Don't hide menus

Scott Kostyshak skostysh at lyx.org
Fri Oct 13 13:10:41 UTC 2023


On Fri, Oct 13, 2023 at 10:43:45AM +0200, Jürgen Spitzmüller wrote:
> Am Freitag, dem 13.10.2023 um 08:05 +0200 schrieb Daniel:
> > It seems to be a rather universally accepted UI rule that menu items 
> > should not be hidden. Feel free to can check your favorite apps or 
> > search the recommendation on the web. (There is also the more extreme
> > recommendations to not even disable menu entries but I think it is 
> > generally agreed that this is a bad idea because it leaves the user 
> > clicking in vain.)
> 
> Don't like it since
> 
> 1.) we will end up in overcrowded menus full of disabled entries. Too
> long for sure in some cases
> 
> 2.) we will run out of accelerators. We currently can provide
> accelerators in the insert and edit menus only since we only show
> active items. 
> 
> I know you don't care about accelerators as they seem to be not common
> on Mac OS. However, I find them a key element of accessibility and much
> more important that some sort of user didactic by showing which
> functions there might be. I also don't see what users gain if they see
> a disabled function as long as they don't learn when and how it is
> enabled.

I have mixed opinions. If we don't include the disabled items, perhaps
we can agree on a guideline for which items to include when disabled and
which not. This way we can try to at least be consistent.

It might be helpful to have a few "use cases" to discuss. For example,
"Document" > Cancel Export is included only when an export is present.

Scott
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