I first came to this bug report because I'm so frustrated with the way the Global Menu has been implemented.
First of all, WHY are we auto-hiding menu options? The fact that a menu is hidden without hovering over it with the cursor is insane! All that does is cause confusion, and hides options that others might be looking for or wishing they had that they didn't know existed (because they're hidden)! Menu options should be visible at all times, where they can be discovered and easily/quickly clicked on. Right now, with everything being auto-hidden, I have to remember the menu is up at the top left of the screen (when my window is small rather than maxed), and then I have to hover the panel to see my options (very annoying/time consuming), and then I have to find the right option (if it was always visible I would have already found it), and then continue selecting what I originally wanted to accomplish. Comment #24 is 100% correct. By having the menu on the window itself, when not maximized, people have to move their eyes less, and move their arms and cursor less. It saves time and it and makes sense because the menus are connected to the app you are currently working on. By placing them in the global menu for a non-maxed window, you are confusing people as to what those menu options actually belong to, especially when you have to change focus from app to menu or to other app. Even the desktop has it's own menu.. [x] Global Menu only for maximized windows makes the most sense. Most people on small screens run their apps maximized to get the most space possible, so naturally, placing the menu in the global menu when windows are maximized keeps the menu in the same areas as when the window is non-maxed (attached to the top left of the app), and it saves space by removing an extra bar. When people have very large screens they tend to use smaller windows and would appreciate having menus attached to each app, so it's easier to know which menu belongs to what app, as well as keeping the user from having to move their eyes, arms, and cursor very far to get to what menu they want (it's faster and easier.) They won't have to worry about what app has focus to know which menu they're working with.. So the solution is simple! When windows are maxed use the global menu, and NEVER auto-hide them; at it saves space, but is also technically the same thing as having the menu on the app window itself because it appears in the correct area of the window itself (and it's not confusing because it will never be auto-hidden.) When windows are not maxed, keep the menu attached to the window itself, so people have less to think about, and less hand/eye movement (It's also faster and easier.) On a side note.. Showing the title before the menu is kind of annoying as well.. If anything, the title should be placed after the menu so the menu and close/max/min buttons are always in the same place. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to metacity in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/682788 Title: Improve Unity Global Menu Status in Ayatana Design: Fix Committed Status in Compiz: Triaged Status in Unity: Confirmed Status in “compiz” package in Ubuntu: Triaged Status in “metacity” package in Ubuntu: Triaged Status in “unity” package in Ubuntu: Triaged Status in Baltix GNU/Linux: Confirmed Bug description: ===+++ _____________________ ! ALL USERS ! _____________________ +++=== ===+++ READ THIS BEFORE MAKING A COMMENT OR MODIFICATION +++=== IMPORTANT 1: Please don't post any "me too message"; use the "Does this bug affect you?" feature you can find a bit above this bug description on Launchpad. IMPORTANT 2: Do not post anything if you haven't read all comments to verify that your point hasn't been made. If you feel tempted to stop reading because there are too many messages, that is a strong indicator that you shouldn't add even more comments. Developers have a tough time to find anything if you post redundant stuff. So please abstain from doing that. ========= Global menu in general (not only in Unity) is very unergonomic on large screens (see the attached screenshot) because if you have a small window somewhere near the low right corner you have to move the cursor all the way up to to panel to reach the menu. I understand why the global menu was used for the netbook edition (it saves space and most windows are maximized), but since Unity is intended to be for the desktop edition there should be an option to switch to the traditional position of the app menu. It would be welcomed by many desktop users. Please try to find a solution for it that works. A commonly suggested solution is: [ ] Global Menu on [ ] Global Menu off [ ] Global Menu only for maximized windows The default is usually suggested as either the first (on) or last (on only for maximized windows). ------------------------------------- Desired change: Implement the 'Enhanced Menu' project for 12.10. This project will address the issue described in this bug and also issues described in the duplicates of this bus. Note this is the 'official' bug that tracks the implementation of this project. The following options will be added to 'System Settings/Appearance': ------- Menus Location: Global/Local Visibility: Hidden/Always displayed ------- To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ayatana-design/+bug/682788/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
