Re: Right-justified help menu?

["James M. Cape" <jcape jcinteractive com>]

Nils Jeppe wrote:
> 
> Maybe I am a weirdo too, but I actually find that right-justifying the
> Help menu makes it stick out from the rest and thus is easier to find...
> 
> Nils

Well, right-justification of the Help menu may make it easier for you to
find because you are used to it, but it doesn't for ex-users of every
other operating system on the planet (I know I for one spent 10 minutes
looking for help on Netscape for SunOS 4.1.3 when I first tried it
because it wasn't where I expected). So basically, it is bad because it
interferes with what *most* computer users are used to, breaks the
visual organization of menu items as a single group for a relatively
minor choice, and makes it more difficult (in my estimation) to discover
the menu if one is unfamiliar with the system -- as menus are organized
for easy scanning, and when one reaches the end of the short list, one
would naturally stop looking for additional menu items beyond a certain
distance, say 100-150px. I frankly would not be surprised if the reason
you are so keen on the help menu in that location is because you had to
force yourself to remember it (either through repetition or use), and
that is what made it easier to find -- your memorization caused you to
specifically look for the Help item at the very edge of the window, so
it naturally appears more prominent due to that memorization.

    Jim Cape
    http://www.jcinteractive.com

    "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them
     pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."
        -- Winston Churchill