Re: file or folder Properties position in Context menu

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On 2 Dec 2008, at 16:29, avadh patel wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I have noticed one thing that whenever i use right-click on any file/ 
> folder,
> more than 90% of time I use 'Properties'. And most of the time  
> Properties
> button is always the farthest (at the bottom). So most of times its
> irritating.
>
> I propose to change the position of Properties to top of the context  
> menu or
> at least user can change the position of buttons on Context menu.

The first item in a context menu should normally be equivalent to the  
item's default double-click action; that's a long-established  
convention on most graphical desktops (and it's mentioned in the GNOME  
HIG IIRC).

Likewise, Properties always appearing last is another convention-- you  
might think it's irritating, but in fact, it's put there *because*  
it's so commonly-used.  If Properties is always last on the menu, you  
always know exactly where to look for it.  So provided the menu is  
relatively short (as context menus should be), the reduction in time  
required to visually locate the item tends to outweigh the time spent  
moving the mouse towards it.

Of course, you could just use the standard GNOME keyboard shortcut for  
Properties instead: Alt+Enter.

Cheeri,
Calum.

--
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            GNOME Desktop Team
http://blogs.sun.com/calum             +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems