81563 - Context menus should include shortcut keys

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(SeaMonkey :: General, defect)

Description

[:deanis74]

My thoughts from IRC tonight:

<deanis> One of my complaints is that there's nothing in context menus to tell 
people how to not use them.  If it said "Cut   Ctrl+X" then maybe it would be of 
some use.
<deanis> Eventually I'd catch on that I didn't have to use the context menu.

Comment 1

[Daniel Brooks [:db48x]]

Hear Hear!

Comment 2

[Jesse Ruderman]

See also bug 63955, [rfe] Advertise keyboard modifiers for left-clicking on 
context menus

Comment 3

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

From the Mac OS UI guidelines:
|
| Keep the list of items in a contextual menu short, clear, and simple ... 
| Adding unnecessary complications reduces the convenience of contextual menus
| for both you and the user.
|
<http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/HIGOS8Guide/thig-56.html>

And more precisely, from the Windows UI guidelines:
|
| However, to enhance spatial efficiency and readability, avoid including
| shortcut keys in shortcut menus.
|
<http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwue/html/
ch08b.asp>

I have to agree with them here. Adding keyboard shortcuts to context menus 
makes them harder to scan, since you can no long rely on line length as a guide 
to a particular item. This is more important for context menus than it is for 
menu-bar menus, because context menus are highly variable in content (depending 
on the context), so the user is less familiar with each one and less likely to 
know where a particular item is. WONTFIX.

> Eventually I'd catch on that I didn't have to use the context menu.

Unless the person has received very lopsided training to begin with, it's 
usually the other way around. Most people don't use context menus, and they 
learn about them only after becoming experienced with the other ways of doing 
things.

Comment 4

[Jesse Ruderman]

See also bug 53309, Tooltips should display keyboard shortcuts.

Comment 5

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

*** Bug 133460 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[:deanis74]

v

Comment 7

[Jesse Ruderman]

*** Bug 118854 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 8

[Alex Hosking]

Im sick and tired of this things that "ARE a good user interface" 

Comment 9

[Tobias Herp]

(In reply to comment #3)
> And more precisely, from the Windows UI guidelines:
> |
> | However, to enhance spatial efficiency and readability, avoid including
> | shortcut keys in shortcut menus.

I disagree.  At least, users should be allowed to switch them on.  I reckon,
many would be very happy if they could discover the shortcuts of an often used
function this way.

Comment 10

[:deanis74]

We display the shortcut keys in the menu items off of the main menu bar.

Comment 11

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 273152 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 12

[Tobias Herp]

(In reply to comment #10)
> We display the shortcut keys in the menu items off of the main menu bar.

Dean, you misunderstood what this request is about.

It is about context menu items which won't never ever be selectable off of the
main menu bar because it is necessary to right-click at a specific position.

(In reply to comment #3)
> > Eventually I'd catch on that I didn't have to use the context menu.

> Unless the person has received very lopsided training to begin with, it's
> usually the other way around. Most people don't use context menus,
> and they learn about them only after becoming experienced with the
> other ways of doing things.

This argument (which Matthew used to justify the wontfix) is WRONG.
Right-clicking is something most experienced computer users try when working
with a program they don't know yet. It is far more difficult (if not impossible
at all) to find out about shortcuts when they are not shown in the popup menu.

Sadly I don't have sufficient rights to reopen this request.

Comment 13

[u103550]

I'd like to make a comment to this one: Now, that the default policy of Thunderbird has changed to not showing the main menu bar, how many inexperienced users know how to open it again? So an inexperienced user will always use the buttons around or maybe thecontext menu nowadays, not a menu bar he can't see. I really really vote for reopening this one and reconsidering the decision made years ago.