0006689: Balloon help for MenuMorph keystroke searching appears at the wrong time

Notes
(0011162 - 1212 - 1459 - 1657 - 1657 - 1657 - 1657) matthewf 09-20-07 03:47	This issue was copied from the UI list (http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/ui/2007-September/000446.html) [^] Quoting Chris Muller: My least favorite design choice about the menus is the instructional balloon help, "Enter text to narrow selection down to matching items." Does anyone know why displaying this balloon only AFTER you've typed a character, and the menu has visually responded by 1) graying out everything not matching 2) highlighting the first entry that does match 3) displaying the typed character at the bottom of the menu, increasing its height that the balloon is then displayed? 1) The above three visual cues make the balloon completely unnecessary 2) In fact, having it appear at the top distracts the users attention from the bottom, where the search string is being typed 3) it sometimes even covers parts of the screen containing useful information! Wouldn't it make more sense to display the balloon BEFORE a character is typed? Even better, how about not at all? It doesn't seem like something that would be that important to a newbie, who will be so busy absorbing other information, and they'll stumble on it very soon anyway..

(0011163 - 203 - 203 - 203 - 203 - 203 - 203) matthewf 09-20-07 03:48	Uploaded MenuMorph-removeKeyStrokeBalloonHelp.1.cs. As the name suggests, this eliminates the balloon help entirely. I don't particularly like this sollution. I will try putting the balloon at the bottom

(0011165 - 172 - 172 - 172 - 172 - 172 - 172) matthewf 09-20-07 04:00	Hmm. the balloon does appear at the bottom of the menu if the menu is not too close to the bottom of the world. If the menu is near the bottom, where should the balloon be?

(0011166 - 603 - 648 - 648 - 648 - 648 - 648) wiz 09-20-07 04:13	Hi Matthew, The more immediate problem with this feature is that menus tend to have keyboard focus when you are not expecting (i.e. poised to type into something else> or when you have a simple yes no menu. Typing keys usually leads to a entirely greyed out menu. It took me a long while to realize I had to delete the characters I mistyped inorder to get the menu back again, deal with it and dismiss it. My belief is this is how newbies interact with the feature. So my suggestion is this feature needs to be disabled at least until someone indicates they are expert enough by enabling it.

(0011175 - 154 - 154 - 154 - 154 - 154 - 154) chris 09-21-07 01:20	Matthew, why don't you like your solution? What good does it do to display the balloon after we already have the THREE visual cues about what's going on?

(0011176 - 142 - 152 - 152 - 152 - 152 - 152) chris 09-21-07 01:22	wiz, can you describe how the specific circumstances you describe ("menus tend to have keyboard focus when you are not expecting") come about?

Issue History
Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
09-20-07 03:16	matthewf	New Issue
09-20-07 03:16	matthewf	Status	new => assigned
09-20-07 03:16	matthewf	Assigned To	=> KenCausey
09-20-07 03:36	matthewf	Assigned To	KenCausey => matthewf
09-20-07 03:37	matthewf	Category	Any => Morphic
09-20-07 03:38	matthewf	Relationship added	child of 0006688
09-20-07 03:40	matthewf	File Added: MenuMorph-removeKeyStrokeBalloonHelp.1.cs
09-20-07 03:40	matthewf	Additional Information Updated
09-20-07 03:42	matthewf	Note Added: 0011160
09-20-07 03:47	matthewf	Note Added: 0011162
09-20-07 03:48	matthewf	Note Added: 0011163
09-20-07 03:49	matthewf	Note Deleted: 0011160
09-20-07 04:00	matthewf	Note Added: 0011165
09-20-07 04:13	wiz	Note Added: 0011166
09-21-07 01:20	chris	Note Added: 0011175
09-21-07 01:22	chris	Note Added: 0011176
10-07-07 21:13	matthewf	Relationship added	related to 0006530
10-07-07 21:13	matthewf	Relationship replaced	child of 0006530