>> This patch disables all submenus in the menu bar that have no enabled
>> items. > >This is something I have not done until then because the HIG are not very clear... Oh no, not again the HIGs... >* Apple HIG states: > >Even if all of the items in a menu or submenu are unavailable, the menu >or submenu title is not dimmed. The user can still open the menu, but >all of its items are dimmed to indicate that these items are not >available in the present context. Figure 13-13 shows a menu with >unavailable menu items in the open and closed state. > I don't know what they exactly mean by 'submenu', but Figure 13-13 does not give an example of a submenu. Moreover in Figure 13-19 I *see* a disabled "Arrange By"-submenu, so I guess it would be OK to disable according to this HIG. http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/Apple HIGuidelines/XHIGMenus/chapter_17_section_4.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP3 0000356-TPXREF103 >* The Vista User guide seems to say that the current solution >("No Document Open") is the right one (although I am not sure I agree). I'm doubting for instance about Insert->Branch and Insert->Custom Insets. If there is a document open, we might want to help the user to indicate that no branches or insets have been defined yet. If the user want to use these kind of things he now knows he has to define them first. In the case of Insert->Float when no document is open, I don't think the user wants to have extra info about the reason that he can't insert a float. I think this because e.g. Insert->Caption is also disabled without any help for the user. By the way, in Microsoft Outlook I see both behaviour: when writing an e-mail, View->Previous-> is enabled but has only disabled items, and View->Text Size-> is disabled. >Given the need for learning and discoverability, users expect menu bars >to be stable. Wasn't it Microsoft that decided to automatically hide all menu items that aren't used frequently ? Isn't that the reason that I get mad when suddenly File->New isn't there anymore because I usually just hit Ctrl-N ? So, I don't really value such an HIG that contradicts itself. >Solutions I see: > > 1/ disable the menu only if it is empty (and apply Vincent's > patch to remove 'No Document Open' entries). YES, for cases like Insert->Float. >2/ gray out the submenu but keep it openable so that people can >see why the menu cannot be open. I am not sure that the mighty >Qt would allow us to do that, though. In this case, we should >keep the 'No Document Open' messages. YES, for cases like File->Version Control, Insert->Branch, Insert->CustomInsets. But only when a document is open and we can supply useful help messages (other than rather obvious "No Document Open" messages). >3/ stay as we are (which may be a good enough workaround for 2/) NO, it irritates me. >Jmarc Vincent
