|
Glenn Posts: 99
11/08/2015
|
I suggested in another thread the idea of having a different result for right and left click actions, and the feedback was that this adds complexity. While it does, indeed, add complexity, such complexity is found in nearly every existing Windows program, so that particular complexity is somewhat commonplace, and knowledge of it fairly widespread. It is certainly true that any feature added to a program adds complexity. Complexity adds power to a program, but concurrently makes the full set of program capabilities larger and thus harder to master in full.
Users tend to learn only what they need to learn to get their activities done... in fact, many users limit their effectiveness in using programs because of their unwillingness to learn more features, even features that would assist them in their activities.
Most programs that I have used that have different results for left and right click typically put "easy" or "commonly used" functions on the left-click menu, and more complex or less commonly used functions on the right click menu. Windows Explorer even goes as far as to have yet more entries show up on the right click menu only if the user also presses a shiftt key. Personally, I find "copy as path" and "start CMD prompt here" to be more frequently used in my right click emnu from Windows Explorer than many of the other entries in that menu.. but i have to remember to hold Shift to get them to show up.
Back to my original suggestion for splitting the SyMenu menu into separate left and right click menus. I would perceive three kinds of users for SyMenu.
1. Those that make menus for their own use.
2. Those that make menus for use by others.
3. Those that use menus made by others.
The first group is likely to regularly edit their menus, although I suspect that they use the entries more often than they edit them. The second group is probably the smallest group, and they may well tweak menus as much or more than they use them. The third group wouldn't edit the menus at all.
You have already recognized, in having both the full menu and compact menu available, that the SyMenu-defined items are "in the way" of efficient use of the user-defined menu entries, once the menu creation process is complete. Putting the SyMenu-defined items in a submenu gets them "out of the way" of efficient use of the user-definned menu. However, it also make use of the SyMenu-defined items less efficient when editing a menu. One can switch the configuration back and forth between Compact and Full menu mode but doing that repeatedly is not particularly efficient either.
My suggestion goes just one step further. A willingness by a user to deal with the complexity of having different menus on left and right buttons, which is an extremely common form of complexity among Windows programs, can restore the efficiency of using the SyMenu-defined items for menu editing while not reducing the efficiency of using/testing the user-defined menu.
But after thinking through all of the above, it occurred to me that for most menu editing operations, the function really used most is Tools / Configuration, and a hot-key directly to that screen would _add_ efficiency to the editing process, without splitting the menus or switch back and forth between Normal and Compact view.
|
|
|
link
|
|
Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1274
12/08/2015
|
Next version contains a new action modifier that allows you to click an item from the contextual menu to open the configuration form with the item already selected.
So please have patience.
The idea to split the behavior of the right and left click on the task icon still doesn't convince me at all.
Think about the Explorer example. If you left click on a item no contextual menu pops up, if you right click a contextual menu appears. Two different clicks for two extremely different effects.
You are proposing to shows two different contextual menu according to the left or right click. It risks to become chaotic.
|
|
|
link
|
|
sl23 Posts: 285
29/08/2015
|
Left click should do nothing more than select the app the cursor is over. It would be extremely useful to have a right click optional context menu with entries such as:
Open containing folder
Run as admin
Configure symenu
View app description
I often wish I could right click on items and even the tray icon. It would be better for a right click on the tray icon to reveal all the symenu options like the top entry in compact mode.
All windows apps, even windows itself does this, strange you would think this complicates things? Perhaps you mean for you as a programmer, rather than the end user?
edited by sl23 on 29/08/2015
edited by sl23 on 30/08/2015
|
|
|
link
|
|
Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1274
31/08/2015
|
No I'm not speaking as a programmer. It is complicate for end users too.
Left and right click on a task icon are usually implemented when the left click shows a window and the right click shows an option menu. Do some tests.
SyMenu instead doesn't have a main windows because it works with a contextual menu and it would be at least strange having the two clicks showing two different contextual menus.
If you want I can remove the appearing of the contextual menu with the right click. I agree that this solution would be a more standard approach and less muddler too.
You second proposal is to enable the right click on every item on the contextual menu.
Well I liked so much this solution so that, in the past, I already tried to implement it.
During my tests I found several problems because when the right click showed the item options contextual menu, you already have an opened contextual menu (the main one) and this produced a lot of issue (the main one closed or lost focus and you can't regain it without clicking again on the main menu).
If you want I still have the aborted version. I can send to you to verify that it is a not practicable solution.
I know that other menus have this feature and it works well but probably they don't use the same component as SyMenu does and you are not suggesting me to completely rewrite SyMenu for this reason, are you?
|
|
|
link
|
|
sl23 Posts: 285
05/09/2015
|
I hadn't realised symenu was actually a context menu! Looking back, perhaps not the most flexible way to do it?! I hate modifiers but not essential I suppose. Thanks Gian for the explanation.
|
|
|
link
|
|
Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1274
05/09/2015
|
You are right. Looking back the contextual menu component has been a wrong choice but when I started to write SyMenu, about 10 years ago, who could think that the programs would have been alive in the 2015? Not me certainly
Why do you hate action modifiers? Don't you find those ones useful?
Conversely for a developer it is essential to know the program weaknesses more than the program strengths to improve it more and more.
Among other things it seems to me that you are using the compact menu where the action modifiers are not so invasive... so it is really important to understand why the modifiers are so disturbing for you.
|
|
|
link
|
|
sl23 Posts: 285
11/09/2015
|
Just would prefer it to be done via context menu, but obviously not possible as already discussed.
|
|
|
link
|
|
sl23 Posts: 285
12/09/2015
|
To explain further, I dislike hotkeys as I don't like using keyboard for anything other than typing.
It's interesting how you've managed to add modifiers to symenu, given that it's context menu based, but the extra clicking is, for me, very annoying. With respect, of course, this is just my opinion.
|
|
|
link
|
|
Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1274
13/09/2015
|
Well you need to extra click even with a contextual menu (one click to make appear the contextual menu, one click to select the contextual menu item) so this is not the problem.
The real problem with the solution I adopted is another.
- You open your various submenus to reach the program you need.
- When you find it you would like to change the action modifier because, for example, you need to execute the program with elevated privileges
Now you have two options:
1) you click with the mouse on the action modifier under the SyMenu title, loosing the focus on the last opened submenu that closes itself... not good at all. Now that you have set the action modifier you have to search for you program again.
2) you click the CTRL key on the keyboard to change the action modifier and then click your item to execute it. Not so bad but you have to use either the mouse and the keyboard
Since it's impossible to have a further contextual menu on your selected program item, I'm studying a solution to use the mouse right click to directly change the action modifier. In that way no contextual menu will popup but you can use the right click instead the keyboard to change the action modifier.
Well the idea is shaping in my mind so I can't assure you that the implementation will be exactly this way but this is a probably future.
Stay tuned.
|
|
|
link
|
|
sl23 Posts: 285
13/09/2015
|
That's better I think. It's just that after many years of using a PC, Right Click context menus are simply second nature. But still, this is a great compromise.
You know, I had no idea that the modifiers even existed! Let alone how they worked. I saw the icon next to the SyMenu [Compact] entry but thought it was just an icon. Only when I tried out the full menu did I realise what they were! :-)
edited by sl23 on 13/09/2015
|
|
|
link
|
|
Gianluca Administrator Posts: 1274
16/09/2015
|
Right click completed!
It works like a charm... you should see it
I will surely release it with the next version.
|
|
|
link
|
|
sl23 Posts: 285
16/09/2015
|
Excellent! Thank you again
|
|
|
link
|