814478 - AppMenu: Incomplete command captions in "New Message" submenu, lacking "New " in front of "Message", "Event...", "Task...", "Folder...", "Saved Search..." etc.

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Toolbars and Tabs, defect)

Description

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #807690 +++

I share the feeling of bug 807690 that the current wording/design of the "New message | >" submenu is unfortunate and illogical. This bug is the flip side of Bug 807690.

STR

1) click new AppMenu button
2) intend to create a New Message, New Event, etc. (and meet bug 807690)
3) hover "New message | >" submenu (and meet bug 789417)

Actual Result:

- due to bug 789417, AppMenu's top-level "New message" button caption will be covered by popup submenu
- You now see only the following "commands" on the popup menu:
Message
Event...
Task...
Folder...
Saved Search...
etc.
Get a New Mail Account...
Existing Mail Account...
etc.

These "commands" are not easy to understand, because the presupposed "New" context is entirely missing:

"Message" what? Open? Print? Save?
"Saved Search..." what? Open? Edit?
"Existing Mail Account..." what? Add? Configure? Delete?
Oh, you mean "New message", "New Saved Search" and "Add Existing Mail Account!" Then why don't you say so?

Even after fixing bug 789417, the logic would still unfortunate (due to bug 807690), because the Context would then be, e.g.:

"New Message" > "Saved Search..."
"New Message" > "Existing Mail Account.."

Imo, it's not self-evident nor intuitive that users are expected to read that as "New Saved Search" rather than "New Message Saved Search", which is nonsensical, or just "Saved Search", which is ambiguous.


Expected result:

A and/or B; plus C

A) fix bug 807690, i.e. change the top-level menu caption to just "New" (potentially with one or more iconic buttons as in Edit menu)

B) change command captions in the submenu so that they show the command captions in full (same as current Firefox, which also has "New Tab | >" + "New Tab", "New Window" etc.):

New Message
New Event...
New Task...
New Folder...
New Saved Search...
etc.

Furthermore, regardless of A) or B), fix C) (which was a logical problem even before the AppMenu, and blends in nicely with B):
To have "Get a New Mail Account..." (with action verb) next to "Existing Mail Account..." and "Other Account" (both without action verb) is really unfortunate and confusing, and "New [>] Existing Mail account..." still sounds semantically odd. These three need their action verbs no matter what:

C) In the submenu, use full caption for
"Add Existing Mail Account..." and
"Add Other Account..."
and probably
"Add Chat Account"
(all in language analogoy with:)
"Get a New Mail Account..."

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

This is now obsolete?

Comment 2

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #1)

This is now obsolete?

Yes.