comment #10) > >There are some commands that apply to all tabs like 'Close All Tabs', 'Reload > >All Tabs', 'Save All Tabs' and 'Bookmark All Tabs' > > These commands are available on the context menu of the tabs themselves (and if > you have a window open you have at least one tab). The reason why we are not > displaying these options on the window background is that this area visually no > longer appears to be the tab strip as much as the window itself. If that area is visually no longer different from the window itself, why have different context menus for the actual title area (with entries Restore ... Close) and the area to the right of the tabs (with entries entries Menu Bar ... Customize)? Sure, with the Menu Bar showing, that will then have the same context menu as to the right of the tabs. But I don't think the idea of Firefox 4 is to use the Menu Bar anymore anyway. And if I would keep the menu bar, I'd have the Bookmarks Toolbar on the same row (to save space), which fills the bar all the way to the right enforcing its own context menu on the empty space from the last bookmarks icon to the end of the row - but I guess that would be a separate bug report instead of a point supporting my statement.
I've read a bit more about related bug reports. So, you don't want a tabbar context-menu. Yet middle clicking that area (to the right of the tabs) does do tabbar specific things even when the Menu Bar is disabled. And middle as well as double clicking that area when the Menu Bar is visible do open a new tab, even though the same goes for that situation: there's no visual difference. But it goes too far to show a tabbar related context-menu when right clicking in that area. Now this does not make sense to me. Either have consistent behavior one or the other way, but don't meddle in the middle.
>Yet middle clicking that area (to the >right of the tabs) does do tabbar specific things even when the Menu Bar is >disabled. The logic is that anyone using the middle mouse button has clear intent. But in the case of double clicking the title bar/tab strip surface area, the intent isn't as clear, since it could mean that they wanted to create a new tab, or it could mean that they intended to double click the title bar to minimize/maximize the window. >But it goes too far to show a tabbar related context-menu when right clicking >in that area. Now this does not make sense to me. This wasn't completely intentional, ideally we would be able to show a mixed context menu, with commands for both surfaces. But we weren't able to make that change in time for Firefox 4. We'll be revisiting all of the context menus in the product and making a number of improvements for Firefox 5.
(In reply to comment #23) > This wasn't completely intentional, ideally we would be able to show a mixed > context menu, with commands for both surfaces. But we weren't able to make > that change in time for Firefox 4. We'll be revisiting all of the context > menus in the product and making a number of improvements for Firefox 5. But why is then Bug 581912 resolved wontfix? Hope that you'll be on time for Firefox 6. Just a side note, that IMHO this is worse usability error in Firefox. It doesn't make any sense to force users to click on the tabs to undo closed tab. I mean first thing human brain would ask would be... and which tab to click? And after so many months I haven't got used to that.
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