Changes to Right-click Menu #33052

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opened 2012-11-02 23:07:01 +01:00 by Harley Acheson · 13 comments
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%%%Right-click on a property and the resulting popup menu is really long and unorganized. It is difficult to quickly find what you are looking for.

This patch breaks some of the items into sub-menus, adds "Copy to Clipboard" and "Paste from Clipboard", and adds icons to the items. It is best just to look at the attached image, "RightClickMenu.png", to see what it looks like before and after this patch.
%%%

%%%Right-click on a property and the resulting popup menu is really long and unorganized. It is difficult to quickly find what you are looking for. This patch breaks some of the items into sub-menus, adds "Copy to Clipboard" and "Paste from Clipboard", and adds icons to the items. It is best just to look at the attached image, "RightClickMenu.png", to see what it looks like before and after this patch. %%%
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Changed status to: 'Open'

Changed status to: 'Open'
Member

%%%Hi,

I agree that the current menu may be a bit messy. However, your proposed solution is problematic because the submenus are located at he bottom of the main menu which means that users trying to open these will have to strike a careful right then down movement to stay inside the menu instead of being able to anticipate item locations with roughly horizontal/diagonal movements. Also, introducing a hierarchical split makes it slower to get to items that may be accessed frequently - greater cognitive and physical effort for relatively small numbers of items still. Overall, i'm becoming increasingly skeptical that hierarchical splits are the right solution to managing a set of items without absolutely killing efficiency!%%%

%%%Hi, I agree that the current menu may be a bit messy. However, your proposed solution is problematic because the submenus are located at he bottom of the main menu which means that users trying to open these will have to strike a careful right then down movement to stay inside the menu instead of being able to anticipate item locations with roughly horizontal/diagonal movements. Also, introducing a hierarchical split makes it slower to get to items that may be accessed frequently - greater cognitive and physical effort for relatively small numbers of items still. Overall, i'm becoming increasingly skeptical that hierarchical splits are the right solution to managing a set of items without absolutely killing efficiency!%%%
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%%%> will have to strike a careful right then down movement to stay inside the menu

That hasn't been the case for a long time. Once a submenu pops up you no longer have to keep the mouse within the menu to get to it. It used to be a tricky maneuver but it is now quite forgiving and easy. Those movements are no different from all those found on all of our dropdown menus and we manage quite fine with those. The "Object" menu has 23 submenus.

For efficiency and economy of movement we have keyboard shortcuts. The truly efficient will use Blender entirely without menus at all.

Menus should be about logical organization, ease of learning, and discovery of related items. The best way to evaluate this is to apply the patch locally and try it. And then try to see it through the eyes of a beginning to medium-experience user.

%%%

%%%> will have to strike a careful right then down movement to stay inside the menu That hasn't been the case for a long time. Once a submenu pops up you no longer have to keep the mouse within the menu to get to it. It used to be a tricky maneuver but it is now quite forgiving and easy. Those movements are no different from all those found on all of our dropdown menus and we manage quite fine with those. The "Object" menu has 23 submenus. For efficiency and economy of movement we have keyboard shortcuts. The truly efficient will use Blender entirely without menus at all. Menus should be about logical organization, ease of learning, and discovery of related items. The best way to evaluate this is to apply the patch locally and try it. And then try to see it through the eyes of a beginning to medium-experience user. %%%
Member

%%%too many icons for my taste, and i really dislike "Insert keyframe" being in a submenu. Although it makes sense to organize animation stuff in a submenu, you often have to right-click insert keyframe for properties, which aren't loc/rot/scale (at least i use it a lot). It would require an extra actions to click what i need.

"Documentation" submenu is actually a good idea, but it's not called correctly. While Online Help and Manual fit under this headline, Edit Source / Translation and Copy Data Path don't. "Help" or "Developers" wouldn't work either. And "Advanced" would camouflage the highly useful online help for beginners.%%%

%%%too many icons for my taste, and i really dislike "Insert keyframe" being in a submenu. Although it makes sense to organize animation stuff in a submenu, you often have to right-click insert keyframe for properties, which aren't loc/rot/scale (at least i use it a lot). It would require an extra actions to click what i need. "Documentation" submenu is actually a good idea, but it's not called correctly. While Online Help and Manual fit under this headline, Edit Source / Translation and Copy Data Path don't. "Help" or "Developers" wouldn't work either. And "Advanced" would camouflage the highly useful online help for beginners.%%%
Author
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%%%Yes, you are exactly right about that "Documentation" submenu. The items in it aren't entirely consistent. And a better name escapes me too. And yes it would be nice to have "insert keyframe" in the main list, but it is nice to have the related items together...

Might need some more thought...%%%

%%%Yes, you are exactly right about that "Documentation" submenu. The items in it aren't entirely consistent. And a better name escapes me too. And yes it would be nice to have "insert keyframe" in the main list, but it is nice to have the related items together... Might need some more thought...%%%
Author
Member

%%%After lots of discussion this patch has been watered down substantially. Gone are the multi-level menus and the overuse of icons. The patch, "RightClickMenu2.diff" only changes the following:

  • Adds "Copy to Clipboard" and "Paste from Clipboard"
  • Adds icons to the beginning of each group of related items
  • Fixes the alignment issue with "Change Shortcut" and "Remove Shortcut"

Image "RightClickMenu2.png" shows what it looks like before and after the patch is applied.
%%%

%%%After lots of discussion this patch has been watered down substantially. Gone are the multi-level menus and the overuse of icons. The patch, "RightClickMenu2.diff" only changes the following: - Adds "Copy to Clipboard" and "Paste from Clipboard" - Adds icons to the beginning of each group of related items - Fixes the alignment issue with "Change Shortcut" and "Remove Shortcut" Image "RightClickMenu2.png" shows what it looks like before and after the patch is applied. %%%
Julian Eisel was assigned by Campbell Barton 2015-04-10 11:41:34 +02:00

Added subscribers: @JulianEisel, @ideasman42

Added subscribers: @JulianEisel, @ideasman42

Adding icons to some of these menu items seems fine, but this is a few changes mixed together.

Since (I think) @Harley is no longer active, @severin. did you want to to update this patch for master?

Note, suggest to split into 2 steps.

  • Use icons for existing menu items where it makes sense.
  • Actual changes to the right click menu's opetators.
Adding icons to some of these menu items seems fine, but this is a few changes mixed together. Since (I think) @Harley is no longer active, @severin. did you want to to update this patch for master? Note, suggest to split into 2 steps. - Use icons for existing menu items where it makes sense. - Actual changes to the right click menu's opetators.
Member

@ideasman42, yes can do this - would aim for 2.76 (don't have the time the next days ;) )

@ideasman42, yes can do this - would aim for 2.76 (don't have the time the next days ;) )

Added subscriber: @padthai

Added subscriber: @padthai

is this still a valid task? if it is, what exactly should be done?

is this still a valid task? if it is, what exactly should be done?
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Member

Wow, zombie task from 2013.

Was just a small thing that I assumed had no interest by 2015. Then it was subsumed by a
much larger task in 2016 by algorith.

This one is no longer relevant and should be closed as far as I can tell.

Wow, zombie task from 2013. Was just a small thing that I assumed had no interest by 2015. Then it was subsumed by a [much larger task in 2016 ](https://developer.blender.org/rBd29b32ae3655599aa44de598a2e3d00ac6654817) by algorith. This one is no longer relevant and should be closed as far as I can tell.

Changed status from 'Open' to: 'Resolved'

Changed status from 'Open' to: 'Resolved'
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Reference: blender/blender#33052
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