649496 - Avoid scrolling message action buttons (Reply, etc.) when scrolling long recipient lists

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Message Reader UI, enhancement)

Description

[Lucius Chiaraviglio]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.16) Gecko/20110319 Firefox/3.6.16 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.15) Gecko/20110303 Thunderbird/3.1.9

It would be good to avoid scrolling the message action buttons (Reply, etc.) when scrolling long recipient lists.  One way to accomplish this would be to push these buttons over to the right and move the header scrollbar to the left of these.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Look at message with long recipient (To, Cc) lists
2.  Scroll recipient list
3.  Look at what happens to the Reply . . . Delete buttons directly above the message.

Actual Results:  
The Reply . . . Delete buttons directly above the message scroll with the recipient list and will disappear from view if the recipient list is long enough (does not have to be very long).


Expected Results:  
The Reply . . . Delete buttons directly above the message should remain where they are (and remain visible).

Comment 1

[Lucius Chiaraviglio]

Additional information:  This also affects the "other actions" drop-down menu directly above the message, with the difference that if the recipient list is long enough to require scrolling, this drop-down menu starts out hidden and has to be scrolled into view.

Comment 2

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

a) What is definitely wrong in the current UI is that the "Other Actions" button can end up miles away from all other buttons, depending on how much header information is shown in between.
b) But imo scrolling the Reply etc. buttons out of view is also wrong, because they are essential enough to always be displayed.

One possible solution for a) might be Bug 511625, to place the "Other actions" button in line with other buttons (probably with shorter or no caption). Which would also take us a step further towards a better solution that I've seen suggested by Blake on his Blog: We should pack all of the header buttons into a proper toolbar, and allow the user to toggle display of that toolbar (View > Toolbars > Message Header Bar).

Thus, confirming to keep this problem on the radar.

Comment 3

[Jim Porter (:squib)]

(In reply to Thomas D. from comment #2)
> We should pack all of the header buttons into a proper toolbar

It already is a proper toolbar, since version 3.1.

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Jim Porter (:squib) from comment #3)
> (In reply to Thomas D. from comment #2)
> > We should pack all of the header buttons into a proper toolbar
> 
> It already is a proper toolbar, since version 3.1.

Technically yes, but from a behaviour and UI pov, it's far from being a "normal" toolbar:
- cannot toggle visibility from View > Toolbars (this will become even more relevant after removing the migration assistant workaround, as suggested by blake in the post below)
- has a different UI part mingled with the toolbar (the from-header)
- scrolls out of view when long headers are scrolled (haven't seen a "real" toolbar ever doing that) - this bug
- some of its buttons ("Other Actions") are scattered in other parts of the UI (Bug 511625)
- a lot of relevant buttons for customization and various scenarios are missing (Bug 523544)

Therefore, in his blog entry "Thunderbird UI directions" (1) dated 27 Sept 2011 (way after 3.1), Blake suggests this:

> Compactify the header. It’s really too big. Well, that’s a bit of a lie. What
> I really mean here is that we should move the buttons and their toolbar out of
> the header, to float just above it. This would allow people to easily turn
> them off (by removing the entire toolbar), and for those of us who like to
> keep them, it would make them more visually distinct. As an added bonus, in
> vertical mode, we could merge that toolbar with the other toolbars, to get
> something like the pictures (2) of what Thunderbird could look like posted by
> Asa Dotzler.

(1) http://weblog.latte.ca/blake/tech/thunderbird/UIFutures.html
(2) http://www.flickr.com/photos/asadotzler/6137086055/

Comment 5

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Attachment: Screenshot of scrolled headers and fixed buttons

Only as an example to show it's already doable with css. My theme lets the buttons, date and 'Other Actions' fixed and always visible and scrolls only the expandedHeaders2.

Could this be a desired approach?