Comments on: Context Menus and Focus in Opera

By: Willem Joosten

Willem Joosten — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:46:52 +0000

In general I use context menus only for shortcuts to functionality which is available in other places. For example you can edit a customer record directly from a table showing all customers using the context menu. The other way is too click the user and click the edit button there. (I never got my users to accept double click either… Also because YUI doesn’t support both single & double click event handlers at the same time)

So the lack of a context menu is minor annoyance. But I think Opera forgets about the different audiences using their browser. For website visitors affordance and their expectations are the most important things. But my applications are used by ‘power users’ which take the time to learn the little tricks like context menus which save them a mouse click and a page reload.

In my opinion the decision to deviate from standards is one which should be made by the developer not the browser.

By: Eldarado

Eldarado — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:37:21 +0000

Apple Macs lived without right button for a years. So why don’t you use in Opera Alt+Click or Ctrl+Click?
This is number one.

Number two. Context menu in a good hands – good thing for user. In bad hands – deadly weapon of a maniac :^)
I vote for appending custom menu to browser’s one.

Number three. If a designer using a styled button he takes resposibility for it’s look _including_ focused appearance. So use onfocus property.

By: arty

arty — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 08:45:07 +0000

Ok, I was a bit wrong about focus rendering. This article suggests you focus elements with Tab button, however Opera has much more convenient and powerful “spatial navigation” activated with Ctrl+Arrows. Spatial navigation renders focused elements consistently, but being selected with Tab button, they are rendered inconsistently.

By: kL

kL — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:54:17 +0000

Opera could improve „allow sites to receive right clicks” option to be able to prevent context menu.

But it’s good that access to right click is off by default. There are too many webmasters who are trying to re-implement browser within browser (custom buttons, custom dropdowns, custom ajax navigation) and I at least want context menu to work.

I hate the focus outline though. It’s too heavy and obscures content too often.

By: Jess Sightler

Jess Sightler — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:00:01 +0000

I think that app authors should be able to provide custom context menus in their apps. It does limit user functionality due to lack of access to the default functionality, but hopefully app authors will use this wisely. And the choice is better than no choice at all.

By: Raine

Raine — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:24:27 +0000

Good points Todd.

I agree that removing the ability to override the context menu limits the web as an application, but I’ve also experienced frustration personally when a custom context menu has prevented me from accessing some basic browser functionality.

What about appending custom menu items to the browser’s default context menu? Thus the functionality users expect to see will be preserved, but web application developers are still given the freedom to customize their apps.

By: arty

arty — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:24:25 +0000

I’ve checked display of both styled and unstyled buttons in Opera9.5/Linux and Windows, and it appears to display all of them consistently – with blue outline. I think that difference of styles in Opera/Mac arises from attempts to look like native MacOSX application, and thus is platform-specific.

By: Michal Tatarynowicz

Michal Tatarynowicz — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:38:29 +0000

I’m not sure this is the right place to ask those questions, but I guess I’ve got nothing to loose by asking here.

1) Why does Yahoo Mail have a Home tab? As far as I can tell it serves no real purpose, and it’s there only because you’ve tried to copy every failed idea implemented in Microsoft Outlook Express.

2) Why can’t I open an e-mail in a new window from the context menu? That’s about the only reason I would right-click a message, and it’s not even possible.

By: Michal Tatarynowicz

Michal Tatarynowicz — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:28:19 +0000

I very much agree with Jonathan’s comment above. Please remember, that while sites like Gmail or Yahoo Mail are de-facto applications, the user is also, or perhaps above all, using another application — a web browser.

If you want to “cleanly” provide OS-native, “real” application-like interactions to your web apps, how about using Prism (http://wiki.mozilla.org/WebRunner)? I think many users would appreciate it, if only because they’d get their ‘E-mail’ icon back on the desktop :)

By: Jonathan Snook

Jonathan Snook — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:07:33 +0000

I might have to disagree with your concerns about the lack of context menu control. In Firefox, for example, I’ve disabled a site’s ability to control the context menu (for example, to prevent sites suppressing the context menu to save images, etc). Consider further that we’re seeing interfaces like the iPhone that don’t have a way (that I know of) to invoke a context menu.

With that in mind, I’ve long given up on ever trying to build context menu support into an application and try to solve the problem through other means (like a menu invoked from an icon or drop down menu, etc.)